China visa questions! Please help!
Replies: 4 - Last Post: Nov 14, 2012 4:22 AM Last Post By: drumbrake
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China visa questions! Please help!
Hello all,My boyfriend and I are planning a trip to Asia next February, but now we are having some serious concerns/issues when applying for the Chinese visa.
The plan is to depary form NYC, arrive in Shanghai , ake a train to Hong Kong, then Nanning and then into Hanoi. We will be in Vietnam for month teaching. From there we will train/bus to Cambodia & Thaliand and eventually SIngapore which is where we will fly home from.
According to the Chinese embassy website we know we need:
- An Invitation Letter for Tourist Group of Invitation Letter for Tourist by a Duly Authorized Tourism Unit;
- An Invitation Letter issued by companies, corporations, institutions and individuals in China. If the invitation letter is issued by an individual in China, the photocopy of the ID of the individual is required.
- photocopy of the roundtrip airline ticket and hotel reservation
Terrific.
I have read that there are agencies that help with the visa processing/invitation letters such as www.pandavisa.com
Does anyone know how valid this is and/or what options there are?
I have also read that these are new guidelines but are not federal law until 2013, so there is a chance they will no be overly strict.
We are planning a very economic trip so we have no intention of spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars on hotels. What can we do? Hostels aren't the same and they don't provide the same reservation info, if at all. How rigid do these plans really have to be?
Secondly, we are only arriving in China by air, but plan on leaving by train. WIll this be a problem? Will we just have to buy a bunch of train tickets several months in advanced?
Will the fact that we are teaching in Vietnam be of any help to us? From what I can see, they just want to make sure you do not overstay your trip in China. We are planning on being in China for about 2 weeks. If we cannot show a roundtrip flight to and from China, can we show the train to Hanoi and perhaps proof that we will be in Vietnam teaching?
We've called the embassy, but that of course was useless.
Any help/advice would be GREATLY appreciated. We are a little bit stressed. We can't really afford to cancel the flight and book a new one.
Thank you!
2
See http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/visas/adr/__________________________
One of the following documents is required:
- An Invitation Letter for Tourist Group of Invitation Letter for Tourist by a Duly Authorized Tourism Unit;
- An Invitation Letter issued by companies, corporations, institutions and individuals in China. If the invitation letter is issued by an individual in China, the photocopy of the ID of the individual is required.
- photocopy of the roundtrip airline ticket and hotel reservation.
______________________________
So, go for the round trip airline tickets and hotel reservations. Make the flight booking and get a print out (not paid for). Make hotel reservations using booking.com for Shanghai and Beijing, Hong Kong and Guilin. Use an agency such as mychinavisa.com to get a one year multi entry.
4
In Hong Kong I can go to a travel agent and get confirmed flight tickets, which I then usually have 72 hours to pay for - if I don't pay I lose the reservation. This should be enough for the visa - assuming that the visa office is not going to phone the airline to check the reservation. You do also need a friendly traditional agent - the old ones still are useful.
