Jun 4, 2013, 2:02 pm
Last edit by: mnbp
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Visa Information for the People's Republic of China (PRC, Mainland China)
Important: China's visa terms and conditions changed effective 12 Nov 2014 as far as duration, and 1 July 2013 for requirements and procedures. Do not rely on information posted prior to that date.
Note new FT thread regarding up to ten year visa duration: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/china...ov-2014-a.html
The PRC allows certain foreigners to transit China without a visa if they will be exiting the country within 24, 72 or 144 hours provided various other conditions are met. Please see the separate China 24, 72, and 144 hour Transit Without Visa ("TWOV") rules master thread and Wikipost for detailed rules and discussion.
The best source of current visa and travel document requirements is IATA'S TIMATIC, as that is what the airlines rely upon to determine whether they will permit you to fly. Star Alliance provides a free, easy-to-use TIMATIC tool to help you identify your exact requirements based on nationality, residency and specific itinerary. The SkyTeam alliance website contains a link which also allows you free use of TIMATIC, including good printouts of the information.
Note that posts made prior to 1 July 2013 have been archived, but are still available for reference at China Visa / Visas Master Thread (ARCHIVED). The old FAQ: Visa-Free Transit / TWOV thread is also closed but available for reference.
China Forum Ambassadors: moondog----------anacapamalibu----------jiejie----------mnredfox
(lower right wiki corner).Visa Information for the People's Republic of China (PRC, Mainland China)
Main source: Visa Page - Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the United States of America (external website)
Important: China's visa terms and conditions changed effective 12 Nov 2014 as far as duration, and 1 July 2013 for requirements and procedures. Do not rely on information posted prior to that date.
Note new FT thread regarding up to ten year visa duration: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/china...ov-2014-a.html
The PRC allows certain foreigners to transit China without a visa if they will be exiting the country within 24, 72 or 144 hours provided various other conditions are met. Please see the separate China 24, 72, and 144 hour Transit Without Visa ("TWOV") rules master thread and Wikipost for detailed rules and discussion.
The best source of current visa and travel document requirements is IATA'S TIMATIC, as that is what the airlines rely upon to determine whether they will permit you to fly. Star Alliance provides a free, easy-to-use TIMATIC tool to help you identify your exact requirements based on nationality, residency and specific itinerary. The SkyTeam alliance website contains a link which also allows you free use of TIMATIC, including good printouts of the information.
Note that posts made prior to 1 July 2013 have been archived, but are still available for reference at China Visa / Visas Master Thread (ARCHIVED). The old FAQ: Visa-Free Transit / TWOV thread is also closed but available for reference.
China Forum Ambassadors: moondog----------anacapamalibu----------jiejie----------mnredfox
China Visa / Visas Master Thread (all you need to know)
Jun 9, 2015, 3:12 pm
#826
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: NYC
Programs: Marriott Plat, Hilton Gold, UA Silver
Posts: 2,272
Flights: do as moondog says, buy a refundable round-trip flight to/from the mainland. Book from somebody like Expedia.com where you can book a refundable ticket, get an emailed confirmation which you can print out for the visa application. Then cancel the refundable ticket within 24 hours.
Hotel bookings: you need to account for your entire stay in China. Just use the endpoints of the refundable bogus ticket, and craft out an itinerary for the visa application that makes sense and do some nonprepaid cancellable bookings that support that. Print out booking confirms and submit, then do the cancellations.
Once you get the Chinese visa, there is no requirement that you follow what you put down on your application, and nobody will check. You can be as flexible as you like and as domestic intercity transport availability allows. Caveat: if your trip duration is only 2 weeks, you may find that flexibility is an illusion and that you will waste a lot of time in the field working on and dealing with the logistics.
Hotel bookings: you need to account for your entire stay in China. Just use the endpoints of the refundable bogus ticket, and craft out an itinerary for the visa application that makes sense and do some nonprepaid cancellable bookings that support that. Print out booking confirms and submit, then do the cancellations.
Once you get the Chinese visa, there is no requirement that you follow what you put down on your application, and nobody will check. You can be as flexible as you like and as domestic intercity transport availability allows. Caveat: if your trip duration is only 2 weeks, you may find that flexibility is an illusion and that you will waste a lot of time in the field working on and dealing with the logistics.
Jun 9, 2015, 9:34 pm
#828
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: NYC
Programs: Marriott Plat, Hilton Gold, UA Silver
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Jun 10, 2015, 6:16 am
#829
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: NYC
Programs: AA EXP, SPG Plat, Marriott Silver, HH Gold
Posts: 797
To be safe, just do the mock booking. Plenty of people have done it. Book a flight to Beijing RT refundable or not, cancel after printing it out. Book a cancellable hotel for the duration. IME haven't required a day by day itinerary, they just want to know what cities you'll be in and where you'll be staying. If you want to be extra safe, throw in a rough daily itinerary.
Given you are a U.S. citizen and a visa is not required for HK, I don't think that showing a flight just to HK will suffice. You would have to show how you're entering (overland, for example) and still have hotel bookings or indicate where you're staying (with friends etc).
Jun 10, 2015, 7:57 am
#830
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Shanghai
Posts: 42,029
Hk flights certainly do suffice, but given that booking a flight to the PRC itself requires all of 30 seconds, I see no reason not to go the extra mile. There is no moral transgression at stake here; people cancel flights all the time.
Jun 10, 2015, 8:03 am
#831
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: NYC
Programs: AA EXP, SPG Plat, Marriott Silver, HH Gold
Posts: 797
So a mainland China visa may be granted with an itinerary that only shows flights to HK and hotels in HK? Even though a visa is not required for HK for US citizens?
Jun 10, 2015, 8:15 am
#832
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: China and Canada
Posts: 1,886
A ton of people fly to HK, visit HK then head to China even by just walking over the border. You still need to show your itinerary in China with hotel bookings there (depending on your country of application). but for flights, HK is fine. There is certainly no need to also show a flight to, say, Beijing.
Jun 10, 2015, 8:24 am
#833
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: NYC
Programs: Marriott Plat, Hilton Gold, UA Silver
Posts: 2,272
A ton of people fly to HK, visit HK then head to China even by just walking over the border. You still need to show your itinerary in China with hotel bookings there (depending on your country of application). but for flights, HK is fine. There is certainly no need to also show a flight to, say, Beijing.
Jun 10, 2015, 8:34 am
#834
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Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Shanghai
Posts: 42,029
Jun 10, 2015, 11:12 am
#835
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Southeast USA
Programs: various
Posts: 6,710
The reason is that some Chinese visa officers will not accept flights in or out of HKG as equivalent to mainland China, even if you tell them you will be crossing the border overland. Other visa officers will, or will accept either as the arrival or the departure point. The problem is, you cannot know om advance which sort of visa officer will be processing your application. As you see, this is a somewhat different opinion from others' above.
Since your trip is very soon into the future, and you may not yet have a confirmed date for the return award flight, you can't wait around any longer to apply for your visa. Therefore, I think the easiest thing is to just make that refundable return flight and cancel. To reiterate, once you have the visa, there is no problem in using different flights, different hotels, different itinerary. There is no backcheck of reality vs application.
Jun 10, 2015, 12:13 pm
#836
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Join Date: Sep 2009
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This person also doesn't want to risk the visa being denied due to lack or "required" documentation, given that there might not be time to get the documents at that point and then reapply for the visa.
Jun 10, 2015, 11:35 pm
#837
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 1,653
Has anyone applied for a visa using the provisions on this page?
http://en.safea.gov.cn/2013-10/23/content_17053383.htm
http://en.safea.gov.cn/2013-10/23/content_17053383.htm
Jun 11, 2015, 9:32 pm
#838
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Southeast USA
Programs: various
Posts: 6,710
Has anyone applied for a visa using the provisions on this page?
http://en.safea.gov.cn/2013-10/23/content_17053383.htm
http://en.safea.gov.cn/2013-10/23/content_17053383.htm
But it's not an avenue of which most readers of this forum would be able to avail themselves.
Jun 12, 2015, 12:58 pm
#839
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: NYC
Programs: Marriott Plat, Hilton Gold, UA Silver
Posts: 2,272
To clarify: What I was envisioning was not dealing with your current award ticket (which has the return date tbd) at all. Nor Hong Kong, at all. I was advocating purchasing a refundable round trip ticket from USA to mainland and back, like SFO-PEK-SFO. Getting a printout of the confirmation then cancelling that ticket.
The reason is that some Chinese visa officers will not accept flights in or out of HKG as equivalent to mainland China, even if you tell them you will be crossing the border overland. Other visa officers will, or will accept either as the arrival or the departure point. The problem is, you cannot know om advance which sort of visa officer will be processing your application. As you see, this is a somewhat different opinion from others' above.
Since your trip is very soon into the future, and you may not yet have a confirmed date for the return award flight, you can't wait around any longer to apply for your visa. Therefore, I think the easiest thing is to just make that refundable return flight and cancel. To reiterate, once you have the visa, there is no problem in using different flights, different hotels, different itinerary. There is no backcheck of reality vs application.
The reason is that some Chinese visa officers will not accept flights in or out of HKG as equivalent to mainland China, even if you tell them you will be crossing the border overland. Other visa officers will, or will accept either as the arrival or the departure point. The problem is, you cannot know om advance which sort of visa officer will be processing your application. As you see, this is a somewhat different opinion from others' above.
Since your trip is very soon into the future, and you may not yet have a confirmed date for the return award flight, you can't wait around any longer to apply for your visa. Therefore, I think the easiest thing is to just make that refundable return flight and cancel. To reiterate, once you have the visa, there is no problem in using different flights, different hotels, different itinerary. There is no backcheck of reality vs application.
Jun 12, 2015, 4:36 pm
#840
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Shanghai
Posts: 42,029
I think what I may do is fly from Shenzhen to Hong Kong and then return from Shanghai to Hong Kong via Shenzhen. If I provide a visa app where I say I am flying hong kong/beijing round trip will there be any issue if I make entry via the land border later on? I know they don't care about flights and if I follow the itinerary, but I'm wondering if they would expect me to use at least the same method of entry into the country. Alternatively can I just submit my tickets to/from Shenzhen along with my HKG tickets? I'm waiting on my return flight home to be ticketed and I anticipate having it by Monday when I file the visa application.
-Stick with your hk itin
-You will almost certainly get a visa based on your hk tickets
-The "ticket to the PRC" strategy was only suggested as a means to remove all possible doubt in the (extremely) unlikely event you encounter a difficult visa processing officer