Re: Visas to China

If you are a US resident, also note that China has multiple
consulates, and the consulate that you will use for your visa depends
on where you live. See this map for details:

http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/hzqz/t84229.htm

Cheers,
Andy

On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 3:51 PM, Fred Baker <fred(_at_)cisco(_dot_)com> wrote:
> I'll echo Ole and Brian. In general, I find the Chinese consulate/embassy
> not very demanding. If you have a business reason for a multi-entry visa,
> get one, but in general the standard tourist visa is simplest to get and
> works fine.
>
> Not advertising the service, but to give you an idea of what it looks like,
> I'll point you at the web site of the company Cisco uses for visas.
>     http://www.peninsulavisa.com/russia-.htm
> To get a visa to China, you need a visa application (download from the web
> site) and a color "passport" photo. If you go for a "business" visa, you
> need some demonstration of the business. "business" implies you're trying to
> sell something or staying there for an extended duration; to attend a
> conference such as an IETF meeting one generally gets a tourist visa. Some
> countries need letters of invitation; I would expect the host will have a
> facility up to get such.
>
> The visa process at the Chinese Embassy is usually on the order of a week;
> safety would suggest two. My multiple entry visa will expire just before the
> meeting, so I plan to file for a new visa sometime in October.
>
> Interesting reading from the Los Angeles PRC Consulate.
>   overview:
> http://losangeles.china-consulate.org/eng/visa/chinavisa/t27606.htm
>   tourist:
>  http://losangeles.china-consulate.org/eng/visa/chinavisa/t27605.htm
>   business:
> http://losangeles.china-consulate.org/eng/visa/chinavisa/t27604.htm
>
> Non-US folks should of course look at the web site of whatever consulate is
> relevant to them for specifics of the relations between China and their
> country.
>
> On Jan 12, 2010, at 7:26 AM, Ole Jacobsen wrote:
>
> > Since Andy mentioned visas I would like to give some vague and
> > unhelpful advice :-)
> >
> > It turns out that the DURATION of your visa depends on what country
> > you are from, and even what consulate or embassy you apply at. In
> > all cases the clock starts running the day the visa is issued.
> >
> > Real example: As a Norwegian, applying in San Francisco, I was only
> > grqnted a single-entry visa valid for 3 months. I applied in March
> > 2009 which was a mistake since the trip didn't happen until August,
> > so I would have had a visa that expired sometime in June. They all
> > say "must not arrive after <date>". I was able execute an "undo"
> > on this particular occasion and came back again in July and received
> > a visa that covered the period of my visit.
> >
> > Your mileage may, no, WILL, vary, so check the wiza wizards,
> > consulates, embassies etc. Fred Baker regularly gets a one-year
> > multi entry visa, but he's American and he uses the visa brokers,
> > something I clearly should have done instead of foolishly applying
> > too early.
> >
> > The form has a box which asks when you intend to arrive in China, but
> > that information is NOT used to start the clock for the validity of
> > the visa itself, in some sense that date isn't used for anything, at
> > least as far as I can tell.
> >
> > How long you can stay in China again depends on what country you are
> > from and what kind of visa you have.
> >
> > Ole
> >
> >
> > Ole J. Jacobsen
> > Editor and Publisher,  The Internet Protocol Journal
> > Cisco Systems
> > Tel: +1 408-527-8972   Mobile: +1 415-370-4628
> > E-mail: ole(_at_)cisco(_dot_)com  URL: http://www.cisco.com/ipj
> >
> >
> >
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