Originally Posted by moondog
sort of....
-the (48-hour) transit visa program in sh is pretty legit these days; probably, partly due to the urging of mu, which is trying to establish an international hub there (i believe an overnight is required either to or from australia for european pax).
-i've also been told by a friend that is pretty high up at the us embassy in bj that those "visa-on-arrival" desks actually can issue a variety of actual visas in special and not-so-special circumstances; presumably, one should make such arrangements with their home consulate before taking flight
-although not too relevant here, hainan province has a visa free travel program in effect so that it can attempt to compete for tourists with [much better] beach destinations in se asia
regarding my second point above, i've entered china 10 times to far this year and on 9 of those 10 occasions, the desks were actually staffed; on 5, there were people standing in line.
Transiting at Shanghai without a visa (or without using your visa) should be well possible for Americans, Brits and a good number of other EU nationals under certain circumstances, but it still puts some of the PVG immigration officials into a bit of a spin and will result in a pax being pulled to the side. Sort of amusing to see the faces of immigration officials there and especially of a passenger who is being "pulled aside" there.
When someone is doing the transit at PVG, the Chinese immigration officials should be told in advance (upon getting to the desk), especially if you are on a limited number of entries visa or are doing so without a visa (i.e., including a visa on arrival kind of situation). And then being shuffled over will be facilitated and the option of preserving such a visa for later use actually may exist (if done properly and competently). That said, it's a tourist visa that is of interest to said poster, right? Any rather consistent way to convert the transit visa into a tourist visa upon entering China?
Earlier in July, I did my first 60-minute international-to-international transit at PVG. Not generally recommended by me.
