@Jesse888
Sorry - couldn't resist - your approach is logical and methodical - but you missed the key point to the US Consulate and US Embassy business practices. They randomly reject applications. The process they allude to - illusion and fraud. Trying to understand a random fraudulent insane process is akin to attempting to reason logically with an insane person, a rock, a clump of dirt, pile of sh...you get the point.
To their credit, the Chengdu consulate does deign occasional junkets to provide services (for which we must usually pay ludicrous fees) to we orphaned US Expats in Kunming - but aside from that - their dubious value is more as a form of catastrophic insurance for american services - but their primary function is probably more as a spying intelligence gathering unit for the US State Dept aka CIA/NSA, recruiting local operatives, seeding sleepers.
Just to highlight precisely how insane the agency you're dealing with is - as US citizens - we have to pay for any government services we receive from the US Dept of State - which are funded out of taxpayer dollars. Example - add pages to our passport - USD 60 (last time I checked - reference travel.state.gov/passport/fees/fees_837.html). Now - bear in mind that our government recently announced they've piped over roughly USD19 billion spent to stabilize Afghanistan over the last 10 years (reference: aw shucks - just google it - it's too depressing, frustrating, and severely infuriating for me to think about it)...and that's JUST Afghanistan. We haven't included Iraq or any of a myriad of other countries to which the US sends our tax dollars for FREE.
Now, when I look at my government GIVING away USD 19 BILLION and then charging me USD 60 to glue some paper inside my passport - one can only conclude that the US government is ludicrously insane (as are the taxpayers) - either that - or we expats are victims of gross fraud, waste, abuse - and political sodomy.
So your logic is akin to trying to get your wife's visa approved by inserting their usurious non-refundable fees into a vegas slot machine and expecting the Jackpot on the first try. The process - as JJ noted - there IS NO PROCESS - that's just US consulate/embassy/state dept propaganda manure. The true process is you keep putting money into the consulate's visa application slot machine, jumping through random hoops like a trained yippy dog - to their immense sadistic amusement, until you are randomly approved - all the while believing you're participating in a sane, mature, responsible, rational, fair process.
HELLO...HELLO..
If you really want to be an asshole (get some back) try to file a class action Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on WHY visa applications are rejected - itemize the list. There is NO known paper trail on a rejection, only vague verbally issued instructions - "re-apply with NEW information and pay the usurious fees again" - WHAT new information - vague finger pointing, more government double speak - classical Monty Python skit - except this is real life and you're out real money. FRAUD.
JJ was upset, because he believes he was blatantly defrauded - and this consulate process - as dictated by the US Dept of State - is blatantly yet - legally fraudulent government business practices.
To get around this - join a tour group. You're virtually guaranteed visa success. Then jump the tour like an illegal alien or some other pernicious criminal cum terrorist. Assuming they catch you (they always catch innocent people - crappy record on criminals though) - they'll put you in detention (free room & board), deport you and identify you as an undesirable and ban you from returning for a few years to life. The downside to this - they RANDOMLY accuse you of being a terrorist and put you into the rendition program - you'll be whisked off to some unknown secret government jail (supported by our tax dollars) and legally tortured for several years, until you confess to some random terrorist activity that they've assigned to you, to fill their government quotas of solving terrorist acts.
To deal with the US government - especially the Chengdu consulate - you must first understand they're insane. They don't know they're insane - therefore they are - catch 22. To deal with insane people, you must be equally and reciprocally insane. I suggest watching some Monty Python skits for pointers on bureaucratic insanity and remember this - the people you're dealing with behave with impunity - they have absolutely no responsibility or accountability for their actions. They're accountable to no-one.
Based on this - you might think - ok ... guanxi - I'll try the "be nice, friendly, and wretchedly ingratiating" approach - but they're insane - doesn't matter what you do - THERE IS NO TRUE PROCESS - it's random. No guidelines, no manuals, no process, no feedback, no accountability - utter, absolute, and unadulterated 100% pure male bovine manure. No - I take that back. Manure has value as fertilizer and sadistic value for naughty little boys with far too much time on their hands - eg manure fights, rolling in manure with your buddies to get a rise out of your mom when you come home, sibs, friends, etc Cool, memorable, harmless but incredibly gross stuff like that.
Let's use the word VOMIT instead of manure. Never heard of VOMIT having a recyclable value such as fertilizer or even pig feed - but one never knows...
And just to plug that final nail in the coffin - the US Department of State - they call themselves the State Department because the actual moniker is DoS - which in the internet world - means Denial of Service (attack).
JJ is torqued not because of the fraud - but because he served his country - put himself in harm's way (and we won't talk about the less pleasant things involved with being a combat veteran). JJ's torqued because he did all this just so that some prick can have the privilege of sodomizing him in his retirement. Meritorious service to one's country counts as nothing in today's USA.
If you want proof of that - watch what happens when all those middle east vets return home to no jobs, no income, no health benefits. The US government lied for decades on the effects of the defoliant Agent Orange, used extensively throughout Vietnam....Ah..I digress. We taxpayers are sadly becoming more and more combative with our alleged electorate.