The US Embassy in Beijing, China has recently made the visa process easier for applicants by allowing applicants to apply for a visa at any US Embassy that they prefer regardless of where in China they reside. So visa applicants now can choose between the following US Embassies or US Consulates in China:
*US Embassy in Beijing
*US Consulates General in Chengdu
*US Consulate General in Guangzhou
*US Consulate General in Shanghai and
*US Consulate General in Shenyang.
To choose which location to make an appointment at, please refer to http://beijing.usembassy-china.org.cn/visa_interview_appointment_availability.html
Which provides an exact list of the processing visa times for each US Embassy and US Consulate in China listed per visa type. Please see http://beijing.usembassy-china.org.cn/niv_info.html for more information on visa availability dates and how to make an appointment.
In order for the US Embassy in Beijing to keep up with the demand for visas to go to the US, it must start providing appointments in Saturdays at least for the next few weeks. I find this report interesting because it is the only report that I have seen that states that the demand to come to the US has increased in 2010. Other reports seem to tell us those international students and educated folks are choosing to go to other countries. This pattern is easy to notice when you notice that H-1B visas are still available with almost half the visas remaining, while in as recently as 2008, the H-1B visas were all completed within the first month of availability in April 1, 2010.
The US Embassy in Beijing, however, is providing some refreshing information that travel to US from China has increased by 28% this year compared to last year. In 2009, the US embassies in China issued almost half a million visas to Chinese travelers coming to the US. Even more good news is that 62% of those visas were for business and tourism.