Originally Posted by
les37b
Ok, I have booked my return flights (LHR to Shanghai) for Nov 2024 for 11 nights and can see there is no escaping the £130 visa fee to the agency in London. Annoying, but is what it is.
If my travel plans for the future just consisted of this one incursion to China, then I'd be all set. However, on top of this trip in 6 weeks, I am now planning a further visit for the end of September 2025 with my wife joining me this time. My thoughts for this trip would be to fly to HK and visit Macau and Shenzen. Would the 6 day transit visa be valid for Shenzen from Hong Kong? I remember on my last trip to HK in 2018, I was going to take a guided tour day trip into Shenzen with a Visa cost of about £100 and decided against it. Its not very obvious what can and cant be done and if Hong Kong is counted as China and therefor any movement into (and back from) Mainline China would be allowed?
If it was, then we would both be fine to do the 2025 trip without a further Visa.
If its not allowed and she would need a Visa, then we would stray further into China, but to be honest, Shenzen would be enough, so I'm hopeful we can. If that is the case, she would need to make the same application that I am about to make for Nov 2024 at a cost of £130.
Which brings me onto the second question. With my entry set to be before 20 September (The expiration of a BA companion pass), am I correct in thinking this £130 Visa is just single entry and has an expiry of 24 months? Would be great if it could be valid for both - but I'm guessing I would need to bite the bullet and buy the 5 year multiple entry at a cost of £194? (My passport expires in May 2027 - so its not really going to be much more than a 2 year visa!
Any advice on the Shenzen bit especially would be appreciated. If its not valid - I assume people unless they have a full visa, no longer visit Shenzen from Hong Kong?
A few comments I can offer.
- you could escape the visa fee with a one day return trip to Korea/Japan/HK/Macau in the middle of your 11 day trip, thereby qualifying for entry under TWOV. However this would curtail your ability to move around in China to the greater Shanghai area, which includes Hangzhou and Suzhou.
- it would not matter if you got a longer duration visa than the term if your current passport, as far as China is concerned the issued visa remains valid in the old passport, you just need to carry both old and new passport and ensure you don't change any personal data.
- if you do not have any history of visits to China, then it's my understanding that applying as a British citizen you would be unlikely to get a multi year visa straight off the bat unless you had a convincing reason. I suspect multiple visits for tourism would be unconvincing. And for Brits you generally have to stepup from single/multiple entry then progressing up through the multiple year visas, 2yr, 5yr and then 10yr.
- note that the single and multiple entry visa application process in the UK currently has the bonus that you do not need to provide fingerprints in person at the visa application centre as part of the application process, whereas there is no dispensation for fingerprint collection for multi year visas.