US opens expanded consulate facility in Guangzhou

The new US consulate general in Guangzhou officially opened with a ribbon cutting ceremony in the Guangdong provincial capital on Wednesday afternoon.

Patrick F. Kennedy, US undersecretary of state for management, came to Guangzhou for the ceremony, his first official visit to the city. Kennedy said the new consulate general shows the importance that the US places on Sino-US relations.

The new facility is one of the largest US consulates general and handles one of the largest number of visa applications worldwide, Kennedy said.

The new, 18,000-square-meter facility is on a 3-hectare urban site in Guangzhou's booming new central business district adjacent to the Pearl River.

The seven-building complex includes a consular building, an office building, a residence for US Marines, a warehouse with service shops, and three entrance pavilions for employees, visitors and customers.

The consulate general, which cost $267 million, is the second US government facility to be built in China since the completion of the US embassy in Beijing in 2008.

More than 60 percent of the building materials were purchased in China.

In addition to enjoying a comfortable environment, non-immigration visa applicants will spend less time in interviews in the new consulate, said Amy Hebert, a US visa official.

The centerpiece of the complex is a four-story consulate office building featuring an interior hall, and 67 service windows for visa applicants and US citizens, 22 more than the old consulate had. The site has 55 visa officers, up from 29 two years ago. The number of local employees also has risen.

A visa applicant usually needs about 30 minutes to complete an interview in the new facility, and an applicant usually waits about five days for an interview after the application has been submitted.

In 2013, 1.52 million non-immigration US visa applications were handled in China, Hebert said.

Chen Yunxian, deputy governor of Guangdong province, said he hopes the new US consulate general in Guangzhou will play an even bigger part in boosting ties between the United Sates and Guangdong in the coming years.

Guangdong, which borders the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, is the largest provincial economy on the Chinese mainland and a manufacturing center for products as diverse as iPhones and ceramics. If it were a country, the province would be the 16th-largest economy, after South Korea and ahead of Indonesia and the Netherlands.