China Visa Process
 

Planning to go to China (Guangzhou) for a week. Who would even go there, considering how the Chinese people are stealing our land LOL, jokes aside. My mom is ill and I need to fly over to see her and somewhat confused on getting the Visa.

Question 1
The easiest is "tourist" Visa as that doesn't require letter of invitation, I would need to show travels booked (flight/hotel) and list of places I am going to be visiting within that period of time. Say I book my flights and hotel now to travel in April and submit my Visa application. What if my Visa doesn't get issued for whatever reason, I would be screwed since I won't be able to travel? It would make more sense Visa issued first and I book my travel plans from a logical point. Maybe I'm missing something here?

Question 2
Let's say I get tourist Visa, but my main goal is to see mom and family (which should be visitors Visa), would I get into a lot of trouble if I got busted using my Visa for a different purpose? I don't think I would get caught since no one will follow me around watching what I do, but just a thought.

TBH, China is quite lax when it comes to what you do once you are there. The only difference is that if you are working, in which is kinda complicated since it's a different type altogether and you need a lot of docs.

Also, the visitor visa only allows you to stay up to 6month. If there's plan on staying longer, you probably want to check if you qualify the family visit visa or something like that. It usually works for those with parents holding Chinese nationality.

Last, the chance is slim, but if you hold the Taiwanese passport by any chance, you should get the compatriot pass. It allows full duration of validity as stay (it last 5yrs, so you could stay up to 5 if so desired)

if you really want to push it, there's this 72-hour visa for everyone that's transferring, so you would have to buy ticket that connects in gz twice, and each time milk the 72 hours?

There's also another option, which is a 1 time visa that you can do at Lo Wu when you enter from China. I'm not exactly sure how it worked for me when I got it 12 years ago, but I did.

I don't plan to stay long, probably a week tops. I might go back again in another two months after I get back to Vancouver, so I'm not sure if they might question me, why I am back again so soon on a tourist Visa.

I can apply for family visit Visa, but just the hassle of letter of invite and all that crap.

they won't question you if you visit often. see if you want multi entry. there are many foreigners working here on tourist visas. no one seems to care.

get a tourist visa they will ask how many days you want to stay in China on the application I just put 60 days. I got a tourist agency to do it for me. Is like an extra $10 to 15 ont op of the visa applicaiton fee. Saves me the hassle of going there and lining up.

No they don't care what you are doing in China as long as you aren't causing trouble. Is basially 10 year visa now or when your passport expire.

On the Chinese Visa Application Service website it says it asks for supporting documentation of travel for tourist Visa.

Do I have to "book" my travel first and show them that when I submit my application? E.g. From my interpretation, after I confirm my bookings and then apply for Visa, that way it shows them I am actually confirmed to go travel/tour.

They give u an invitation letter template and you just get some chinese guy to fill it out and fake a signature. :lol

You maybe able to get multi entry 10 year visa for family which is much cheaper in the long run.

Was staying at a friend's place in Beijing when I went to visit last year. I booked a cancellable hotel, submitted the confirmation printout to get my visa, then cancelled the booking after I got the 10 year visa.

No problems.

i do the same

Thanks guys for the insight all provided.

Did most of you guys do the Visa process through the online application form? Or through travel agency? If I'm not booking my travel through travel agency, can they just do the Visa application for me?

I do it through travel agency is an extra 10 to 15 dollars and save the long line up

I did online and made a reservation. Make sure you got all your shit. In and out within 10mins

Is it possible to have a travel agency arrange for a visa without having to buy the airfare through them?

yup. They can do that.

Travel agents are helpful for me. Though they charge little extra but do all my works..

Go to ctrip.com website and book a hotel on there, most hotel bookings do not require a credit card (if the hotel you pick does, move to the next one)... so buy your plane ticket for the duration of your trip, then book your stay through a hotel on ctrip.com to establish where you will be going... include printouts of both documents you go in, get your Visa approved and then you're good to go... you can just cancel the ctrip booking or let it lapse since there's no commitment anyway. Easy.

This is exactly how I got mine. Unlimited entry 10 year Visa (or, 8 years... since my passport was already 2 years old). I have been in/out of China 3 times since then with no issues.

There's no more lineup, you reserve a time online and show up at that time.

Same thing for me, booked a refundable hotel on expedia and cancelled after submitting documents to Chinese Visa centre. We stayed in a Hu-Tong (airbnb) in Beijing.

When I did my visa I didn't even put an address or when I will be visiting. I just told the travel agency who submit the paper work for me that I will be going back in the future but not sure when. I think they just put some hotel address for me (they most likely know a lot of hotels back in China).

To be honest unless you have a bad record it will get approve. They want you to go back and spend money lol

Why do you think we offer 10 year VISA to China now as well? Is all about the $$$