undergrace

Hello everyone! I've been Googling my heart out and am not finding answers to my questions so I'm hoping someone can help me! We live in Houston so we will not be using a visa service so this is very intimidating trying to do it by ourselves

My husband has accepted a job at an international school in China so we will be moving there this summer. In looking at the visa application, there are a few questions I would like some guidance on so our applications are accepted.

1.15 Current Occupation: my husband is a teacher and I work for the state government. Technically we are both Government employees, but I don't think "Government Official" applies, nor are we businesspeople or company workers. What should we put?

2.6 Itinerary in China: We arrive on July 23 but do not have any set itinerary. The school that will be employing him will be lodging us in a hotel while we search for apartments. We will be living there so it's not like we'll have an end date - although his contract ends in 2018 but we may stay longer. Any advice?

2.7 Who Pays for Expenses: Everything will be paid for by the school, both when we arrive and then our income will be the salary/benefits earned as wages. However, there will be personal costs incurred when we first arrive that we will be reimbursed for. Do we put his school's name in this section?

2.8 Information of Inviter: Is this the school's information? Technically they are inviting us but it's for employment. I feel like this box is more for tourists or people visiting family/friends.

I have read to select 1 entry/3 months for our application since once we arrive we will register with the local government and will receive Residence Permits. Is that correct?

Thank you to anyone willing to help me with this! We've successfully done visas to Russia but that was strictly tourism so this is much more intimidating! I appreciate any advice!

moondog

@undergrace

Based on the (likely) assumption that your husband's employer has extensive experience hiring foreigners, I suggest referring most of your questions back on them after reviewing the specific requirements for Z and S1. The employer will be involved in the process anyway.

As for occupation, further details about what your job entails would be useful, but in the absence of such, something along the lines of "administrative assistant" is unlikely to raise alarm bells. Obviously, your husband can't go wrong with "teacher".

jiejie

Answers to your specific questions and some others on the visa application.
1.15: Husband can check the "other" box and type in "Teacher." You can just check "Company Employee." No need to get pedantic on your occupation.
2.1: Your husband's is "Work" and yours is 2 groups below "...Accompanying family member of foreigner residing in China for work....."
2.2: Doublecheck with the sponsoring employer on # of entries and duration to request, particularly for yourself on the S1. The Z visa is only good for a single entry and usually 30 days, during which time it's converted to a Residence Permit. I'm not sure on the S1. In the absence of further employer guidance, I think checking the first box as you believe is fine. The Residence Permit will supersede the visa once it happens, and is always multiple-entry with duration up to the expiration of the RP.
2.5: For a work/accompanying family visa application, this is kind of a throwaway but just put "12 months (employment)" or "12 months (family member accompanying foreign worker" Normally RP's are only for 12 months at a time anyway.
2.6: Just put the date + arrival/employment city with "for employment" underneath and then in the adjoining field, the address of the employer. No need to put anything else.
2.7: "Employer in China" or "Spouse's Employer in China" for you
2.8: It's also for the sponsor, so definitely the employer. Put the name of school and address/phone as requested. Since your husband will have additional paperwork from the school that must accompany the visa application, this is somewhat superfluous but should still match up.

undergrace

Thank you to moondog and jiejie - our visas were approved! My husband received a Z and I have an S1. I now have an additional issue. Upon hearing our visas were approved, the HR rep at my husband's new school has informed us we now need to have document authentication done for our marriage license and his college diploma. We are unsure how to do this, and since we are needing to bring the forms to China before they will be reviewed we cannot make any mistakes.

Here is what his emails have said:
1) Degree Authentication : You don't need to do so in the embassy, instead you can go to your local Notary Public to notarize you degree.

2) Marriage certificate: This must to be authenticated through Chinese Embassy/Consulate.

We have both the original of my husband's diploma and the original of our marriage license. We have friends that are Notary Publics for the State of Texas and we are also going to Austin this weekend to visit family and we see the SOS in Austin has walk-in hours.

Can anyone tell us what exactly we need to do? We also have full color copies made of both documents, so if they need to do these things on the copies (and just review the originals) that is not an issue.

Please help! Thank you!!

889

As to the degree, there are two approaches towards notarization. In the first, the registrar of your school swears it's a true copy of your degree before a notary. In the second, sometimes called self-certification, you swear it's a true copy before a notary. Most universities these days will provide a notarized transcript, and that's the safer route over self-certification ("safer" in terms of the likelihood it will be accepted without problem).

As to your marriage certificate, you need to have it authenticated by the secretary of state of the state where it was issued, and then send it for final authentication to the Chinese embassy or consulate having jurisdiction over that state.

http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/ywzn/lsyw/gzrz/rzcx/

Follow the instructions with care!

JPDM

Not sure about where you live, but here in Montreal there are many places doing this in Chinatown.

bobert24

I'm surprised to not find discussion on this, so I may be missing something - please point me in the right direction if I am.

I've got to get a Visa (US citizen), and will need to use an agency. Is there any kind of consensus as to who's good or bad? Or are they all pretty much the same? If so, any idea who's got the best prices? Best price I've seen so far is Allied Passport & Visa - $49 for 10-day processing (any experience on if it takes that long?).

FWIW, I'm in the DC jurisdiction. My trip dates got changed on me, so I'm going to be leaving in about a month. A little less time than I would like.

889

I've been following this for years on various forums, and I don't recall a single major complaint about any agency. So on that basis, I'd go with cost as the major determinant. That said, I also look at location and prefer an agency as near as possible to the consulate or embassy visa office, hoping for faster turn around.

bobert24

Fast, informative reply. Thanks a lot.

It looks like Allied is the cheapest (for my situation, at least). Plus OMAT & TPG both have $5 discounts for them, and Mile Nerd & Tagging Miles both have $10 discounts (links below).

I called with a question, and someone answered in less than a minute, and was able to answer it. For anyone else who's wondering, the processing time listed on their website (10 business days) does include both their handling time, and the embassy's time as well. 10 business days is the total of those two.

Their office in DC is near Embassy Row, so it meets that criteria as well (good idea, by the way).

So this seems to be a really good option - hopefully I'll be just as happy with them ~12 business days from now.

http://alliedpassport.com/milenerd/
http://alliedpassport.com/taggingmiles/
http://alliedpassport.com/onemileatatime/
http://alliedpassport.com/thepointsguy/

31570324

My whole family will visit china this year. Any limit how many persons my chinese mother in law can invite for visitor visa, or should we better get invitations from other relatives, too?

BogeyMan

I wasn't sure which agency to use and selected Allied last Feb. based on the recommendation from OMAT. I used the regular service and it took only 5 days (plus shipping time since I'm in LA). I was very pleased with their service and communication.

sori

I am trying to plan a trip from Tel Aviv to Bangkok by way of China but it seems impossible.

China consulate will not respond to emails nor answer phone calls. I am not in Tel Aviv so can’t visit them right now to get answers.

A travel agent tells me by email that to get a China tourist visa, you must have a round trip ticket, Tel Aviv to China and return to Tel Aviv. But I don’t want to go back to Tel Aviv immediately, I want to go to Thailand. On some forums I have read that an onward ticket out of China is acceptable to get the tourist visa, but the local travel agent says it won’t be accepted.

I thought maybe a China Transit (G) visa would enable me to have the flexibility I want to take a train to Guangzhou and HK and fly to Bkk from HK, but the local travel agent says “there is no transit visa” and the consulate does not issue them. Even though the G visa is supposed to be a standard China visa.

The 72 hour visa-free entry program only works for me if I stay in Beijing and exit nonstop from there to Thailand or HK, which is less than ideal for me because I want to spend a few days in Guangzhou. Not eligible for the 144 hour visa-free entry in Shanghai because the plane from Tel Aviv stops in Beijing and you have to connect to Shanghai.

This travel agent is the only person who is even responding to my questions...the consulate does not answer.

Meanwhile I have to book nonrefundable flights without enough information about whether I can get a visa, and the longer I wait to book them, the higher the price will go. It should not be so difficult to plan this trip.

moondog

Just reserve (but, don't pay for) a round trip ticket, and print out the receipt. You're over thinking this.

JPDM

I would think that a ticket out of China should work but to be safer you can do as suggested above.

Hoyaheel

Instructions for a G visa only state "onward" travel - no mention that a round trip is required.

http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/visas/hrsq/#G

Makes sense - China just wants to make sure you leave. They don't really care where you go next.