Yes. Hopefully, you can negotiate them down to maybe a month fine for each child.

@Goldie,

First, sorry about your spouse and circumstances.
Regarding the children not having passports for a while, I don't think that is an issue if that was what your were alluding to.
My first child didn't get her passport until she was about 3 1/2.
The consulate just asked what took so long. I just replied, "heh", and no issues.

Re: the issue of not reporting and getting a visa, this is a gray area even though it's on the books.

I have a friend who had this issue and did not report his child and the local police gave him the riot act, but two other big cities they lived in both told him it was no problem.

With the "hard" cop they did say they would have a fine, but when he went the next day the Main PSB office laughed it off and said not to worry.

I have read of other foreigners I assume did not register, they had to go to the PSB to get a temporary "exit" stamp which is valid for a month or two and they were allowed to travel.
I'm not sure if their children already had a hukou or not, and the laws as you know are often dependent on who you are dealing with.

IMO, I think getting the passport first, then going to get the visa or exit stamp, is the best choice and I would bet and hope that considering your personal circumstances they would just let it go.

Was your husband Chinese or American? Did you die here or in America?

My husband was American.

And to make matters for me just a bit more complicated, he died while in Hong Kong.

Goldie122
Sincere condolences on the passing of your husband.

FYI
You'll also need to get a death certificate from Hong Kong and then also take it to the consulate to have them issue the consulate version of the death certificate. Get LOTS of copies (like 10-20). US laws forbid travel with minors without written parental consent OR the death certificate (but strangely if you remarry - they don't seem to bother...an ever so obvious and glaring loophole).

Make an appointment with the consulate (online) and remember as you have multiple tasks - they may try to shuffle you in between serving the Chinese visas as they merged the American Citizen services with the domestic services - so we can all experience the joy of being treated like second class citizens. if you go in the afternoon - a simple 20 minute task can suddenly extend into several hours - bleeding over into the next day, so also be prepared to spend the night in a hotel (with kids) and back to the consulate the next morning. Hopefully won't happen - but...

We usually take the overnight sleeper train (if you can spare the time) as it's a fun thing for the kids to do, you all can walk around and there's salty train food and drink at non usurious reasonable (depending on perspective) prices.

As you don't have passports for the children - just bring their birth certificates - it'll probably be a bit of a pain - especially getting tickets - whether rail or air - grunt your way through it - they just need to enter some kind of official number into the system and will probably take pictures of the birth certificates - BRING COPIES of their birth certificates. The consulate "should" return all of your critical documents after copying them...

Difficult traveling alone with a pair of minors...again, you have my deepest and utmost sympathies.

Feel free to PM (Private Mail) me if you have any other questions or concerns.

Thank you Michael.

My husband died early December and I just got the death certificate from Hong Kong last week.

It took that long.

And you are correct.

I then had to bring the HK death certificate to the US Consulate in Hong Kong so they could issue the proper death certificate that the US Consulate and the US in general will accept.

They gave me 10 copies.

I have the 3 appointments for 2pm for the kids.

The appt is for both the Consular report of birth and their passports.

As I recall... buying train tickets in the past, they didn't ask for passports for ALL the travellers and I have not had their birth certs with me in the past.

I will have the certs with me this time for the consulate anyway.

I didn't think I could even fly with them without passports.

My big fear is that I will not have something the consulate needs... I think I have it all.. I've read everything about it.

But, for example, their birth certificates are 85% English but some things are in Chinese (hospital name, city, few other things)... so I got those translated.

I am not sure if I need that as it doesn't specifically say...

I just hope I've got it all.

Like, do I need a few pictures of them when they were babies and then toddlers?

Is there anything else anyone can think of?

And I also read that they accept payment in RMB... I thought they only took US dollars... has anyone paid in RMB at the US consulate before?

You guys have been really helpful and I feel so much better knowing that there is a possibily that the visa people will be understanding or at least work with me.

Thank you all.

Consulate takes RMB.

You can speak to someone at the Chengdu Consulate ( I assume your going there?) first by telephone to double check everything.

I feel that all the excellent practical advice above pretty much supports my previous comment here.
Fight the Future! (I think I got this comment from the X-Files some years ago - wise prophetic advice from the end of the last century), and best wishes.

As I am reading the rules of documents needed for the

consular report of birth abroad... number 3 confuses me.

It says... Evidence of the US citizen parents physical presence in the US prior to the birth of the child.

Evidence could be school, employment, tax, bank records, medical records, utility bills and a few others.

Has anyone who has reported a birth abroad, which would be anyone who got a US passport for their child born here, brought documents like this with them?

This seems strange to me as I've been here for like 14 years... not sure if I have anything like that.

Have you spoken to a lawyer? There's a company that advertises here. What about your family in the USA? Are they not helping you? What about his family? I get the feeling that you are all alone. You haven't mention anything about family helping you.