corporate-wage-slave

Yes, you never think that most officers at immigration in China have much discretion, it's very much process driven, and one can help the system out a bit having handing an A4 sheet with the hotel reservation and telephone number clearly visible. But regardless of that, they are still going to double check the main details, even if you are a frequent visitor to China.

But welcome to Flyertalk pamela001320, welcome to the BA Forum and I hope we will see more of you in the future.

let_BAegones_be

Hello all,

I am sorry to ask this question here, I wonder if anybody can help.

Is it possible to travel to Shanghai on standby ticket.
I wonder if -because these tickets are not confirmed- it would cause an issue with getting the visa sorted and entering the country.

Thanks!

KARFA

Just to check, are you intending to apply for a visa rather than try and use TWOV?

As part of the visa application process you do need to provide copies of any tickets for entering and departing China. They don't exactly spends a long time scrutinising and really just check departure points, destination, and dates. I am not sure how obvious a standby ticket is compared to a normal one though.

let_BAegones_be

Standby tickets look identical on the email confirmation to a normal ticket so in theory then they wouldn’t know....

A P Yu

Standby on mine is listed in the endorsements on the email confirmation

As Karfa has asked, are you intending to travel TO China (with a VISA) or Via China (using a TWOV)

let_BAegones_be

I would like to go WITH VISA. For the VISA application I need to submit flight details.

A P Yu

Requirements state you need a roundtrip ticket but I don't see the CONFIRMED requirement (As you do for the TWOV requirement).

Theres a risk of losing the application fee if they say no, and also then the risk of having to declare that you've had a visa declined on any subsequent trips to China - but hopefully people with recent experience of the same will be long soon to give their insight to help ith your decision. Ive only done the TWOV route where a standby ticket is deffo not enough.

KARFA

By that do you mean a return ticket? Where did you see that?

I got a visa recently and had a one way ticket in and a separate one way ticket out. I can't remember seeing any suggestion it needed to be a return, and there was no suggestion when they checked it that my one ways weren't ok.

You don't even need to enter and exit from the same place, so a HGK-PVG-KUL itinerary would be fine - although with that you could look at TWOV as an alternative of course.

Bear in mind the visa centre is pretty much giving out by default multiple entry 2 year tourist visas atm. Whilst hotel and flight confirmations need to be provided for the initial application and the initial trip, there is no requirement to submit anything for any subsequent trips using the same visa.

let_BAegones_be

Thanks very much! Very helpful

A P Yu

Its on the Chinese Embassy website. Id interpret two single tickets as meeting the requirements for a Round Trip.

"Documents showing the itinerary including air ticket booking record (round trip) and proof of a hotel reservation, etc. or an invitation letter issued by a relevant entity or individual in China....."