^

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/i...15ce470217.jpg

think they will issue the 10-year visa to US citizen who is applying for Chinese visa for the very first time?(never visited China)

Doubt it, but who knows?


One thing that I haven't seen discussed yet under these Brave New Rules, is whether the Chinese will give out a visa duration longer than the validity of one's current USA passport. They never have before. So logically, for those whose USA passports (or renewals) aren't fresh off the press, would it even be realistic to get a 10 year visa validity or would one be capped at whatever the passport expiration date is?

My US passport was issued 03/19/2008 and expires 03/18/2018 (note that 18 is one day short of 19).

Mr. Downie's (post 45) PRC visa was issued 11/11/2014 and is valid until 11/11/2024 (note 11 = 11).

Based on this, either Mr. Downie has a special long-validity passport, or his PRC visa shall outlive his passport. Guess where my money is?

Or Mr. Downie's passport was just issued to him and has essentially 10 full years of validity. Hard to tell. My current passport expires in January 2016 and the current plan was to get a 12-monther, then go for something longer when the new passport is issued end of 2015. But if one can roll over a live Chinese visa into a new passport, that would be too good to be true.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/ch...394846881n.jpg

According to notice posted at Embassy.

If passport is valid for a year or greater...good to go for ten year visa.

Data point:
The first US passport holder got a ten year with 5 times to China.

At the visa office of Chinese Embassy in the U.S., 23-year-old researcher Edmund Downie became the first American to receive the ten-year visa with multiple entries. In what will be his fifth trip to China, he planned to travel to southern Chinese city Kunming and stay there for about a week.

I'd rather pay the $50/single entry visa fee when RMB was 8.2 to 1USD. Than
ten year multi entry for 160 USD.:p

I believe you'll be able to travel with an expired passport-with-visa and your new passport together. That's not too convenient, and while entry officials will no doubt be familiar with this, you'll probably encounter some hassle at hotels from staff that aren't, and don't know which passport number to enter into the system, which front page to scan, etc. Certainly this is the case when similarly traveling with an old and new passport in India. So myself I'd replace my passport first if it's got just two or three more years left.

I'm not slightest bit worried about showing hotel clerks which pages to scan (I'm pretty good at that drill), but the idea of carrying around a second passport does strike me as annoying.

That having been said, I'm contemplating grabbing a new visa (in my semi-aged passport) now since I happen to be in the US with sufficient time to pull everything off before I need to travel again.

How many times does a US citizen have to visit China on single entry visas
before the Chinese will issue him/her a 10-year multiple-entry visa?

You do realize that yesterday was the first day ever that the PRC has issued 10-year visas to normal US passport holders, don't you?

Have you applied for a 5-year or 10-year U.S. or China visa or residence permit under the new agreement between the two countries announced on Nov. 10? Did you get the maximum validity? FlyerTalk is great, but also share your experience in the comments section here.

It will be interesting to see how and to what extent the two countries implement the agreement.

Mr. Downie may have gotten a 60-day stay perhaps because he asked for it. We don't know. But CCTV News is carrying this statement:

"The extension of the visa validity terms, however, is not synonymous to the allowed period of time one may stay in either of the two countries. According to their visa types, for example, American visitors are only allowed to stay in China for up to 120 days each time, says Ruan Ping, Consul General at the Chinese Embassy in the U.S."

So that holds out the possibility, at least, that some even luckier than Mr. Downie may get four-month stays. And knowing that 120 days is the maximum possible, there's no harm in asking for it.

I'll add that I think all the publicity this is getting is very good, and helps cement the policy in place.

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