Re: Visas and Costs

There are multiple Chinese consulates in the US, and each one seems to
have its own rules regarding visas. So it really pays to work with an
experienced visa service.

Cheers,
Andy

On Mon, Sep 21, 2009 at 2:38 PM, HUANG, ZHIHUI (JERRY), ATTLABS
<jhuang1(_at_)att(_dot_)com> wrote:

John,
 I'm commenting specifically on your recollection of China requiring
people having visited China before it would consider a multi-entry visa.
It doesn't appear to be true - if it was true before. The visa
application form I downloaded from the Chinese Consulate in Chicago
(just now) lists choice of visa types and number of planned entries to
China on page one while the question about whether one has visited China
before is on page two of two pages. I could not find any indication that
the stated condition was implied.

 I applied for and received a one-year multi-entry visa last year not
having visited with a new US passport.

Thanks,
Jerry (my own opinions, not my employer's.)
--
Jerry Huang, AT&T Labs, +1 630 810 7679 (+1 630 719 4389, soon)
-----Original Message-----
From: ietf-bounces(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org 
[mailto:ietf-bounces(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org] On Behalf Of
John C Klensin
Sent: Monday, September 21, 2009 12:29 PM
To: Ole Jacobsen
Cc: IETF-Discussion list
Subject: Re: Visas and Costs



--On Monday, September 21, 2009 10:10 -0700 Ole Jacobsen
<ole(_at_)cisco(_dot_)com> wrote:

Just a couple of comments regarding cost and visas, speaking
from  personal experience.
...
Visa:

If you are a US citizen, the visa fee is $130 here in the US.
For  non-US citizens, the fee is only $30 :-) However, be very
careful  about visa validity. As a Norwegian citizen, I can
(in San Francisco)  only get a visa that is valid for 3
months, single entry, but the  clock starts on the day it is
ISSUED, not, as one might expect, when  you arrive in China in
spite of the fact that the form asks when you  will be
...
Depending on where you are from and where you apply,
multi-entry visas  for a year or even more may be available.
Express service (1-2 days)  may also be available for a fee,
but in June in San Francisco, this  was NOT available and the
process took a week. All these are things to  watch out for
especially if you travel a lot since of course the  consulate
or embassy will hold your passport while processing the visa
application.


Two additional observations may be useful.   In the US, someone
must appear in person at the embassy or consulate -- there is no
mail-in service, at least for US citizens.  In practice, that
means that if one is in a city with a consulate (or close to
one), one has to use a visa service as an intermediary.  Their
fees can easily exceed the visa fees themselves unless one works
for a company that has a special deal with one of them.  More
important, they often require far more documentation than the
embassy nominally requires, presumably to be sure that they have
what they need if the embassy (or local consulate) starts asking
questions about the traveler.  That additional documentation may
include confirmed flight or hotel reservations, letters of
endorsement or guarantee (in addition to meeting invitations,
etc.).   So, especially if one cannot appear in person, one
should get started early or be prepared to pay even higher fees.

If I remember correctly from the embassy's web site, part of the
documentation requirement for a multiple-entry visa is previous
visits to China and associated visas.  I.e., if you haven't had
at least a couple of single-entry visas, there is no point
thinking about a multiple-entry one.

    john




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