HKtraveller

I talked to a visa Service in Germany. If you hold a German passport, they can get a one year multiple with a max stay of 90 days per entry or a 180 days single entry (It is not mentioned on their webiste). The 1 year multiple costs 60 Euros and the 180 days single costs 20 or 40 Euros (Sorry I forgot). Plus 20 Euros for the visa service plus mailing costs. Since as a German citizien you can legally get 2 passports, you can always mail the one that isn't currently used.

CXBA

bumping the thread...from last december 6mths multiple entry again available for non HK residents (although the price is obscene at the airport for a rush one).

ChrisLi

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

I just did a 1 yr business multi visa for my US boss without a fuss in October BTW

CXBA

interesting, the operator at the visa counter at the airport told me that multiple entry was allowed from december, and "...no 1 year visa, only 6 months". No issue however, next june i'll be back to TST CTS for renewal, and hopefully ending the airport overspending.
4 years to return to old status? What may be the reason, bar the notorious capriciousness of mainland officials?

ChrisLi

Well it may differ because he has an invitation letter (together with copy of China Business Registration) and he has been getting China visa for like 20 consecutive years.

BTW I did that at the Wan Chai Chinese Government Office instead of doing it via an agent, so it may have some difference (?)

jiejie

Very end of November, 2011. New Zealand passport and UK passport holders, 6 month multiple entry F visas obtained, no duration of stay limits. Through Forever Bright agency in Kowloon, next day service. Cost was roughly HKD 2000 and HKD 2500 respectively.

mileageking

Where can one apply for China visas at HKIA (airside or landside) and how much does it cost to apply there for a 6 month to 1 year multiple entry visa? Other than passport and photo, do they require anything else? Thanks in advance.

CXBA

on arrival hall A you see just outside exit the various stalls for coach services to mainland, and here you have the visa stalls. Normally there is no need of particular documents, staff will usually sort it out for you, and most of the times a business card will suffice, however just to be on the right side it is better if you have an invitation letter from a mainland party and a confirmed return ticket. Cost at the airport can be quite expensive, i paid mine on january 1st a whopping 3400HKD for a 6-month multiple with no duration of stay, rush service (within 3 hours), but it really depends how long you're willing to wait, longer times means less charge. Anyway i'd avoid doing the visa at the airport and going downtown so the price will decrease drastically even for the rush, you may look earlier on the thread for suggestions where to go.

mileageking

Thank you CXBA.

CaliforniaBob

Could someone clarify whether US passport holders can get a Chinese visa
at HKIA as described above?

Several years ago I was told that I could get one at checkpoint between
Hong and shenzen. Couldn't - everyone else could (Nigeria!) but not US
passport holders. had to go to wanchai - took 7 hours (photos, return
tickets, etc)

and if so, what the price ranges are. It costs a lot here for "expedited"
processing which takes up to a month. I had to be in china two weeks
before the Olympics - NO business visas for anyone. Best you could
do was single entry tourist. and no discounts. Next one I got was
multiple entry one year.

We should be able to do this online.

CXBA

what I've said above is valid for the majority of countries, the Western ones for sure, and it appears to have been resumed in the past years' dying months. The visa you mentioned was/is a specific one, valid only within the territory of Shenzhen, that you could get in a matter of minutes at a fraction of the cost, but with the explicit reminder that, if caught by police outside Shenzhen territory you would be treated as an illegal alien. (Still some colleagues and me in particular occasions did just that, but never dare to venture farther than Panyu..)
The resumption of visa issuing in HK for multiple entries closes, i hope definitely, the situation started in 2008 in the run-up for the Olympics that you experienced first hand. I still don't understand why the PRC reversed the stance, after repeatedly asserting the need for non HK-ID card bearers to obtain the document in their home country. I can guess EU and US have quietly started to put in practice one of the words that mainland officers filled their mouth cheaply: reciprocity.

Hakluyt

I am a newbie regarding China visa, so my questions may make you roll your eyes.
Can we travel from U.S. to Hongkong (1 U.S. citizen, 1 German) without Chinese visas and obtain these in Hongkong itself? NOT at the airport.
Can one travel into town without the requisite papers?
Don't flame me for these naive questions.

Steve M

You don't need a visa to visit Hong Kong at all, either in advance or at the airport. If your travel plans involve only Hong Kong (and/or Macau), then there's no need for a visa, period. Only if you want to go over the border into mainland China do you need a visa.

Hakluyt

Thank you, Steve M. This makes it a lot easier. I could not find this information on the China website. Must have looked in the wrong place.

Hakluyt

CXBA

re-bumping again the thread, in light of the new visa regulations issued from Beijing the 6-months visas are definitely cancelled and probably will never be reinstated. The old business F visa has been split in two categories, F for short visits and M for more longer engagements, and the required documents are again the invitation letter from a mainland party and a confirmed flight ticket.
My current, and probably last multiple entry visa runs 'til october, after then we will see what to do. It appears that the L visa (tourist) is the one allowing multiple entries (i am married to a Chinese) so perhaps this would be the one to ask, but I am unsure whether there will be annoyances coming in for business (service and installation of machinery, tends to take weeks rather than days) with a tourist or family reunion visa. The above has been told me by the shop in which I apply for visa at the airport, and as such could be imprecise, personally I would like to know what was the experience asking for visa at the airport counters. And of course i still hope this new smart initiative from Beijing brings as soon as possible a reciprocal restriction on the visa for mainlanders going to EU and US.