I'm sorry but I still don't understand. I've been mulling this over but I don't see how I can get around getting a visa if I follow this itinerary: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/milea...i-3-2-cpm.html ?

I really don't want to have to get a visa if I don't have to AND I really want to take this trip!

Can you PLEASE explain it again, further? I'm usually not this dense.

It's pretty simple:
-you need to fly out of Shanghai to a different country from which you arrived within 72 hours of your scheduled arrival
-since that fare seems to require a 5 day minimum stay (and 5 days is greater than 72 hours), you'd need a side trip to a different country in order to reset your 72 hour clock; HKG/MFM are probably the cheapest options; CJU is the closest

you are correct... on the itinerary you have stated you MUST have a visa.

if you follow the suggestions to do a side trip out of china, you won't need a visa.

it is probably cheaper to buy a visa than a return ticket to say hkg.

you can have multiple transits without visa. EACH can be up to 72 hours. so one trip out to hkg will suffice if you spend 48 hrs in PVG, go to hkg thrn spend another 48hrs in PVG before heading home.

but, accommodation + airfare out PVG probably easier to get a visa and stay put in shanghai.

I booked one of the AA fares to PEK(6 days) in March and heading down to HKG for a weekend then back to PEK but also planning on returning to PEK in may to do the Trans-Mogolian. Do I need to have my reservations set for the both trips in order to get a multiple entry visa or do I just need to have my first entry set? This is my first time ever needing a visa and want to make sure I do it right. Does it help to use a visa service? I live in NYC so can easily go in person.
Cheers
Howie

If you've never has a China visa, even as a USA citizen (I assume) you could have some difficulty getting a multiple entry. It seems automatic for those who have had Chinese visas in the past, but for the first one, the default is likely to be single or double entry.

Can you do TWOV twice on the March trip--i.e., is each stay in PEK less than 72 hours? I don't know whether to interpret the 6 days as total time for the trip or the length of the first stay after entering at PEK.

To avoid problems, it would be better to have the March AA PEK ticket, the HKG ticket, hotel in Beijing, hotel in Hong Kong (not strictly necessary, but why not?), and hotel again in Beijing plus the May ticket to/from China if at all possible, plus hotels at the beginning and end of this trip. I know this is a lot, but IMO the possibility of having to apply again and pay for the second visa would be worse. However, my perspective is that of someone with no consulate nearby who must also pay visa service agency and FedEx fees for each visa application.

In this case, I suspect that a GOOD visa service would be helpful. You should talk with several about your odds of getting the multiple entry visa on your first attempt.

Others here are likely to have different opinions.

First off yes I'm a US citizen. For the March trip I'm going to spend 6 days in PEK then 3 in HKG back to PEK for 1 so I could just TWOV for the 1 night at the end. However if they see a visa in my passport will they use the second entry? Seeing as how I'm not going till March I'm sure I could get all my tickets in place with the exception of my train ticket from PEK-Ulan Bator as you can only book that 60 days out. If we use Airbnb in PEK do I need to get a letter of invitation from the person we're renting the apartment from? Thanks for the help getting a visa is a new process for me.
Cheers
Howie

If it comes down to that, you can simply ask them not to. Most them are quite reasonable people. But, I you should obviously try to get a 12 month visa in the US first.

1. I'd worry that Chinese officials would use the second entry automatically rather than admit you as TWOV. This has been known to happen.

2. Is airbnb considered like a hotel or a home stay? Visa rules and documentation are different. If you get an invitation rather than a reservation confirmation, IIRC you also need a copy of the person's ID. Also, for a home stay, you'll need to register with the police. Are you sure you want to do it this way?

airbnb!! be careful!

you are required to register with the police for an airbnb stay.

we had a friend doing this who was denied registration for a set of guests because they had already used their place to register multiple parties before.

this would put you at default and breaking your visa rules in china.

a hotel won't normally cost much more than an airbnb. I would think carefully, or at least ask the offeree some questions around how they intend to register you, and how many people they have had stay there before.

(of course I suppose you could always just try it and if you can't get registration then move to a hotel).

While I also think that there's little point to using airbnb in China, I wouldn't be all that worried about registering with the PSB. I dare say that roughly half the expats I know never even bother... often precisely because there is no actual lease agreement to bring to the PSB.

appreciate the risk is small... and while my experience is the same as yours (a lot of people don't register), I can't, with a completely clear conscience, advise anyone to break the law and not register. it is a pretty clear law and a requirement of entry.

For the first 6nts of the trip I'm traveling with 3 other people and they're big airbnb people although knowing this hopefully we'll just do a hotel. The first comment is what I thought could happen. Thanks guys this is why I love FT!
Cheers
Howie

In Shanghai we have never brought any sort of paperwork nor the ID of the owner of the place. We just hop over to the local police station with our passports and register. The only holdup we have ever encountered was one time they wanted copies of our passports and they didn't have a copier. (Note, however, that my wife is Shanghai-born and we have a long series of visits without doing anything to arouse the ire of the authorities.)

Same situation now exists in Chicago as well. This is not stated on the consulate website - they still list the fees and requirements for same day approval.

I had seen in another location that this might be the case and had scoped out a visa service on the same floor of the same building so I just took my materials over there.

You're absolutely right though...kinda frustrating

Am going to China in a couple of weeks for leisure travel with a group of six. Visa were all taken in together at the Chicago consulate this week. They needed a copy of the airline itinerary for each person, and wanted it separate for each even if there was a reservation for two. Had a copier and allowed the copies to be made there. Took the visa applications for processing but asked that we also bring hotel reservations for each when the visas were picked up. Is that a new requirement? We have a hotel booked for the first few nights of the trip, and then have not totally decided whats next. Will they be looking for hotel nights for the entire stay? What if we decide to change hotels in Shanghai for instance after the visa has been granted? Would that be an issue? All persons have had multiple entry visas before, are not Chinese born or of Chinese ancestry and are requesting multi entry this time as well, and some have taken advantage of the TWOV in the last couple of years. Any thoughts or other experiences would be helpful.