I'm tired to death and won't go into as much detail as I'd planned, but I found a look at some Chinese Consulate web sites to be interesting. You can find links to purty much every damn Chinese Consulate in the world in one of the entries of our Links page.
NOTE THAT THESE RULES AREN'T CONSISTENT...THEY VARY FROM ONE CONSULATE TO ANOTHER, EVEN IN THE SAME COUNTRY!
From what I saw:
- Looks like application by mail is history. No mas. They claim it's a post-9/11 anti-terrorism move.
- Looks like you can still have someone else you trust with the personal info and a Chinese visa application form set (
), like a friend, family member, travel agent, etc. can still apply on your behalf, so you may not have to actually go there yourself.
- The Chinese Consulate in HK is apparently now issuing visas ONLY for HK residents.
- The issue of re-entry and renewals remains cloudy. SOME TYPES of visa can get a limited number renewals fairly easily, but the Consular sites are all pretty quiet about this beyond saying it's basically at the discretion of the Consulate officials.
God help us.
Got the impression that having compelling, demonstrable reasons- in advance- will help a lot with these.
- Visas other than 1-monthers or contract-bound Z visas are pretty much extinct except for some special cases such as students or spouses.
Oh, to be a student again...
Again, sometimes there is hope of getting at least one renewal fairly easily.
- This may be the scariest one of all. It may seem hard to believe from the careful, diligent, efficient Chinese, but some of the info on these Consulate sites is...DODGY!
Obviously goofy, and/or directly contradicted on other Consulate sites...or sometimes even within the SAME site. For example: Some Consulate sites tell you that if your plans are extended from what you originally planned and filed, the best thing to do is nip over to HK and get a new visa. At the same time, the Consulate in HK is now stating clearly that they only do visas for Hong Kongers, and gweilo
shouldn't even think about trying to come there to get a visa.
So, do your homework well. Even if the textbooks given you to study from are wrong.
James da B-man and Ice-B, sorry to hear about your situations...
Icebear say:
Yes, it is shaping up to look like quite the hard rain.
Sho'nuff. What scares me is that I strongly suspect that an awful lot of expats here- and a lot of Chinese schools- still have little or no idea what's really coming towards them...