Thank you Jiejie, 889 (great name), and Loren! I will just fill out everything including my Chilean info and send it in. It seems after all these years I will be going to China, instead of just reading or hearing about it. I will stick to English as well.

Now that you guys have answered my visa questions, I should really start obsessing about the truly important topic: what do I want to eat in HKG and PEK?

Cheers
-K

"The DC consulate (don't go to embassy!) offers same day visas if you demonstrate a need for such."

I don't see any reference to a consulate in DC, only the embassy on Wisconsin Ave.. Supposedly there is the embassy and 5 consulates around the US.

"I'm not sure you can get the visa through any consulate in the USA"

I know that you are supposed to submit a request via mail to your regional consulate, which for me is IAH. I have just shown up in DC and NYC with paperwork and upcoming ticket and they have not blinked an eye about that. it was just more convenient to come back same day and pick it up.

In DC, the Chancery and the Visa Office are in different buildings quite some distance apart. Since the Visa Office deals with consular affairs, you might for convenience call it the consulate as distinct from the main embassy.

And it does seem that consular officials have the discretion to be quite relaxed about whether you live in their consular district, and often are. But since it's discretionary, you can't count on it.

The PRC embassy is NOT on Wisconsin Ave, but the visa office (not sure what to call it) is. Key point: the embassy doesn't issue visas.

That's correct "VISA OFFICE".

http://s3-media3.fl.yelpcdn.com/bpho...IhpC8HMg/o.jpg

Ok.. in any event, I have not been recently able to get same day service at the Visa Office, Embassy of the Peoples's Republic of China in Washington DC. I did not show up with a ticket departing that same evening but rather that same weekend.. Still wondering if any others have gotten same day turn around there or anywhere else in the past year or so.

Just to follow-up on: www.mychinavisa.com

They aren't cheap: $99 + Fed-ex charge + cc "convenience fee",
but they did deliver. 10 year VISA with 60-day visits allowed
7 days rt service including delivery for their plain "regular" service.

No, you are NOT supposed to submit your visa request by mail. Your choices are to go in person or to have someone else, such as a paid visa service, do this for you.

DC does offer same day service....sometimes. You need to go in the morning, and if they aren't busy, you can pick up the same afternoon.

However, since you can't bank on this, I recommend afternoon drop off and pick up the next day (this is guaranteed).

Thanks!

Going for a first time tourist visa. Flight is booked into PVG and out of HKG, I am not certain about my time in each location. Would a hotel reservation for a few days in Shanghai be sufficient to get approved or must I make speculative bookings for the full duration in country?

Well, a quick update: I showed up to collect and pay today and my visa was denied. It said "please write a work statement describing the nature of your work" or something to that effect. I'm an editor of scientific materials mostly (APA formatting, citations, etc.) and I wrote that on a leaf of paper in clear, block writing. I was told that was acceptable twice. It's not hot journalism, so I think that is what they are really after. Looking back, that was less than smart to say editor, I suppose.

I return Tuesday to see if I get a visa or not.

"Editor" is a no-no to put down for a regular category of visa (tourist, business, etc.). Real editors or others in the journalism field need to get creative with that application.

Side note: Visa applications for journalists (J1, J2 visas) have to be approved by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs so regular Consular visa offices that apply to the rest of us for applications, don't want to touch anything remotely journo-related with a 10-foot pole.

To Exiled, if you're an American applying in America then they may not be too fussy about the length of your reservations. But since it's so easy to make freely cancellable reservations why not avoid any problems and just book a week each in Shanghai and Hangzhou, say.

They don't like anything that could resemble news media.