Note: This post is an English adaptation of my original Chinese article (URL). Some parts have been modified for clarity, cultural relevance, or to better fit the English-speaking audience. The original Chinese text is provided on the next page (2nd page) of this post for reference and comparison.
Just noting down my experience with the face-to-face interview at the American Consulate in Guangzhou today:
We scheduled the interview for 9:15 on July 7, 2022. My DS-160 indicated Shanghai because that’s what I selected online when filling out the form. However, due to lockdown policies, the U.S. Consulate in Shanghai was closed, so I had to book the appointment in Guangzhou instead, which is why the appointment confirmation form shows Guangzhou. The day before going to Guangzhou, I realized the address on my DS-160 was different from the one on the appointment confirmation form and thought I had to refill it and reschedule (since the DS-160 can’t be changed, only resubmitted). But after checking the official website, I found out this discrepancy was not a problem. Phew, what a relief, haha.
Today, we first stored our backpacks and cellphones at a newsstand near the entrance of the consulate (initially, while we were waiting for the traffic light, someone from the newsstand told us we could store our items there. At first, I was worried about the risk since it seemed a bit informal, but my companion reassured me that there was no storage inside the consulate and that they had seen tips on Zhihu about storing items at nearby newsstands, so I was reassured). Then we took the necessary documents and went inside the consulate.
First, we queued up, and during this, a staff member would ask about the time we had scheduled for our interview and would need to see our appointment confirmation form (as it displays the scheduled time). Next, another staff member would ask us to take out our passports and I-20 forms (you need to remove your passport from its cover and hold it together with the I-20), then she would check the information and stick a barcode on the back of the passport. Then we went through security, where everyone was required to put their materials into a bag and then put it through the X-ray machine. Meanwhile, we walked through a metal detector. Oh, and the staff told me to expose my ears, probably because my hair was too long and covered them, haha. But after passing through security, I let my hair down again, and it didn’t affect the interview process. I suppose they just needed to make sure you aren’t wearing any earphones at the security checkpoint. After that, we queued up for the formal interview area. Before entering, a staff member would tell you which window to go to (but actually changing windows wouldn’t really affect anything, as it was just to maintain order and balance the queue lengths at each window). I was initially assigned to window 6, but there were many people ahead of me, so I switched to window 5. However, this wasn’t actually the moment for the formal interview yet; it was actually just for checking the documents. The staff member at the window asked for my I-20 and passport, reviewed them, then returned them to me and directed me to another window to get my fingerprints taken. There, I encountered an American staff member who first asked me to scan the back of my passport (where the barcode was attached) at the window, then asked me to place the four fingers of my left hand, excluding the thumb, on a small scanner emitting a green light to take the fingerprints, followed by the same with my right hand, and finally both thumbs together. After that, I was directed to another window to start the actual interview. The staff there would also tell you which window to approach.
Then, at window 15 (where one of my companions was just ahead of me), I met the visa officer (also an American):
The visa officer looked at my passport and I-20 and didn’t check anything else. Then he asked me four questions sequentially:
- What’s your major?
- Who will be your sponsor?
- What do they do?
- Have you been to the U.S. before?
After that, he took my passport and gave me two small slips, one pink and one yellow:
These two slips indicated that my visa had been approved and that my passport and visa would be mailed back to me (though I could also choose to pick them up myself). Then we left, showed our storage claim tickets at the newsstand, retrieved our books and cellphones, and paid a storage fee of 30 yuan.
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