Both my business partner and I are of turkish background with us passports, had no questions whatsoever and both got 10 year visas with no problems a while back this year. No problems entering china either.

My wife and I used mychinavisa based on recommendations from this post. We applied for 10 year visas and provided all documents for a scheduled trip in March. Booked hotel, normal itinerary to Shanghai, only 7 days, etc. We are both US citizens with matching passport stamps. I was granted a 10 year visa while she was only given a 1 year visa. Is there any valid reason for this? She has no flags like Turkey visits or media job title (she is a middle school teacher and I am an engineer). My only thought is visa service messed up and requested a 1 year visa on accident or she was flagged because her birth place is Iraq. Again, she is a US citizen and has been for 20+ years... Only Middle East stamps were several years ago to DXB but I have that as well.

I'd be pretty confident Iraq and her naturalized US citizenship came into play. Just because she's been naturalized a US citizen does not necessarily mean she's no longer an Iraqi citizen.

That is pretty infuriating. She hasn't been to Iraq since she was 3... 25+ years ago. So now we need to pay $250 every time we go to China because she'll never get a 10 years. I guess we won't be going to China again lol.

If you apply at a consulate yourself (not super inconvenient if you plan things nicely), the fee is only $140. Furthermore, TWOV is increasingly useful.

It is very inconvenient for us. We live in Austin and do not travel to Houston. She would need to drive 3 hours each way to get to Houston to drop it off then drive back a week later to pick it up. With that being 175 miles each way, that's around $25 in gas each way. 4 segments = $100 in gas and 12 hours of driving. I'd rather pay $150 extra (really I'd rather just have the 10 year).

China Visa photo and visa agency
 

Hello

i live in atlanta and going to China soon . I have gone through many posts everywhere but can not find a reliable and cheap Visa photo website . Does anyone recommend cheaper one ? We are 4 of us and most Visa agencies charge 99 per passport so can anyone recommend any cheaper ones ?

thank you for your help .

Don't you have a phone with a camera?

Or, a drugstore that takes passport photos? I used to get mine at Costco and was bummed when they took the photo center out of the warehouse - guess I'll have to do it myself next time.....

Should be easy enough to do your own photos and then make sure you format per instructions prior to printing somewhere (be it at home, through walmart/costco/cvs etc)......

If I go through an agency with expedited 2 day processing, any expectation of how long the entire process should play out? (i.e. mailing app and passport and getting it back with visa). I've got a 3 week window to complete the process between Jan 23 and Feb 14. I'd do it now but I'm headed to Caribbean in 10 days and will need my passport with me so can't put it in the mail now.

You should call the agency to ask, but assuming the agency is near the consulate you are using, I would guess a Fedex that arrives before noon would be dropped off at the consulate the same afternoon, picked up 2 days later, and sent back to you that evening for delivery the following morning.

Any recommendations for an agency? I was thinking about using mychinavisa.com. They have a Chicago location which is best for me.

Mychinavisa is a popular choice for people in this forum/thread, but I've honestly never had bad experiences with any visa agency, even the cheap ones. Just be sure to pick one that has an office in Chicago, and read the comments on Yelp.