The Entry/Exit Bureau has similar functions to the U.S. INS (or ICE or whatever it's called now). For your purposes, they're the people who'll give you your visa. Whether you want to renew it (or more accurately, get a new visa) while you're in China depends on:

* your time: you may need to do without your passport for 5 days or so while the application is being processed
* your tolerance for Chinese bureaucracy: my experiences in Hangzhou were very smooth, with no lines to deal with and staff who spoke enough English to supplement my halting Mandarin. I have no idea what the situation is in Beijing.

If you can deal with the above, no you do not need an agent to renew a visa (I'm assuming you meant to say "visa" instead of "passport." Just go to the EEB office with the required documents. I paid about 800rmb for my latest 1 year F visa.

One other difference I've noticed: when I got my original F visa in the US, it had a 30-day maximum stay limit. The visas I've gotten here in China have no such limit.

Thanks! My current visa has 120 days/entry, so I'll be current and I'm fine being without my passport for a few days. It will also allow me to stretch out the time of my visa because I can wait a little longer to get a new visa (in July or August vs. May).

The only thing you can't do without a passport is travel internationally; the receipt they give you can be used for all other purposes that would normally require a passport (i.e. hotel check-in, domestic flights, opening bank/phone account, etc).

Also, if you're content staying in China for the whole summer, you don't need to get a new visa at all because you have those 120 days to work with.

Lower Visa Fees!
 

Did any of you see this notice posted on the Chinese Consulate website?

Notice about Adjustment of Regular Visa Fees for U.S. Citizens

June 21 , 2007

According to the instructions from the relevant departments of China, the Consulate General will make an adjustment of regular visa fees for U.S. citizens since Aug. 1, 2007. The details are as followed:

1. No matter of the number of entries, regular visa fees for individual applicants will be $100.
2. Regular visa fees for group visa will be $80 per person.
3. Expedited service fees will be charged as usual.

Chinese Consulate General in New York

Now THAT'S a juicy question. As a matter of fact, I plan to create a thread on that subject before I head back to Beijing this weekend. The short answer is yes, I am registered with the local police - after multiple threats and having my apartment raided twice in one week.

I was also unable to get a new F-visa in San Francisco last week or in New York City today. SFO offered to give me a 1-entry L-visa, so I simply asked for all of my documentation and gave it a try here in NYC this morning. In the end, I have another one year, multi-entry visa, however it is an L-visa good for 90 days at a time. The 90 days is fine because I will not be there longer than that. However, I needed the full 120 this time because if I had stayed the entire summer, it would have been 95 total days in country.

not that you asked me, but i haven't registered for about 4 years.

Neither do I. But the law says you have to within 24 hours on any visa. If you stay in Hotels, they will do it for you. The issue only becomes important if you want to extend a visa or other tasks involving the officials (e.g. buying property). Another question is if they really enforce the rule. A good remedy is to check into a hotel.

The registration rule is selectively enforced. In the apartment complex where I live (next to Beijing & Tsinghua Universities) the police have opened a temporary station to register people. It's causing quite a challenge since both universities tell the students "we'll take care of everything" although they are not registering students living outside the dorms.

The local police setup perimeters around the different apartment complexes each day at a various times and conduct passport/permit checks. They are demanding that all of us foreigners in the Wudaokou area of Beijing carry our passport at all times, along with a copy of our temp resident permits. I've been keeping count, and I have been asked for my documents 8x's, had four visits to my apartment along with two inspections. Other western students (France, U.K., German & Australian students) have had upwards of 5-7 searches of their apartment over the last four weeks.

It really varies according to what I've heard. Cities where the local and national governments push foreign investment are fairly lenient while some rural areas may be very cumbersome.

Anyway, the police is more interested in registering domestic migrant workers which I think is a very legitimate concern at least from a European point of view.

I don't think these checks come as a surprise considering China has recently experienced Muslim separatist terrorism and certain opposition groups focus on foreign support. Beijing 2008 hardly wants to be remembered for anti-government protests or terrorist plots.

As for the req., it's normally quick and painless. Chinese police tend to be quite friendly, say compared to their rather uptight Japanese and Korean brethren.

yes, in bj and sh, all you need to do is bring a copy of your lease and an official form stamped by your management office (or landlord, if your building doesn't have a management office) to your local police station/annex. as a general rule, however, the police don't mess with people that live in the bigger expat complexes.

as for being "messed with," in can offer two anectdotes:

-in 1997 or 1998, i was living in huajiadi (reasonably close to the lido) in a friend's spare apartment. back then, foreigners were only allowed to live in (much more expensive) aproved foreigner housing (in the name of "safety"). the apartment in question was not approved. on the mornning two days before the national college entrance exam, i was awoken to no less than 10 police officers, who informed my friend and i that we needed to pack our bags and get out. they were friendly about it and gave us the whole day to get organized, but that was an interesting experience

-more recently (less than 3 weeks ago, in fact), my little cousin (he's 22 now, but will always remain my "little cousin") in huairou (near mutianyu) was awoken by a similar raid because he had failed to register within 24 hours. i think two factors were working against him: 1) foreigners aren't very common up there and 2) i can only assume that the police have a lot of spare time in those parts

Each Chinese applicant must pay a non-refundable 810 RMB visa application for visiting US.

AFAIK, 810RMB is more than $100. :rolleyes:

Student and exchange visitors must pay an extra fee of $100 called a SEVIS (Student Exchange Visitor Information System) fee.

From US Consulate Shanghai website:

http://shanghai.usconsulate.gov/non-...ant_visas.html

BTW, since I always have 2 year multiple entry visa, $100 is a reduction of previous visa fee to me. ^^

It's really as simple as saying you want 2 years. That said, I think I'm going to go the 1-year route next time around because that's what our visa lady delivers; my company pays and I don't have to bat an eyelash.

Well, now the Chinese embassies' sites say that "Chinese-Americans" can get 24-month unlimited for $100.

They didn't qualify what constitutes a "Chinese-American", but I think I should qualify. I have a Chinese name and I look Chinese. ;)