Do I have to visit the Chinese consulate in person to get my visa?
I'm planning a trip to Shanghai to visit some friends in about 5 months. I understand that I will need to get a visa issued so that I can travel to China.
This will be the first time I've applied for a visa, so I'm not 100% sure how to go about doing this. According to the Chinese embassy in the US website, mailed applications are not accepted.
There is a Chinese consulate a few hours from where I live, so I figured I'd take a road trip and get everything taken care of in-person.
Am I going about this the correct way, or is there a better way to get the visa?
Best Answer
I discovered the other day that there are companies who will do the footwork for you (for a fee). For an example, see http://www.mychinavisa.com/tourist.php.
We ended up using China Visa Service Center (mychinavisa.com), and we now have our visas. It cost an extra $124 for service fees and shipping, but it saved us the trouble of having to go down to Houston, and they were very professional about the entire process.
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Do I need appointment for Chinese visa?
Except humanitarian visa, the visa centre can't accept any application without an appointemnt. An online appointment must be booked before you come to the Chinese Visa Application Centre to submit your application.Can you get a Chinese visa at the airport?
Foreigners normally need to obtain a visa for a trip to China before departure, while in certain cases they are likely to get a China visa on arrival at entry ports. The validity counts from the day following your entry and only one entry is allowed. Once you exit from China, the VOA expires.How long does it take to get a visa from the Chinese Embassy?
At Chines Embassy/Consulate General: regular application takes 4 working days, express application takes 2~3 working days and rush service needs 1 day.How long does a China visa take to process?
Normal processing times for visas usually are not more than a week, and there are even faster options available! Officially, the normal visa processing time should be 4 business days. In reality, it may extend to 5-7 business days, assuming everything goes well.Did we (or did we not) get our Chinese tourist Visa issued in Hong Kong????
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Answer 2
According to the website,
"2.If you cannot come in person, you may entrust someone else or a travel/visa agent to drop off your application at the visa office of the Embassy or Consulate -General which holds consular jurisdiction over the state where you reside;"
So, no, you don't have to drop off/pick up your visa in person. But SOMEONE has to visit the consulate with the materials. That could be a relative, friend, or travel agent.
The Chinese don't trust the mails.
Answer 3
In Australia you have two options:
If you go to the consulate yourself then you need to make a return trip to pick up the visa yourself, so be careful about planning a road trip because you will likely end up needing to make 2!
I don't know about major travel agencies, but the Chinese travel agents always get the visas for me, but they charge us an extra $20 per person approx.
So I suggest you ask where you buy your tickets, you may be in luck and not have to go the distance yourself.
Also for the past X number of years the visa application form on the Australian consulate site has been out of date so you end up having to fill out the form again once you get there which may be a problem if you need to collect signatures.
Final bit of advice, check the opening hours from the website as I know ours is only open half a day on Saturday and not open Sunday, and I think they don't open before 10am on a weekday. So just check these times if you are planning on driving there.
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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