Well–we thought that our problems were solved when we got our marriage license authentication for the U.S. Dept. of State. Not so. Turns out we weren’t supposed to have the federal government authenticate the certificate. It’s complicated. But my wife found herself in Chicago talking to a Chinese Consulate official with an attitude, and for a moment, it appeared as if we would have to begin the whole visa process over. Stay tuned; more to come.
It does seem hard to get a visa to China. The guys at our office use ZVS. http://zvs.com/
Some other friends were in LA and got some help from a local travel agent who could walk to the consulate.