Hello all,

I seem to have ran into a strange situation with obtaining a China visa. I've been searching the net and can't seem to find anyone with the same problem.

My wife was born in HK. Her family migrated to the US 3 or 4 months after she was born. Now we are planning a trip to China and are being told that she needs to provide proof that she was allowed to leave HK or they would deny her visa application. She is currently a US citizen. Leaving HK at such a young age she has no proof or any other documentation.

Has anyone else ran into this same problem?

They want proof that the person left the country legally, i.e. not a smuggled child.

also"China considers a child born within its borders to hold Chinese citizenship if one parent is a Chinese national, even if the child applies for and receives a U.S. passport while in China."

I would imagine, at some time, documentation would have been provided to US State Dept to apply for US passport.

I think the OP's wife ran into a very unique situation. As far as I know, one never had to get permission to leave Hong Kong. My children were born in HK and immigrated at a very young age and have applied for China visas numerous times with their U.S. passports and were never asked to provide proof that they left Hong Kong "with permission". In fact, I looked at their old HK passports and there weren't even any HK exit stamps in them. I can understand the Chinese Embassy asking for proof if the child was born in China but Hong Kong? Besides, the visa application does not even ask what age you left your former country so I assume the question came up when the OP's wife was applying for the visa personally at the Embassy. I suggest the OP try using a Chinese Visa service in another city.

If the OP lives far away from another city that has a chinese embassy you can try some online websites of any kind of travel document service type companies.