What makes you think they want to understand？ They don't want people returning to China, their own citizens included.

According to the embassy website, it is to prevent pax from getting infected when travelling across states after testing.
Link to Chinese Embassy in the USA

What I am hearing is it is important to apply for the green code BEFORE you leave China. moondog have you looked into this?

Not really. I was simply planning on calling the NYC consulate because Boston is part of its domain. I'm going to message my visa guy, and see if he has any insights/advice.

You will not be getting any green codes unless you take your tests at the pre-approved testing facilities in the metro area of the flight you depart from directly to China. The only entity that will be giving green codes for DFW flights is the DC consulate and a member here posted that you have a 0.000% chance of getting the green code as an American with an RP. I confirmed this with our immigration legal team.

Unless things change, you should plan on being stuck in the US indefinitely if you’re just going to wing it.

I highly recommend trying to fly out of LAX and have a very strong business or humanitarian letter to attach to your pre approval request email to the consulate.

moondog no offense but I think you don’t retain information very well on this forum. Do not book a DFW-PVG ticket, we already went over this.

Its not really the green code you apply for before you leave China, it’s basically permission to apply for the green code. They’ll tell you they accept your reason for traveling which theoretically means you’ll get a green code when you apply in the USA 2 days before your flight back to China. This assumes you don’t get Covid during your trip in the USA. If that happens, see you in 5 years.

Fair enough, but I think there’s reason to believe that the US ban on foreign travel from Europe which sleepy Joe reinstated in January will probably be going away in the near future. Which is why I originally said the western world is “opening up”

But, for now, having to spend 2 weeks roaming free in Cancun with normal-ish airfares and no green codes or visas is probably a much easier pill to swallow than 2 weeks in a glorified Chinese prison getting brain biopsies every few days. And that’s assuming you can afford the airfare and have a very open timeline on dealing with the green code blackbox process.

Yes, you are correct, I did not word that properly and thanks for catching it. But the key is to start the process before leaving China and have a workable plan.

Apart from the UK, I think we can expect the European travel ban to be dropped fairly soon. Personally I would love to have to spend two weeks in Mexico going wherever I wanted. That is nirvana compared to the quarantines I have done.

I don’t really agree with emailing the consulate to ask for their approval for you to start your round trip from China, unless someone has heard a compelling reason to do that. Or if you yourself have a very compelling humanitarian reason for the trip that you know they’ll be onboard with.

Id just apply for your pre approval to return to China and state the reason you need to get back to China. I don’t need them in the weeds of why I’m going back to the US.

In March of this year I emailed the LA consulate a week before I wanted to fly back to China. Then I booked the flights and handled the green code testing + application once they sent me a reply (fully in Chinese).

To my knowledge, Jan-Mar of this year was the strictest time period for green codes.

There's a business event in Hohhot I'd like to attend in October. I've read a lot of this thread and I should be able to handle all the paperwork, green codes, and related bureaucracy to get into China from the US. The one that is the deal-killer is the 2-week quarantine.

Based on what others have written in this thread, there doesn't appear to be much hope that the 2-week quarantine requirement will be lifted any time soon. Is that a fair assessment? I'm debating if I should inform my contacts now that I'll be unable to make it -- there's another event in the US at the same time so then I can proceed with that, even though the event in China will be much more worthwhile.

The event host should be able to sort out all the required official paperwork for you to get approved for travel to China.

AFAIK, there's no plan to reduce or eliminate quarantine. I would also like to remind you that many entry ports in China, including Guangzhou and Shanghai, require 14 days hotel Q + 7 days home Q or 21 days hotel Q if you don't have a local Chinese home address.

100% no hope https://www.scmp.com/news/china/dipl...les-vaccinated

This poor German guy has spent at least 10 weeks in quarantine now...
That's like a fourth of a one year prison sentence

Some people are not getting to enjoy their quarantines in hospitals (only 3 days of the total though, based on the article):

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Ex9BHWFbDI__H3JUxrSrNQ

Maybe I won’t be taking any vaccine after all if it makes the experience somehow worse. Pretty amazing.

You're looking Y200 (plus the cost of going to/from hospitals with open time slots). This is a small price to pay for improving your odds of getting a green code when you come back.