A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall... (THE VISA NIGHTMARE!)

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Re: A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall... (THE VISA NIGHTMARE!)
« Reply #135 on: June 07, 2008, 11:11:20 PM »
The young Korean lad I tutor on the weekend said one of his teachers at the Academy was from Mexico and had to go back as he couldn't get a visa.  bibibibibi All his other teachers are from America and Canada.
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Raoul F. Duke

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Re: A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall... (THE VISA NIGHTMARE!)
« Reply #136 on: June 07, 2008, 11:55:07 PM »
I just got my new passport and it's currently devoid of any visa.  Soon it will have a new Z visa.  THAT visa will NOT have an entry stamp in it.  If I traveled with only my new passport, I could be stuck at a hotel registration desk or PSB office trying to explain how and when I entered China.  So, for now, I guess I travel with my cancelled passport as well, which DOES have an entry stamp.

Yeah...one bad thing about visa-update time...can't travel. The System holds your passport for a while even without the other issues.

It was hard to tell what specific situation was being originally addressed...
If you're just entering China, this stuff is critical. If you're already here and have demonstrable proof of being in the visa process, not a problem. All you really need to do is remember the entry date. Ya doesn't has ta carry the old one around too.

Even a Chinese Bureau drone can (usually) understand the concept of replaced passports. My original passport was stolen...I don't have an entry stamp to show them anymore. I simply tell them this, give them the date, and it's always worked. The functionary has a pigeon to put in the indicated hole, and is one step closer to getting you gone so they can eat rice and qing cai and take a nap, and so they are happy. bfbfbfbfbf

(If your passport is lost or stolen, there are procedures that have to be followed. Find out what they are (wake your FAO) and follow them please!)

As for hotels...you shouldn't ever be asked for an entry date there. As long as your visa is presented and valid, they're cool.
Your and Crippler's well-known reputation for throwing wild parties and trashing hotel rooms will be a much bigger issue. ahahahahah
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Re: A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall... (THE VISA NIGHTMARE!)
« Reply #137 on: June 08, 2008, 04:06:53 AM »
Yeah, that's us.  The party animals. ::)

Now, once again, back to our regularly scheduled thread.  Which seems to be that nobody knows what the heck is going on except lotsa folks are leaving the country.
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Re: A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall... (THE VISA NIGHTMARE!)
« Reply #138 on: June 08, 2008, 04:43:25 AM »
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As for hotels...you shouldn't ever be asked for an entry date there.

Depends on a hotel. Home Inns in Beijing do ask for the entry date. But then again, it is apparently some new regulation. Our best man for the wedding has a new US passport and while checking into Home Inn he was asked for the entry stamp. He got away with I-left-my-passport-at-home and the fact that he is a US citizen (perhaps).

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Raoul F. Duke

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Re: A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall... (THE VISA NIGHTMARE!)
« Reply #139 on: June 08, 2008, 11:11:57 AM »
Whoa...that's a new one for me. It IS getting weirder out there... ssssssssss

I wonder if the type of visa might make a difference? I've never had anything but a Res Permit for very long...maybe they only do this for shorter-term visas?

Quote
Yeah, that's us.  The party animals.


Uh-oh...this sounds like a job for...Tequila Man! Up, up and gan-beeeeeiiii....
"Vicodin and dumplings...it's a great combination!" (Anthony Bourdain, in Harbin)

"Here in China we aren't just teaching...
we're building the corrupt, incompetent, baijiu-swilling buttheads of tomorrow!" (Raoul F. Duke)

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DaDan

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Re: A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall... (THE VISA NIGHTMARE!)
« Reply #140 on: June 08, 2008, 04:15:35 PM »
Have a copy of your passport front page, your visa And your entry stamp.


Most hotels will ask for your entry date, if they don't... they forgot.

If you do the visa yourself, you'll get a receipt type paper from the psb showing they have yer passport, that & a copy is enough for most hotels to check you in.

The Suzhou psb even gave me a 5 day visa paper once while mine was in their hands as my visa expired before they would have it back to me.
me pappy sayd... 
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AMonk

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Re: A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall... (THE VISA NIGHTMARE!)
« Reply #141 on: June 08, 2008, 05:24:06 PM »
DaDan, what happened with your renewal?  Did all go as you wanted?
Moderation....in most things...

Re: A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall... (THE VISA NIGHTMARE!)
« Reply #142 on: June 08, 2008, 06:07:34 PM »
RD, it doesn't matter what type of visa you have. If they ask to register now every time you move around China despite you already having registration at your regular place, then they'll definitely ask for your entry stamp and so on. Anyway, may be some places still don't ask. Like now in Zhuhai, they just took a copy of my passport's front page with picture. They didn't ask for visa nor stamps.

But THEY WONT CHECK YOU IN IF YOU ONLY HAVE A COPY OF YOUR PASSPORT-VISA-ENTRY STAMP. If your passport is in PSB for visa renewal, you must get an official yellow paper from then that for the time being replaces your passport and allows you traveling and checking into the hotels.

So, better be prepared and have all your documents in order and of course know where the entry stamp is. I have my current visa page labeled because I just have too many visas in my passport.

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Raoul F. Duke

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Re: A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall... (THE VISA NIGHTMARE!)
« Reply #143 on: June 09, 2008, 03:07:16 AM »
Weird. I've never, never, never been asked this in any setting except visa-related matters. I'm not quite the nomad Dan is, but I been around a bit...

Perhaps they are just cowed into submission by my manly swagger. ahahahahah
"Vicodin and dumplings...it's a great combination!" (Anthony Bourdain, in Harbin)

"Here in China we aren't just teaching...
we're building the corrupt, incompetent, baijiu-swilling buttheads of tomorrow!" (Raoul F. Duke)

Re: A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall... (THE VISA NIGHTMARE!)
« Reply #144 on: June 09, 2008, 02:40:25 PM »
Well my current Res Permit expires 23 August, and I'm changing schools. I've been told to come back at least a week (I will make it about 2) before it expires and will get the ball rolling with meds etc.

Thing is, on my entry card, which address do I put down? The address of my new school (I will have contract and paperwork and all to throw in their faces if need be) or the one of my OLD school, the sponsor of this current visa?
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Lotus Eater

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Re: A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall... (THE VISA NIGHTMARE!)
« Reply #145 on: June 09, 2008, 02:42:36 PM »
Your old school is sponsoring the new visa even though you will no longer work for them??  Why wouldn't your new school be the visa sponsor??

Re: A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall... (THE VISA NIGHTMARE!)
« Reply #146 on: June 09, 2008, 04:34:54 PM »
Because it's in a different province and there just isn't any time to go doing the medical now and getting the visa before I leave...
10 easy steps to stop procrastination.

1.

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DaDan

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Re: A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall... (THE VISA NIGHTMARE!)
« Reply #147 on: June 09, 2008, 05:32:12 PM »
often, hotel front desk folk will have me fill out the form they turn in to the coppers at night, same form most places now & the past years, some fill it in as their job discription implies.
There IS a box asking for entry date on the hotel regestration form.

I've found many hotels in touristy places often won't fully fill out the form, some don't even copy passport front page, but by written law, they are suposed to.
In Zhuhai once, the desk guy came to my room a few hours after I checked in to tell me the psb said my visa is Way expired, turned out when he filled in the form, he wrote an ols visa number, `just wrote the first one he opened to. He changed visa numbers on the form & left.
He never wrote entry date on the form.

I had one stamp that was unreadably 3 months last year, I just told them a date by looking at my visa issue date, I entered next day, worked fine, but the stamp was there to not read.


My current visa issued June 2 was very simple to get in HK, next day service.
me pappy sayd... 
Once ya get past the smell... ...:P ... `You got it licked...

Re: A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall... (THE VISA NIGHTMARE!)
« Reply #148 on: June 09, 2008, 08:55:30 PM »
From my experiences in the past week, they ask for entry date at hotels. This is the case in Qingdao and Dalian. Keep an eye on them when they fill out those forms or ask to do it yourserlf as they might just fill them in using the information from an old visa which has expired. Thats what happened to me in Dalian. I had to show them my new visa and the receptionist had to start over.

Re: A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall... (THE VISA NIGHTMARE!)
« Reply #149 on: June 09, 2008, 09:03:18 PM »
I have yet to be asked for an entry date, except when I renewed my rez permit. I am spending every weekend in Hotels here in Jinan. I dont even know when I entered, life back then was such a haze and I have replaced my passport since then. Hope no one starts asking soon.