Chinese Visa

[tessadog]

Anyone been to the Chinese consulate in Chiang mai to get a Chinese visa? Like to know how long it normally takes to process a tourist visa application. Hope you all had a safe festival....

[john b good]

Anyone been to the Chinese consulate in Chiang mai to get a Chinese visa? Like to know how long it normally takes to process a tourist visa application. Hope you all had a safe festival....

It's been a while (close on 8+ years) but from memory it was only 3 - 4 days.

Someone will likely have more up to date information.

[Paagai]

Anyone been to the Chinese consulate in Chiang mai to get a Chinese visa? Like to know how long it normally takes to process a tourist visa application. Hope you all had a safe festival....

Got both a tourist and business visa on separate occasions last year. Very efficient in Chiang Mai, just need a a passport, plus photo and fill in their form. IIRC how long it takes is proportional to how much you pay... fastest service you make the application one day and pick up your passport the next (there were time constraints, e.g. had to apply by, maybe 1.00 p.m. and pick up passport before noon next day - something like that but don't recall exactly).

Things may be different at the moment, I'd heard there's a visa clampdown becuase of the olympics (we have a large office in China and business Visas have become an issue, even thoiugh its a thoroughly legitamate operation).

[sabaijai]

The Chiang Mai consulate now requires presentation of a roundtrip ticket to China and a hotel reservation before they will issue a visa. In fact you have to show these documents to the guard out front before they'll even let you into the building. Just tried it today.

[ThunderDuck]

The Chiang Mai consulate now requires presentation of a roundtrip ticket to China and a hotel reservation before they will issue a visa. In fact you have to show these documents to the guard out front before they'll even let you into the building. Just tried it today.

This is bad news indeed for overland travellers ... especially now that the road has been sealed. The "creatively edited e-ticket" would be an option for getting past the guard. I guess they're also worried about the Tibet demonstrators ...

[lotus eater]

I'm in the process of getting one through my travel agent.

They need the ticket, completed form, photo, name and address of hotel - and the appropriate fee which goes from 1100 to just under 3000 for delivery of visa in one day up to four.

[sabaijai]

I'm in the process of getting one through my travel agent.

They need the ticket, completed form, photo, name and address of hotel - and the appropriate fee which goes from 1100 to just under 3000 for delivery of visa in one day up to four.

So the name and address of a hotel is enough, you don't need an actual reservation voucher? If true, that's good news because I'm being told it will take a week to get a confirmed room reservation in Kunming and I need to travel earlier than that.

[tessadog]

Yes, new strict rules. I needed return filght tickets, hotel reservation and since i am staying with a friend for a week i needed a letter from them also. And even with all this they still checked and double checked and checked again that i had all the right info for them. But the girls are cute that work there so that made up for the hassle

[mcgriffith]

Good info, tessadog, thanks for that. I have a good friend in Dali who I was thinking of visiting in May next month.

sabaijai, let us know what you find out as well; thanks in advance!

[lotus eater]

Yes, new strict rules. I needed return filght tickets, hotel reservation and since i am staying with a friend for a week i needed a letter from them also. And even with all this they still checked and double checked and checked again that i had all the right info for them. But the girls are cute that work there so that made up for the hassle

Well my agent asked for and got merely the name and address of the hotel - without a reservation document. (Of course I don't know if the consulate will check with the hotel.)

So either the agent is going to revert to me in due course with this problem, or it will go through next week. If the new rule does exist but I get the visa nayway it'll means the agent has its 'contacts' at the consulate.

[lotus eater]

Yes, new strict rules. I needed return filght tickets, hotel reservation and since i am staying with a friend for a week i needed a letter from them also. And even with all this they still checked and double checked and checked again that i had all the right info for them. But the girls are cute that work there so that made up for the hassle

Well my agent asked for and got merely the name and address of the hotel - without a reservation document. (Of course I don't know if the consulate will check with the hotel.)

So either the agent is going to revert to me in due course with this problem, or it will go through next week. If the new rule does exist but I get the visa nayway it'll means the agent has its 'contacts' at the consulate.

tessadog is quite right. my agent came returned from the consulate needing my hotel reservation voucher.

to also correct my earlier info on pricing, the 1-day service costs about double the slow, 4-day process.

[sabaijai]

I was refused today again. The consulate said the emailed confirmation of hotel reservation that I'd brought was not sufficient. It had to be a 'hotel reservation form'. Am still trying. As far as I could tell, not a single tourist visa was issued during the hour I was there. Lots of refusals though.

[ThunderDuck]

I was refused today again. The consulate said the emailed confirmation of hotel reservation that I'd brought was not sufficient. It had to be a 'hotel reservation form'. Am still trying. As far as I could tell, not a single tourist visa was issued during the hour I was there. Lots of refusals though.

Wow thats bloody ridiculous ... this is certainly causing me to re-evalute my travel plans. You'd think they would be streamlining tourist

visa processing with the olympics looming ...

I wonder if the consulate in Vientiane is enforcing these "new rules".

[Paagai]

I was refused today again. The consulate said the emailed confirmation of hotel reservation that I'd brought was not sufficient. It had to be a 'hotel reservation form'. Am still trying. As far as I could tell, not a single tourist visa was issued during the hour I was there. Lots of refusals though.

Wow thats bloody ridiculous ... this is certainly causing me to re-evalute my travel plans. You'd think they would be streamlining tourist

visa processing with the olympics looming ...

I wonder if the consulate in Vientiane is enforcing these "new rules".

Was talking to a colleague in Beijing yesterday, it seems to be a worldwide thing as we're having a hard time getting visas from any countries now. Apparently multiple entires are almost impossible now. And finding a hotel in Beijing anytime around the olympics equally impossible.

[jomama]

Wow thats bloody ridiculous ... this is certainly causing me to re-evalute my travel plans. You'd think they would be streamlining tourist

visa processing with the olympics looming ...

It's exactly because of the Olympics. The last thing they want is people entering on a tourist visa and staging a protest. Even the expats who have lived in China for a long time are having difficulty with visas -- and China has stopped giving visas to the mainland issued in Hong Kong, triggering some sharp questions from well-established businesspeople and chambers of commerce. The rumor is they will are even planning to stop foreigners on the street and ask for their passports to ensure valid visas. It is expected to ease after the Games.

[tessadog]

Picked up my passport( Australian) with the Chinese visa in it today. Glad i have it before the torch relay happens in Australia.

[sabaijai]

It's especially difficult to get this week or next if you're flying to Kunming as the torch arrives there 26 May.

I presented a fax confirmation of my hotel room this morning and it looks like I'll be able to pick up my visa tomorrow.

[jomama]

Maybe more info than you need, but this was in the NY Times:

Bracing for Games, China Sets Rules That Complicate Life for Foreigners

BEIJING — In little more than 100 days, China will open its arms to a deluge of foreigners, many of whom will be pleasantly surprised to find a dizzying array of designer boutiques and painfully hip martini bars that divert expatriates and middle-class Chinese in this once dowdy capital.

Outside a visa application office in Hong Kong. China has imposed new restrictions on visas that concern many foreigners.

But even as Beijing is promising to welcome 1.5 million visitors to the Olympic Games, public security officials are tightening controls over daily life and introducing visa restrictions that are causing anxiety among the 250,000 foreigners who have settled here in recent years.

The visa rules, which were introduced last week with little explanation, restrict many visitors to 30-day stays, replacing flexible, multiple-entry visas that had allowed people to remain for up to a year. The new rules make it harder for foreigners to live and work in Beijing without applying for residency permits, which can be difficult to obtain. The restrictions are also complicating the lives of businesspeople in Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore used to crossing the border with ease.

“I can’t begin to explain how serious this is going to be,” said Richard Vuylsteke, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. “A barrier like this is going to have a real ripple effect on business.”

The government wants to present a blemish-free image of Beijing for the Olympics. Police officers have cleared away street beggars and closed down shops selling pirated DVDs, while also forcing some migrant workers to go back to the countryside.

Over the last month the police have raided bars and clubs suspected of harboring drug dealers. An operation two weeks ago that netted a group of French teenagers has provoked charges of heavy-handed police tactics.

Other restrictions can seem random, like a decision on Wednesday that forced the cancellation of a popular music festival a week before its start. Organizers of the eight-year-old event, the Midi Festival, said officials had told them they were concerned about security. More than 80 bands, many of them from abroad, were scheduled to perform.

But most of the fear and consternation has been prompted by the new visa rules, which have thousands of foreign residents scrambling for black market documents — or contemplating leaving. Residents who in the past could apply locally to extend yearlong tourist or business visas have been instructed to return home and apply for the short-term visas at the Chinese Embassy in their home countries.

Some, like Desmond McGarry, a jazz musician who has lived here since 2002, said they would probably leave. For Mr. McGarry, returning to Canada would mean abandoning his apartment and a network of friends. “It’s been very comfortable until now, even if we existed in a gray zone,” he said. “Maybe I’ll leave and try to come back in the fall when things calm down.”

The new visa rules come at a time of heightened tensions in Beijing and other cities, where public anger has been directed at Western governments and overseas news organizations seen as sympathetic to Tibetan independence. Over the last week, that discontent has fueled demonstrations at the French Embassy in Beijing and at outlets of Carrefour, a French supermarket chain whose executives have been accused of aligning themselves with the Dalai Lama. Some foreign residents are nervously awaiting next Thursday, the first day of a planned Carrefour boycott.

Although the majority of foreigners say they have seen no change in the behavior of their Chinese neighbors and co-workers, some French residents complain that nationalist ire is seeping into their daily lives. One businessman who plays tennis at a Chinese sports club said acquaintances refused to join him on the court last weekend.

More ominously, the owner of a popular French restaurant here said he was denied a visa extension on Wednesday by an official who simply told him, “It’s because you’re French.” The man, who asked that his name and business not be printed for fear of antagonizing the authorities, said he was in a panic. “My whole life is here,” he said.

Most Westerners readily acknowledge that they enjoy privileged lives, including unspoken immunity from the tangle of rules that can complicate the lives of average Chinese.

That may be about to change. Last week English-language signs began appearing on Beijing streets and in high-end apartment buildings directing foreigners not staying in hotels to register with the police. The regulations, which are not new but are rarely enforced, promise steep fines for those who do not comply.

Because the government has not issued formal guidelines about the new visa rules, rumors and uncertainty have been rife, and travel agents say that a handful of tourists have been denied visas without evident rationale.

Cloris Yip, the manager of Smiley Travel in Hong Kong, cited the example of two tourists, a Swiss and a German; the Swiss citizen received a 30-day visa while his German companion was given one for five days. The men, she said, canceled their trip.

“Maybe the Chinese government is not so happy with the Germans right now,” Ms. Yip said. “Maybe they think some foreigners want to protest Tibet during the Games. Either way, you cannot argue or negotiate.”

Businessmen are also feeling powerless. Hong Kong executives accustomed to visiting mainland factories or construction projects every few days are now spending one day each week waiting for new single- or double-entry visas.

“Everyone is affected by it, and they are very unhappy,” said Seth Peterson, a vice president of Techtronic Industries Company, which manufactures vacuum cleaners and power tools in southern China.

Asked about the restrictions, Jiang Yu, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, insisted that there had been no change in visa rules. “The Chinese people will welcome foreign friends in a warm, enthusiastic and open-minded way,” she said during a news conference on Tuesday.

Whether or not these are just temporary measures, those who depend on foreign expertise for their businesses say the impact has been real. Collin Crowell, the managing editor of City Weekend, an English-language entertainment guide in Beijing, said the new requirements were causing consternation among the magazine’s freelance writers.

And Raluca Riquet, an event planner who is organizing art shows for the summer, said she was struggling to find curators with valid visas.

“We’ll find a solution, but it’s not so easy,” said Ms. Riquet, who holds dual French and Romanian citizenship. “The government really wants to control everything and everybody before the Olympics. For us foreigners, it’s a really big change.”

[sabaijai]

I got my visa today. Of course it took so long for them to accept the application that I had to pay the one-day express fee, THB 5600, quite steep for a tourist visa. I asked for the one-year multiple entry visa but all they would give me was a 30-day single entry.

[FLL-BKK]

My wife is a dual citizen Thailand and United States. She is currently in Thailand as we are building a house in Isaan for her family. I am visiting in 4 weeks and upon my return back to the states, I arranged a 3 day stop over in Beijing. Because my airline ticket included a Beijing stopover, Thai/United recommened I get the visa from the States in advance so I am not denied departure from LAX since my Chinese visa was not already included. I applied last week and chose the slowest method and my passport was turned around and sent back to me here within a week with the 30-day single entry. They did require me to fax my airline ticket and hotel confirmation to finalize, however. My question is, should my wife get her Chinese visa in Thailand as a Thai citizen (which I can save $) or as a US Citizen since I have my Chinese visa as a US citizen? She is doing a round trip ticket from Bangkok to Beijing so it has no bearing on her 1 year Thai visa as a US citizen where she has to report to immigration every 90 days. Are more things required as a Thai citizen and do they question Thai's more as the US Embassy does for tourist visas for Thai citizens?

I got my visa today. Of course it took so long for them to accept the application that I had to pay the one-day express fee, THB 5600, quite steep for a tourist visa. I asked for the one-year multiple entry visa but all they would give me was a 30-day single entry.

[sabaijai]

My wife is a dual citizen Thailand and United States. She is currently in Thailand as we are building a house in Isaan for her family. I am visiting in 4 weeks and upon my return back to the states, I arranged a 3 day stop over in Beijing. Because my airline ticket included a Beijing stopover, Thai/United recommened I get the visa from the States in advance so I am not denied departure from LAX since my Chinese visa was not already included. I applied last week and chose the slowest method and my passport was turned around and sent back to me here within a week with the 30-day single entry. They did require me to fax my airline ticket and hotel confirmation to finalize, however. My question is, should my wife get her Chinese visa in Thailand as a Thai citizen (which I can save $) or as a US Citizen since I have my Chinese visa as a US citizen? She is doing a round trip ticket from Bangkok to Beijing so it has no bearing on her 1 year Thai visa as a US citizen where she has to report to immigration every 90 days. Are more things required as a Thai citizen and do they question Thai's more as the US Embassy does for tourist visas for Thai citizens?

I got my visa today. Of course it took so long for them to accept the application that I had to pay the one-day express fee, THB 5600, quite steep for a tourist visa. I asked for the one-year multiple entry visa but all they would give me was a 30-day single entry.

From my several visits to the Chiang Mai consulate this week, it looked to as if Thai applicants had the same requirements. So I'd suggest she apply with her Thai passport to save money.

[sabaijai]

The latest tightening reg says that faxed hotel reservations are no longer acceptable. You need an original, mailed copy, with ink seal at the bottom. This means you need at least a couple of weeks lead time in most cases.

[localhero]

Hi, is there any news about getting a Chinese tourist visa in Bangkok these days. Can anyone rec an agent in Bangkok that will do this?

[OddLion]

Just in case anyone has any doubt about these new super-tight regulations, I saw people being sent away because they didn't have the red-sealed hotel letter a couple weeks ago, and spoke with a number of Thais who had been there three or four times and were *still* getting the run around.

Best bet is wait till after the olympics

The latest tightening reg says that faxed hotel reservations are no longer acceptable. You need an original, mailed copy, with ink seal at the bottom. This means you need at least a couple of weeks lead time in most cases.

[Paagai]

Just in case anyone has any doubt about these new super-tight regulations, I saw people being sent away because they didn't have the red-sealed hotel letter a couple weeks ago, and spoke with a number of Thais who had been there three or four times and were *still* getting the run around.

Best bet is wait till after the olympics

The latest tightening reg says that faxed hotel reservations are no longer acceptable. You need an original, mailed copy, with ink seal at the bottom. This means you need at least a couple of weeks lead time in most cases.

I posted earlier in this thread - I work with a multinational with an office in Beijing. Things have got a lot worse since my last post. We've been told no more multi entry visas now until October! Also, we're basically winding down the office until after the olympics because many of the staff are having problems with accomodation (Basically their land lords are throwing them out - or demanding extortionate rents for two motnhs trying to cash in on the shortage of rooms in July and August).

I can also confirm, any documentation, invitation letters, hotel confirmations etc, MUST have the original chinese rubber stamp!

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Chinese Authorities are taking their visa rules to ridiculous levels ( and it will get worse before it gets better )