david-alexis

I am in big trouble!
I have important meetings all of next week in Shanghai and Beijing, and although travisa told me I was OK to apply yesterday and get my visa by Wednesday (tomorrow), now they told me the chinese won't process application for french citizens (I have a French passport) in time... I don't know what to do, I am flying through HKG if that helps. If anyone knows how I can get a visa by Friday as a french citizen please let me know!

jiejie

As the Chinese have been angry at France, without clear explanation, for about 14 months now, obtaining Chinese visas as a French citizen has been an extra hassle, especially when applying for a Chinese visa outside of France. Unlike other western passport holders, Chinese Embassy authorities usually want to see your travel plans into/out of China, and your accommodation booking proof, sometimes also evidence of medical insurance valid in China and/or other documents. Possible courses of action:

1) Postpone the meetings in China for at least another week, maybe two weeks to be safe. Use some excuse. Then have your visa processed in fastest possible way. Change your flight to China. Assume you won't get the passport/visa back until NEXT week.

2) Try dealing with this at the Embassy or Consulate yourself rather than through an agent, asap, even if you have to take time off and travel to get there. You should call first, if you get lucky you may actually get someone to pick up the phone and tell you the documents you need as a French citizen. You must be upfront and tell them you are French. This may be no better than option 1.

3) Assuming you could change flights and leave immediately for HKG, consider getting a visa there. Usually they can process on a next day basis. However, before I'd do this, call this HK agency (remember time zone difference) and ask them how fast a tourist or business visa can be processed for a French citizen, and what documents will be needed. Normally, they can do next day service for most passport holders. Given your situation, I'd get the tourist visa if that would cut through red tape (tourist needs no invitation whereas business does) and speed things up. You'd have to fill out the application as a "tourist" but there's really no downside risk for a short visit doing this and then going to business meetings. If you get a positive response from Forever Bright, you'd have to get the application to them by Thursday morning to have it back by Friday afternoon, HK time. So you'd have to get to HK by Wed night, HK time.

4) Completely change plans and return to France asap, which is where the Chinese want most French citizens to apply. However, I don't know if they will work with any more speed than the Chinese missions where you are now.

I'm really not seeing good odds at you pulling this off in time to attend these meetings in China next week.

david-alexis

Thank you so much for the advice I will give the company a call tonight (US time) and see if they can do it next day for french citizens.

jiejie

If all your meetings in China will be in a continuous time frame, then you go to Seoul, then you go back through PVG only for transit to USA, then you should be OK with only a single entry visa, if that's all Forever Bright says they can get for you. The second "visit" can be done as a transit without visa TWOV (for French citizens, up to 48 hour transit period in Shanghai is allowed without visa).

david-alexis

Would I be able to do the following if I cannot get a visa in HKG:

Fly HKG-PEK on Wednesday night with a valid PEK-ICN (or a "fake" PEK-US refundable ticket as I will be flying to ICN) ticket for Friday night (less then 48h after entry)?

jiejie

I'm going to amend my advice and say that if you can get a double-entry visa in HK, try for it anyway. I remember that for a time last year (2010) TWOV for French citizens was suspended, then I think it came back. I'm not sure what the status is right now, so if you can possibly cover yourself for that ICN-PVG flight with a double entry visa, worth spending extra for peace of mind.

No, can't do. At all airports other than SHA and PVG, transit without visa is limited to 24 hours only. So the concept works with your valid PEK-ICN onward flight, but you'd have to arrive HKG-PEK within 24 hours of departing on that onward.

And take heed of my additional advice comment above. If you have access to any French travel forums that have a China section, try searching for very recent (last 3 months) posts by anybody with French passport who successfully did transit without visa in any location. This would tend to confirm that you'll be able to repeat TWOV, and that last year's punitive phase on this matter is behind us. Also, hopefully, you can get some sort of visa quickly in HK, even if it single-entry L. Make sure you have photocopies of all flight confirmations, hotel bookings, insurance card, etc. with you, to anticipate they might be asked for along with the application form/photo.

david-alexis

jiejie thank you very much for the useful information you provide to me. I will call shortly FBT and also send them an email. Hopefully they will be able to do a single/double entry tourist same day processing.

RealHJ

Just checking that the 48 hour TWOV in PVG/SHA (flying into one and out of other is fine I presume (?), and on two separate PNRs I think should be also OK (?) - I made sure both are with the same airline, MU, so at check-in of first flight they can easily see me in the other PNR and verify if they so wish) is still in effect and valid.. Correct?

(As per: http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/ywz...ap/t710627.htm it would seem to be so, but not sure how accurate and recent it is. It states: "Citizens holding passports issued by the following nations are not required to obtain a visa given he or she transit by Shanghai and stay up to 48 hours: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, ROK, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, US.")

And flying int'l via China where there is a domestic segment (i.e. xxx-PVG-CAN-yyy) also should be no problem under TWOW, right.. ? I can't get the airline (CZ) or the China Embassy to give a straight answer to that, and Timatic doesn't cover that either (transit via China, where there is a domestic segment within).

Middle_Seat

My question is similar to RealHJ's. I'm flying into PVG, then flying on to HKG the next day on a different airline. I'm an American citizen.

I hope this meets the requirements of Transit WithOut Visa, but how will the customs official know that I'm leaving Shanghai within 48 hours...I won't have a boarding pass for the next flight.

moondog

Print out your itinerary and show it to him. He may or may not verify with your onward carrier.

jiejie

Your first paragraph: situation OK.
Your last paragraph: conceptually OK but to give you a better answer we'd need to see the proposed itinerary/schedule/timings and how it's ticketed--is it all on one CZ ticket?

RealHJ

The last one is booked on a DL 006 ticket as NGO-CAN, 1h20m connection there, CAN-HKG.

But, I only found out later (after ticketing) that the NGO-CAN flight has 1 stop in PVG (I did think before, wow! how come that NGO-CAN flight is so very long? well, that is why!), which means in PVG it changes from international to domestic flight (though it's the same flt. #, CZ380, continuing on to CAN), so really it is NGO-PVG(~2h conn)-CAN(1h20m conn)-HKG.
All on CZ, 9am depart - 6pm arrive same day, all on one DL 006 ticket.

Re: the return (first paragraph), BTW, is HKG-PVG (MU tkt), 2 nights there (but a few hours less than 48 hours), then SHA-TSA (DL tkt). Both flights on MU, but on two different tickets (one MU, second DL) and PNRs.

Middle_Seat

Thank you, moondog. I hope the Customs official accepts the itin or contacts Dragonair to verify, so I don't spend the night and next day enjoying the comforts of the airport transit lounge

moondog

You'll be fine. Was that really the easiest way to get from Japan to Hong Kong? Wow!

RealHJ

With DL SlyMiles, yes, as DL then has blackout dates for CI (NGO-TPE-HKG would have been faster) - though CI flights are then bookable via other SkyTeam airlines (e.g. AF/KL can then book CI flights no problem), it's just that Delta chooses to block all CI flights at certain times, and MU has no availability, and CZ only "direct" flight NGO-CAN (CZ 380) is actually NGO-PVG-CAN, and CZ doesn't fly PVG-HKG unfortunately.

So, in short, yes, unfortunately..
A full day, 9am-6am, just to get NGO-HKG...

BTW, 1h20m connection at CAN won't present a problem, going from domestic to int'l terminal?
And at PVG how far from domestic arrivals is the int'l terminal?