Questionable advice from embassy
 

A friend was applying for a visa to China and was informed by the Chinese official that if his flight was delayed his visa would not be valid. This seems unlikely to me. Anyone know what they were likely trying to say?

Some people will book a refundable ticket, get their visa, and then cancel their flight. I am not believing that a delay will have any affect after receiving the visa.

Huh? I've been delayed 8 hours, no visa problem.

Which embassy told you that in which country?

Your friend applied for what kind of visa?

For example a tourist L visa is valid for 3 months after issue.

Chinese immigration is practical. Involuntary changes to an itinerary while at the airport on the day of departure will not be subject to penalty.

If there is a delay or penalty which will push the passenger over their allowed stay I would make sure they proceed to the airport (or other exit point) to make contact with immigration. Don't simply stay at the hotel and take the flight the next day without telling anyone.

For flight delays or cancellation which are still within visa validity, or even if you just change your mind and want to stay longer - no problems. The passenger is free to make alternative arrangements as long as their new flights depart before the visa runs out.

I think that we may not have the whole story here.

There would be a problem if the person were planning to enter China on the last possible date for doing so. Then a delay (long enough to mean that the flight would arrive the next day) would mean that the person has no valid visa. However, since this wouldn't be the passenger's fault, I'm not sure what the Chinese immigration officials would do. In the extreme, if it were a delay that arose after the flight had left its departure gate (i.e., a delay while sitting on the tarmac), the passenger would have no good options for deplaning. A similar situation could arise if a flight to China were diverted overnight. However, these very rare situations just seem to say that there's some risk associated with planning to enter China on the last possible day for your visa.

I almost found myself a test case for this. We decided to play it safe and get new visas. As scheduled we would land with 8 1/2 hours left on our visas. Due to a mechanical we hit customs with a few minutes left on the old visas but we had new ones anyway.

The new visas were because we couldn't get a clear answer on whether the date on the visa was an enter before or enter no later than.