I have just secured my visa yesterday at the China Embassy in the US. The process I went through is consistent with the process described in the linked document.
My colleague in Singapore also went through the the same process and secured the same visa. The only difference is my colleague received a M visa and I got an F visa, although we provided exactly the same documentation and invitation letters from the same local FAO.

Those of us who have 5-year residence permits don't want to lose them in exchange for 6-month visas that are limited to 30 days per stay. We invested a lot of time and money to get our RPs. I can go to the US anytime I fancy because I am a US citizen, but I want to be able to return here.

Yes! Once I enter China, I will apply for new resident permit knowing that with the new resident permit comes with restriction for no international travel out of China until travel restriction is lifted.

That being said, my visa is for 60-day and my work will likely require me to travel regionally. I will need to consider further and perhaps explore other possibilities.

Off the topic: any hotel recommendation on quarantine hotels in Shanghai?

i thought it's not your choice (even if it is your cost) - do you get a choice where you spend your quarantine?

You do have some choices. There are some 40+ hotels participating. Some do not have AC, some do not allow ordering takeouts and some have pretty bad internet connections.

Hilton double tree is on the list and looks pretty good. I had relatives stayed there a couple of years before.

Thanks. Do you have the list of hotel to share? Internet connection is important for me and also ability to get take-out food will be a plus. I have searched on the internet and cannot seem to find a list of hotel choices.

I don't have the list, if you read chinese, there are some screenshots from this link https://www.weibo.com/175858850?is_all=1

Just obtained a list of Shanghai quarantine hotels from a Shanghai local friend.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...2206465d66.jpg


There are about 90 of them. Typical costs seem to be 300-400 CNY plus 100 CNY meals per day.

Best hotels are some remote Wyndham and Crown Plaza hotels.

I am pretty sure that AC and wi-fi will be standard. The quality is another issue.

Biggest concerns to me: cleanness of hotel room, comfy bed, fast wi-fi connection, and ability to order meal delivery.

Finally, a local government official told me that I can request better quality hotel at arrival as a senior US citizen.

It appears to me that PRC government officials don't want to give foreigners bad experience at crappy hotels.

differences from document (not me):

• Houston consulate required COVID-19 test at time of application
• visa conditions: must enter within three months of issue, and period of stay is 30 days (I did not ask what the category of the visa was)

about the same otherwise

There's discussion elsewhere about our Residence Permits being "suspended" for the purposes of immigration and not "cancelled" outright which is how has been represented in some places. So now, I expect that after I'm back home in Shenzhen with this new single-entry visa my existing Residence Permit will actually not have been cancelled outright so I won't need to apply for a new one because the current one is still in effect. Time will tell of course but I don't think your problem would be the cancellation of your 5-year Residence Permit if you travel out. This is just my current reading of the swirl of rumours and misinformation on this topic and only time will tell.

It's currently a moot point anyway because the effect is the same whether you're inside or outside China. You cannot travel out if you want to get back in with the Residence Permit. The expectation is therefore that when the border lock-down eases, our existing Residence Permits (if still valid according to its expiry date) will magically become active for entry and exit purposes at the ports of immigration.

This is crucial for those of us that live in the Greater Bay Area when they open this much-discussed GD-HK-Macau travel bubble. We expect travel to be eased for residents of the three areas. In HK, it's easy because all residents have HK ID cards. In SZ, our proof of residency can only be the Residence Permit in our passports so they cannot in practice have been cancelled en masse. But who knows until the next phase of crazy 2020.

Anyway, I'm heartened to read of stranded residents getting back. Nobody else got back to Shenzhen from HK yet?

i heard from a lot of people that the quarantine hotels are randomly assigned now when you arrive. Most of the time the entire plane is quarantined at the same hotel. In March it was possible to choose between some hotels at arrival, but after a few weeks the random assignments started.
Did the rules in shanghai change again? There are some pretty good hotels on the list.

Great information everyone, thanks for posting.

Another visa question: I have had many different kinds of China visas over the years. When I changed types, like M to Z, they canceled the existing visa immediately upon applying for the new one, even if the old one had not expired per their policy. Does anyone know if they are still applying this rule for this new temporary type of visa?

My visa agent told me that if I get one of the new visas, my RP will be cancelled. I would trade 10 years for 6 months, but the RP is kind of special.

I can't specifically address the current situation, but in the past the Chinese rule has always been that you cannot have more than one active visa in your passport. The system may in fact sort of be hard-wired to a one-passport one-visa rule, so I wouldn't be optimistic it could be changed for this special situation.

I am not either, which is why I am asking as well as bringing it to everyone's attention. I was specifically told some years ago that applying for a new visa will automatically cause an existing visa to be canceled, even if you do not get the new visa. This is exactly what happened to me, my old visa was canceled but the new Z visa was initially refused because my passport did match my Chinese name. The kicker being Chinese names are never shown on US passports. While I got it straightened out, I would caution anyone to be careful right now on this point.