As a followup to myself, I sent an email to the Chicago consulate and they emailed back that they no longer do same day visa service. You have to pick up the next day.

Moondog, if you are talking about the Other option on the Intended number of entries field, the Other option always exist with the current form - at last exist with the London version.

I use that option all the time, to get two year multiple visa. Although the two-year visa is officially gone now in London because UKBA has very tough checks on Chinese people applying for UK visa.

I just applied for the two-year multiple entries visa this past Monday for the whole family. I checked the box labeled "other". Got to the SF consulate at 10:30am, got called at 11:50am, returned at 2pm to pick up the visa, for an extra cost of $30 per person.

These were "L" (tourist) VISAs?

I'm not talking about duration of stay, but length of validity.

Speaking of which, the guy I mentioned upthread didn't manage to score a 2 year visa from NY, in spite of meeting all of the requirements.

Yes they are.

Nice!

What's the deal with Houston and 2 year L visas?

I'm local and hoping to get a 2 year L visa in a couple months.

edit: Nevermind, read back a few pages and found the jurisdiction issue. Fingers crossed I'll get a 2 year with only one prior 1 year in an expired passport.

Are you aware that most people don't have a chance at those 2-year Ls? Unless they changed the rules those visas are only available to ethnic Chinese and their spouses and even then not all the consulates did them. We got those visas because she's China-born and we had to include a copy of our marriage license in the application.

I believe that's correct. It was written in the visa application and I didn't even know it exist until this time I apply for visa for my family. I got the visa because I was born in China, my husband and my kids got the visa because they are related to me! It was super easy getting it at San Francisco Consulate, much to my surprise! Just wish it wasn't as expensive (it cost me $850 for 5 same day visa!)

No, which is why I posted asking about it after reading about it.

Thanks for the info, I'll skip China this year.

Skip China this year because you can't get a 2 year visa? If you are visiting infrequently won't it be cheaper anyway to just get for example a 1 or 2 entry visa valid for six months where the cost is typically much lower?

Not for Americans. All visas cost us $140. Also, he presumably could get a 2-year visa if he put some legwork into it.

I see- that must be only if residence is also in America and visa is issued in America? When I have had 1 year visas issued in both HKG and BKK as well as MXP they certainly cost a bit more than USD $140.

$140 is the standard visa fee paid to the government of China. Visa service agency fees and any fees for invitations, etc. are additional. There could also be express processing fees.