Thanks for the link 889. You are correct that "old" resident visas need to be recognised again for this travel bubble to work rather than making us apply for a new business visa supported by an invitation letter from the Foreign Affairs office. In reality, our "old" resident visas are no different to those also held by the foreigners who are still living at home in China. They just stopped accepting them at the border. I don't see them reissuing residency visas for every foreigner legally entitled to live in China but what do I know. Odder things happen daily.

The pessimist in me sees two scenarios when the travel bubble opens: (a) it's only for residents with ID cards (includes foreign residents in HK who have HK ID cards but excludes foreign residents in China who do not have Chinese ID cards); or (b) the HK Covid-19 test process requires a HK ID (as pretty much everything does in HK) to register so non-residents waiting to go home to China cannot be part of this process and we fall through the gap. Both, extremely believable scenarios.

The part of that story that gives me hope is that they are already talking about extending the bubble to Thailand, and that definitely is intent to allow foreigners to enter. If that is the case there is a fairly decent chance they are working with this alongside the Chinese government to allow foreigners to enter from countries in the bubble or at certain ports of entry. Now, I'm not getting my hopes up and nothing would surprise me at this point, but it would be pretty strange if they allow tourists from Thailand into the country before people with residents permits who are already IN part of their country.

Its gonna be entirely dependent on whether they just open the bubble to passport holders from that country or anyone living in the two bubble countries. My money is on passport holders as it’s much easier to manage than checking if the Swedish passport holder trying to enter China from Thailand really spent the last 3 months in Thailand. Not fair or reasonable IMHO but this is the PRC government we’re talking about here and safety from Covid is their first priority.

Oh, I am certain that it will only be Thailand passports from Thailand that would be allowed. Absolutely. I have zero expectation any other passport holder would be allowed in from Thailand. I just hope along the way to that point, separately, they would consider letting someone holding a valid residence permit from China to enter the country, from Hong Kong, SAR, China. Especially considering anyone in that situation is guaranteed to have been inside the bubble since March 28 or earlier.

But that would require logic and...well, you know.

First time I’ve seen a post-March visa https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activ...377771520-B7ho

Did anyone else join the online seminar held by the Foreign Affairs Office in Shenzhen a few weeks ago where they detailed the process for foreign residents to return?

This department has also got a web page that details the process to apply for an Invitation Letter from the FAO and has the forms to download.

Shenzhen Foreign Affairs Office process to return to China

All this implies that it's possible for foreigners with the cancelled residents permits to return to China by applying for a new business visa with an Invitation Letter from the FAO. Your company has to apply to the FAO for this letter on your behalf. It's nothing to do with the GD-HK-Macau travel bubble idea that's being talked about.

I'm looking for anyone who has successfully done this. Anyone?

There's a few stories in a Shekou WeChat group of people who are currently in China and had visas renewed through various means.

I'm looking for the evidence that foreign residents who are stranded outside China have successfully applied for a new business visa and been allowed back in to their homes. So far... I've only found fellow exiles.

That’s just a humanitarian visa extension. He can’t leave and come back on that one, only stay in China. Anyone currently in China can get one of these. The real golden tickets are visas issued outside of China post March 29.

I know a few people in Shanghai who’ve been able to return. They either work for huge multi-nationals in high levels roles or they own businesses with significant tax contribution to their districts. Generally it seems the entire family is let in at the same time. The average English teacher is gonna be staying put for a while I’d guess.

I know there are people who have successfully getting visa to get back to China, but the issues no flights.

Under the 5-1 policy, only limited flights into China each day, and the transit rules at HKG and TPE don't allow China flights.

Singapore allows transits to/from China, but only from a small number of low-risk countries.

Well, I'm currently about 25km away from the land border with Shenzhen. I'm also not a teacher and work for a Fortune 500 company. I have found no foreign colleagues who have been able to get back using the process. I'm not saying there aren't any, I'm saying I haven't found any. That's why I am casting the net wider and asking if anyone on here knows of anyone using the specific process publicised by Shenzhen's Foreign Affairs Office. They've been very open about it so somebody must have attempted it and have some experience to report.

UA_Flyer was asking about the best ways to fly between the US (applies to other countries too) and China now. I'm also somewhat curious about this myself because I don't fancy dropping 40k to fly to JFK in MU economy class, but even if I did, those seats are hard to snag. The connecting options that show up on Google Flights are actually reasonably priced; it's just that some of them are illegal (e.g. HKG) and others don't exist.

So my American friends that have been outside China since the CNY Holiday flew back to Shanghai this weekend according to their photos on WeChat. Husband works for an American chemical company and is heading back to continue work on the newest plant they're building. I didn't get any details since I didn't know until I saw the photos but if I find out more I'll post any pertinent info.

i think those flights are primarily servicing repatriation.

Perhaps they have been getting the economic necessity exception. Honestly I don’t see why resident permit holders willing to subject themselves to 14 days’ quarantine at Govt facility shouldn’t be allowed to return, but I’ve given up trying to divine reason out of PRC regulations ten years ago.