1

Apply for a tourist visa in the US and apply for a multi entry 60 day visa valid for one year. You might get it, or you might only get 45 days for each entry, or even 30 days. If only 30 days, and you have a multi entry, exit to Hong Kong or Mongolia and then re-enter - so plan your trip to be close to one of those borders when your visa runs out.

If you apply for the Chinese visa in Hong Kong, you will pay the same price as you do in the US, but will probably only get a 30 day double entry.

2

Duration of entry on visa can be between 30 and 120 days. If you want longer duration than 30 days it is better to apply in the US rather than HK.

3

If your trip is imminent (departure in the next month), contact Forever Bright agency in Hong Kong and see if they can currently get US passport holders a single-entry, 60 day duration visa, and cost. If they can, then you have this as an option. If they cannot, then you need to work fast and get the Chinese visa in the USA, and ask for 60 days' duration of stay. You can also ask Forever Bright whether double-entry of multiple-entry visas are available. Usually it's better for US citizens to apply in the USA, to get the best terms which will allow flexibility if needed.

http://www.fbt-chinavisa.com.hk/

Things change frequently in the Chinese visa application world and this website isn't necessarily updated promptly, so do not use it except for contact number/email. Email Forever Bright or Skype them, and get the current scoop and pricing.

4

im living in south korea at the monent so I will have to go straight to HK and will not be home.

5

Aha. Crirical piece of missing information. If you are resident in S. Korea (working, studying) then you should be able to get at least a single-entry visa at the Chinese Embassy in Seoul, though you might have to really justify with a full itinerary, the 6 week/45-60 day request for duration. It's worth making a preliminary inquiry for. Also, there is some agency somewhere in Seoul that has been able to assist 3rd country travelers getting their Chinese visas in Seoul also. I don't recall the name and unfortunately, the TT search function isn't working. You might be able to dig something up on other forums though.

Obviously, if you preferred to enter China directly from Korea without having to spend time or money going to HK first, getting a visa where you are would seem to be first choice.

6

Thanks for the help. I am working in seoul but I need at least 6 months on my ARC card (working card) to be able to apply for the visa and im finished in a month so its a no go. I am going to the philippines first so I was looking into getting one there but I dont think it will be any better than Hong Kong. I contacted fullbright but I think they can only get me a 30 day duration. Such a pain haha

7

Bummer about that ARC card not having enough time. The only other thing you can do is immediately (before Chinese New Year), send the passport and application materials back to the USA, to a reputable visa agent. You should easily be able to get a 12 month, multiple entry visa with 60 days per stay, though you'll probably have to provide flights and accommodations for at least part of that time. And you'd have to international FedEx both ways. It won't be cheap to do this, but if you can only get a 30 day visa in HK, then going back and getting another 30 day (or getting an in-country extension on the first visa), is going to total up as much as the send-to-US-gambit and in the end be more hassle. If you need a reputable visa agent, I (and many others here) use www.mychinavisa.com with offices in most of the cities with a Chinese Consulate--I use Houston since there's not as much backlog of applications there and they process fast even without using Rush. Others have used cheaper www.freechinavisa.org with success but I can't vouch first hand for them since I haven't used them.

8

And you'd end up being in Korea without your visa for about 2.5 weeks, so you'd have to judge if that was doable or not.

9

Thanks for all the help! So looking at my "itinerary" I thought that it might make the most sense to try and do a visa run to laos after 2 weeks, because then I would have another 30 days afterwards. Does this make sense? I was planning on sticking around the Yunnan province for a while anyways and it doesnt seem too far off....

10

Laos - good idea. You can get a visa at the border, then re-enter to China. Lots to see in Yunnan, and before that you could go via Guangxi, through Yuanyang then into Xishuangbanna before crossing the border.

11

Yep, with a multi-entry for China, even limited to 30 days per shot, a foray into Laos would indeed work to re-set that clock for a new 30 days upon return to China.