Applying for a Chinese Visa in Mongolia

Are you sure that you need a letter of invitation? I can't imagine where you would get one. In the past what was needed was tickets for travel into the country, out of the country, an itinerary showing all travel plans and accommodations bookings.

I would check with local travel agencies such as Passport Travel, Selena Travel, Legend Tour, etc. and ask them.

Ruth

Hey Kenny, pls update how you go about this as I'm planning to do the same thing in June.

Thanks mate and good luck!

Hey Kenny,

I am having the same problem. I've been in Mongolia for 5 weeks now and plan to go to China in april. I've been trying to apply for a Chinese visa for a week but since then they have refused my application twice.

They need a lot of information now for a regular tourism visa. Plain tickets, hotelbookings, an invitation letter from a relative, friend or company.. It's crazy. This morning I tried again with an invitation letter from a legit company, but they still refused. If you have an invitation letter from a company, it has to be in a special form, so a written letter in Word is not good enough.. The company I got the letter from can't fill in the form for me, so now i am trying to get a letter from a friend who is studying in China. The website from the Chinese embassy is very conflicting. They are not clear about what kind of documents are required for applying for a visa. This morning I was waiting in line for 40 minutes, almost everyone who was before me got refused because they didn't have an invitation letter. It looks as if CHina is in some sort of conflict right now and is trying to ward of tourists or something...

So what i know is that you need the following documents:
- Round-way plane tickets
- hotel bookings for every day you plan on staying in China
- Invitation letter from a friend, relative or company in China. When you get a letter from a friend, he or she needs to give you a copy of the passport, visa (if they are not chinese, and i'm not sure that a non-chinese citizen is okay... ), police registration, proof of a lease contract of the appartment, work license.
- proof of your financial status, to prove that you are able to pay for all your costs while you are staying in China

If you are applying in Ulaan Bator and you are not a Mongolian citizen, you also need to fill in a supplementary form, stating why you are not in your homecountry right now.

So I hope you have obtained your visa! And if you do, let me know how you did it because I haven't succeeded yet..

Hi Kenny, Hi SanneBlok, Hi all,

Any update from anyone since last post about getting a Chinese visa in Ulan Bataar?
Thank you very much in advance!

Nick

Boy, I didn't realize there were that many others in UB having the same problem.

Last week I tried applying for a business visa to visit a Chinese manufacturer we may buy from, and they sent me a scanned copy of an invitation letter on their company letterhead and with their stamp. When we went to the China consulate in UB, they said they now need a specific type of invitation form that needs to be filed with their government by the company. What I have USED to be good enough, but now I guess this is a recent change, started last year.

From the list posted at the consul, this is their business visa requirements:
- Visa notification by Authorized Organizations in China
- Hotel booking in China
- Round trip tickets
- Visa application form

And this is supposedly their tourist visa requirements:
- Invitation Letter
- Hotel Booking
- Round trip tickets
- Economic Assurance (proof of sufficient funds for the trip I assume)
- Visa application form

Though it wasn't on the list of requirements, when we called on the phone they asked if I was a college graduate, and since I was I needed to provide a copy of my diplomas. WTF? Fortunately I do have those, but at this point I think the consul is just making up their own requirements as they feel like.

So we were told the company needs to submit the application to the government (where the office is in an entirely different city), and understandably this is a pain for them so they said just go ahead to get a tourist visa. Downside of the tourist visa is they won't issue multiple-entry/exit tourist visas unless invited by the government. They DID say though, that since because I'm married to a Mongolian national, if we show and provide a copy of our Mongolian marriage certificate they will allow me a double entry/exit visa. As for the hotel booking and flight, I told them I didn't want to buy them until I was sure I could get a visa. I was told that either I can make a reservation through a travel agent (that I can cancel later if needed), or I can submit the application showing a flight itinerary (scheduled but not yet paid), and when the visa is approved I can buy the tickets and hotel reservation and show the confirmation printouts when I pick up my visa. Let me be clear though that this is what they SAID, so I don't know if this 'rule' is written in stone.

Anyway I will be visiting them again tomorrow, so I'll see what they say when I try for a tourist visa...

Hi,

Just to inform: The visa situation hasn't changed, and it is still very difficult to get the visa.

Since we didn't have an invitation letter in the first place we are now trying to consult some travel agencies if they could provide us the letter. One Canadian girl had an informal letter from her friend in China + the copy of the ID-card of the inviter (a Chinese person) and it was okay for the officials last week.

We will report if we have any luck with the agencies.

threads like this are driving me away from going to china certainly. i think i might just do the trans-siberian express as far as mongolia then fly out to somewhere else...

it seems both costly and uncertain - 2 things that i dont like to put together :-)

Hello,

I need your help.

I am in Ulaan Bator right now and want to apply for chinese Visa.

1.Do I need hotel bookings for the complete trip or only for five days.
2.Any new information how to get a invitation letter (travel agency? Is a informal letter of a Chinese friend + id card copy alright?
3.Do I need to prove my finacial status? How much money do I need on my bank account.
4. What is a good club in UB.

Thanx, Nils

daytona2000 - what you need will depend some on your passport which you neglected to mention.
1. Almost certainly you need hotel accommodation bookings and not for 5 days, for your entire stay.
2. You will need an official invitation or letter from a friend/relative in China and copies of their ID card if they are Chinese or their passport, visa, work permit apartment lease and police registration if they are a resident. There are no reports of where you can obtain this official invitation. Several people mentioned going to travel agencies but no one has reported back a success story with this tactic.
3. You will need to present tickets for travel into and out of China.
4. You will need to show "Economic Assurance." This would be proof of sufficient funds for the trip. Whether copies of recent bank statements are acceptable, I don't know.
5. The completed application and fees.

There may be additional requirements depending upon your passport.

Ruth