Experience of mailing documents between Thailand and rural China?

[SantiSuk]

I need to get the natural/legal mother of the now 18 year old girl that my Thai wife and have de-facto (=unoficially) adopted for over 5 years to sign a parental consent for purposes of applying for a Schengen visa to Germany. My own country, the UK, does not need such a consent as the age of consent/majority is 18; in Germany it is 21.

Her mother has given consent several times before but she is currently working as a masseur - no gratuitous remarks please - in rural China - 60kms from Nanchang, which is roughly half way between Shanghai and Hong Kong on an inland route. The mother maintains that it takes 3-4 weeks each way, I could understand a comment that said the mail is unreliable, but 3-4 weeks sounds questionable to me, and may signify that I have broader problems than mailing durations this time around.

I have not checked with my local Thai postmaster yet but does anyone have any experience of sending a letter either way, either regular mail or some form of express mail like EMS or DHL. Financial cost is not an issue (except I have decided it is too much to fly out there myself and my wife would probably distrust my motives anyway!*).

* sorry - now I'm making gratuitous remarks!

[SantiSuk]

She is facebook literate but not IT literate. I need to probe whether she knows anyone with an e-mail account who can print-off the raw confirmation Word document.

Anyone know if China has internet cafes in small local towns? I'm not classifying Nanchang itself as a small local town - it looks like a typically large regional Chinese city? But it sounds as though the mother is not keen to put herself out and travel just that 60km.

Edited February 14, 2016 by SantiSuk

[lostinisaan]

She is facebook literate but not IT literate. I need to probe whether she knows anyone with an e-mail account who can print-off the raw confirmation Word document.

Anyone know if China has internet cafes in small local towns? I'm not classifying Nanchang itself as a small local town - it looks like a typically large regional Chinese city? But it sounds as though the mother is not keen to put herself out and travel just that 60km.

You can send such a Word document file by using the facebook messenger.

[craigt3365]

China has many, many internet cafes. Pretty much every city, even small ones. I'd guess her boss probably has a printer also....

[Liquorice]

I used to send mail to rural parts of China from the UK, but it took 10 days to 3 weeks to arrive.

I used Parcel Force Special International Registered delivery for anything important, but the cheapest rate applied even for one A4 size piece of paper.

Around £55 last time I used it.

There are internet cafes all over China even in rural areas.

Photo and Stationary stores also offer many services for just such things for a small fee.

Lots of English teaching colleges with students who would be happy to help her as well.

I always found the Chinese to be most helpful and friendly (although rather loud at times).