VISA problem..Help!
 

Hi

Hi!

I am a norwegian who currently study in Hawaii, US. I want to visit my friend in Nanjing,China so I booked a flight from Honolulu Hawaii to Shanghai on the 14th of december and a return ticket from Nanjing to Oslo. The only problem is that I am probably unable to obtain a Chinese Visa in the US, due to the fact that my US student visa expires on the 16th of december. I were not aware of this requirement until now. Stupid, stupid, stupid!.

Since I already booked the tickets I am desperate to get a chinese Visa somehow and I am not sure if it is possible?

So, I was wondering if it is possible for me to do the following;
- Book a flight from Shanghai to Hong Kong and apply for the Chinese Visa in Hong Kong? Will this be possible for me to do? Can I still enter China with a visa obtained from Hong Kong, even though I spent a night in Shanghai on the 15th of december? (My flight arrives on the 15th of december in the evening, so I will probably not be able to go to Hong Kong until the 16th of december).

I will be forever grateful if there is anyone out there who has any good advice on how I best can solve this situation!

they should let you apply for the visa if you show them your itinerary, and your onward ticket to oslo. the fact that you are legally in the USA should be enough. Otherwise an agent maybe able to help

if you do book a second ticket to HKG to leave shanghai within 48 hours then it will work as a transit without visa, should not affect applying for a visa in HK and you are allowed to leave the airport. PVG to HKG flights are fairly frequent so you might not even have to stay a night

Thank you so much! I am super nervous about this. I am using Visa express in Houston to process the Visa for me, and they told me that my application most probably will be denied at the embassy because of the expiration of my student Visa. But they would give it a try.

I do not understand what my student-visa has to do with it. I guess its just the rules at the embassy.

I have given them all the documents, including my return ticket to Norway on the 4th of january. So I am hoping for the best. It will probably be a hassle and expensive to go to Hongkong and manage everything from there.

But, again, thank you for taking your time to answer a desperate girl! :)

Nowadays, many Chinese missions will not process third country nationals unless they are residents or have a longer term visa in their host country. Hence the problem with your soon-to-expire US visa. If you are denied in the USA, here's your Plan B: Get your visa in Hong Kong, which should be OK but because there has been strife between China and Norway, you need to doublecheck.

1) Make sure this is viable--immediately send an email off to this reputable Hong Kong agent and make sure you tell them you are Norwegian. Ask what your options are and if any documents or hotel bookings are needed besides your passport. [email protected]

2) Assuming there's no problem, make a one-way flight booking from Shanghai to Hong Kong. You can do a search on what's available. If you need cheap fare, go online to Spring Airlines but as this is a low-cost carrier, make sure you take into account any baggage issues: http://www.china-sss.com/en

Since going from USA to China, you will move across the international date line, make absolutely sure you know when you are arriving in Shanghai before you make an onward flight. Get the day straight (it may be Dec 15 or 16, depending on when you leave Honolulu) and the time. From this scheduled time of arrival at PVG, you have 48 hours to use Transit Without Visa privileges--there is a thread on this on this forum to read the details. This means if you schedule an outbound to Hong Kong within that 48 hours, you're fine. This could theoretically give you enough time to get to Nanjing by train, dump stuff with your friend, and get back to Shanghai to fly to Hong Kong.

I recommend you use Forever Bright to get that visa, even with the additional small fee, rather than try to get it yourself in HK at the Commissioners Office. It will save you hassles and time. FB can do next-day processing and sometimes same day. HK is expensive to hang out in but worth 2-3 days if you've never been there before. Remember that visas cannot be processed on the weekend, so you may have to time it for first thing Monday morning. From HK, you can either fly back to Shanghai or Nanjing, or consider train, or hop the border to Shenzhen and head north from there....sometimes it's cheaper.

Wow! How can I ever repay you?! Thank you so much. You probably saved me a lot of trouble. I have sent the e-mail that you recommended.

If worst case scenario happens, that my Visa is denied, do you know if I can still use my return ticket from Nanjing to Oslo in the end. Like for instance booking a flight from Hong Kong to Nanjing on the 3rd og 4th of january? It will somehow be considered a transit then or? Or will I be refused to land on Nanjing airport?

Again, THANK YOU! :)

Same rules as Shanghai, expect you only get 24 hours.

Thank you :)

Worse case scenario try and looking into one of the express visa service booths. Is there one in PVG? There is one in HK. It will cost you but may end up being the cheapest option. Others on this board can enlighten better about them than me.