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I'm about to apply for a visa via mychinavisa.com, but I have two little issues I want to clear up before I do.
The roundtrip airfare requirement: I do have a valid ticket leaving CAN, but I plan to enter China via train from Hong Kong (to Guanzhou). The hotel requirement: I'm not set on where I want to stay, and I may want to stay with relatives in China Guangzhou. Is it a big deal if I make a hotel reservation and end canceling/changing it later? |
Flight to HK is ok. You can make any booking then cancel. Once you get your visa, it doesn't matter.
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Originally Posted by dat4life
(Post 22705712)
I'm about to apply for a visa via mychinavisa.com, but I have two little issues I want to clear up before I do.
The roundtrip airfare requirement: I do have a valid ticket leaving CAN, but I plan to enter China via train from Hong Kong (to Guanzhou). The hotel requirement: I'm not set on where I want to stay, and I may want to stay with relatives in China Guangzhou. Is it a big deal if I make a hotel reservation and end canceling/changing it later? |
US passport holder, have a couple of quick questions on filling out the visa application form:
I have had multiple Chinese tourist visas before (in fact, my most recent visa still has a little validity). For the question: "Have you ever been granted a Chinese visa? If applicable, please specify the date and place of the last time you were granted the visa." Am I supposed to supply the date the visa was issued and place the visa was issued? If so, is the place of issue "Chicago" (consulate location) or "Kansas City" (my home)? The expediter isn't asking for a copy of my driver's license, is it required? Should I send it anyway? (I've seen instructions on other expediter sites that it is required.) Anything else I should know that's changed? Thanks! |
place of issue is the issuing agency... so that would be Chicago. (it will say on your last visa).
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We have always answered that question with the consulate city, nobody has objected.
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Originally Posted by Loren Pechtel
(Post 22711318)
We have always answered that question with the consulate city, nobody has objected.
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Originally Posted by jiejie
(Post 22170530)
You should have no trouble getting a multiple-entry visa good for 12 months, just put down that you will have additional trips tbd later in the year.
If you want to try to apply in the USA with her Irish passport, go ahead but make sure you have enough time to go for Plan B. Your wife is supposed to use her US passport if she's applying in the USA, Chinese missions are usually very strict about this when it comes to dual citizens. If she tries to use the Irish passport, which of course will have no US visa or stamps in it, and she has no US green card, it will require some explaining and when it's admitted she's a dual US citizen, the application probably won't be accepted for processing. Of course, if she uses the US passport, she'll pay more but will also be able to get a 12 month multiple entry visa. If she wants to use the Irish passport, she'll have to international express it over to Ireland and have a family member/friend get it over to the Chinese Embassy in Dublin, then after processing pick it up again and express it back to the USA. The application form will need to be filled out with Irish address and related plausible field entries. It is unlikely she would get more than a single- or double-entry visa, probably with only 30 days per stay, which might be enough for your purposes. I suspect by the time you figure in any international express costs plus a nice thank-you gift for the person helping on the Ireland side, that lower visa fee isn't going to look that competitive, plus the angst of having the passport loose in the world for about 10 days. |
Originally Posted by LHR/MEL/Europe FF
(Post 22711303)
place of issue is the issuing agency... so that would be Chicago. (it will say on your last visa).
Once you pointed it out I checked my current visa. It did say Chicago (in Chinese which is how I missed it) on the visa. Thanks to everyone for the replies! |
I'm off to China from July - September to spend time with my girlfriend and 'relax' before the next year of Uni.
I am wanting to go to HK once for a couple of days. As my first entry will be in the mainland, I am wondering whether I need double entry in order to go from China --> HK, then HK --> China or is HK exempt from this, thus only needing a single entry visa? I'm from the UK and have had 2 Chinese visas issued before, once for study and once for tourism (again with my gf). |
Originally Posted by joe19924
(Post 22956597)
I'm off to China from July - September to spend time with my girlfriend and 'relax' before the next year of Uni.
I am wanting to go to HK once for a couple of days. As my first entry will be in the mainland, I am wondering whether I need double entry in order to go from China --> HK, then HK --> China or is HK exempt from this, thus only needing a single entry visa? I'm from the UK and have had 2 Chinese visas issued before, once for study and once for tourism (again with my gf). If you were flying UK-China-HK, but your first entry into China was less than 72 hours, you would not need a visa under the transit without visa program. (For example you fly to China, spend a couple of days with your gf and then head to HK.) If your initial entry to China is more than 72 hours however, you will need a visa for that entry, and any subsequent ones. The second issue is the new visa rules which came in last year. They supposedly (for non US citizens), restricted the ability to get long term tourist visas. There was rumour that China would grant a maximum double entry, 30 days for each entry. I don't know how rigorously that has been enforced, and I wasn't able to find any solid evidence on that around the time it was supposed to come into force. If you are able to get a longer visa can you report back and let us know? |
Even if you stay less than 72 hours in China before going to Hong Kong, there's a significant chance that a Chinese official will see the visa and use it, which would create a mess for your second entry into China.
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
(Post 22957242)
Even if you stay less than 72 hours in China before going to Hong Kong, there's a significant chance that a Chinese official will see the visa and use it, which would create a mess for your second entry into China.
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Originally Posted by LHR/MEL/Europe FF
(Post 22957090)
So... a couple of issues here.
If you were flying UK-China-HK, but your first entry into China was less than 72 hours, you would not need a visa under the transit without visa program. (For example you fly to China, spend a couple of days with your gf and then head to HK.) If your initial entry to China is more than 72 hours however, you will need a visa for that entry, and any subsequent ones. The second issue is the new visa rules which came in last year. They supposedly (for non US citizens), restricted the ability to get long term tourist visas. There was rumour that China would grant a maximum double entry, 30 days for each entry. I don't know how rigorously that has been enforced, and I wasn't able to find any solid evidence on that around the time it was supposed to come into force. If you are able to get a longer visa can you report back and let us know? I will apply with plenty of time in advance for a visa that will cover my two months. I am going to rent an apartment with my girlfriend so will have one fixed location (assuming this helps), however with a few days in HK. I've never had any issues with the issuing office for a Chinese visa, but they will contact me if there are any issues with my application. What may be possible is if I get two 30 days entries, and just spend the few days in between in HK where I am allowed to enter visa-free. I don't suppose there is a time limit of how quickly you can re-enter mainland after using a full 30-day visa? |
Originally Posted by joe19924
(Post 22960377)
Thanks. I think I'll get the double-entry to be on the safe side.
I will apply with plenty of time in advance for a visa that will cover my two months. I am going to rent an apartment with my girlfriend so will have one fixed location (assuming this helps), however with a few days in HK. I've never had any issues with the issuing office for a Chinese visa, but they will contact me if there are any issues with my application. What may be possible is if I get two 30 days entries, and just spend the few days in between in HK where I am allowed to enter visa-free. I don't suppose there is a time limit of how quickly you can re-enter mainland after using a full 30-day visa? If I read you correctly, you are gunning for a 6-month double entry visa with up to 30 days/stay (I would recommend aiming for something better than this, but I understand that the situation for UK nationals isn't extremely favorable these days). Anyway, if you get x days/stay, each entry can be for as many as x days, and you can spread them out among your entire visa validity period. Insofar as how 6 months (or whatever the validity period is) is calculated, the most common method is "enter before yyyy.mm.dd", which means that on day ~180, you could show up in China for a new stay. However, if your visa says, "valid until yyyy.mm.dd", you may not remain in China after that date (legally). Simply walking across a land border and walking back immediately is sufficient to qualify a new "stay". |
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