Friend, i am in the same situation , my wife's passport as been with the VO in Beijing for a month and a half now , since then , nothing has happened, for now , she is just penalized for her daily transations on which she needs her passport for but i guess if the time she has to renew her chinese visa comes , there will be troubles.
I think your husband would have to E-mail them and request for his passport back , VO in Beijing says that the E-mail should have all the informations about the applicant( Name , DOB , File number , an address label where the passport will be sent,etc.) and a clear intention and the reason to withdraw the passport , and the day you intent to send the passport back to them.It might take them up to 4 weeks to proceed with the request. They also warn that borrowing a passport will cause significant delays in processing the immigration application, so if you want to do that , be quick!
CIC isn't right when they keep people's passports for so long , why asking for an applicant's PP when not ready to issue a visa? why putting applicants in trouble? that's really a difficult question to answer. Since we got no choice we can only cope!
Good Luck to us!
Thanks for a quick reply, i never thought that embassy wont send back the passport right away my hubby need his passport as soon as possible he can't wait for 4 weeks to get his passport or else he get consequences the worst case scenario he will get deported in saudi arabia and we don't want to happen . I know its really frustrating how embassy giving applicant and us spouse a hard time. We hope for the best and pray hard to get his visa next week.