How long to get a Chinese passport?

[MartinF]

If you are a Chinese student living in China, how long does it take to get a passport if you are in a hurry? How much does it cost? Is it complicated?

Thanks for your help.

[imron]

The passport is relatively simple to get. It costs a couple of hundred RMB, and the processing time is 14 days. This can be expedited to a week if there is some urgency to the request, but I believe there needs to be some evidence of this urgency.

Although the passport is simple to get, a visa to enter another country is another matter entirely. It could take months, depending on the type of visa required, and even for a tourist visa it may still take several weeks (plus you have to wait for the passport before you can apply for the visa). Also to issue the visa, you would normally need to show some sort of evidence that the person will return to China once the visa period expires, and that they have sufficient funds for the duration of their stay. This is usually done by showing evidence of property ownership, bank statements, etc.

[studentyoung]

If you are a Chinese student living in China, how long does it take to get a passport if you are in a hurry?

Well, the time depends on which city this one is in and in which city he / she registered as a local household. If he or she just in the city where his or her household located, things will be much easier. If not, he / she much go back to his / her household city.

Take Guangzhou as example for your reference. Usually, a Chinese citizen registered as Guangzhou’s household and lives in Guangzhou can get a passport within 15 work days. If you have some special reasons, you can get your passport within 5 days.

How much does it cost?

It costs less than 700RMB in Guangzhou.

Is it complicated?

Not at all. Just passport photos, application forms, ID Card, book of household registration, and money.

Of course, for more accurate details, please ask this Chinese citizen go back to his/ her household city and contact the local police station, because different cities might have some small differences on the regulations of passport issue.

Although the passport is simple to get, a visa to enter another country is another matter entirely. It could take months, depending on the type of visa required, and even for a tourist visa it may still take several weeks (plus you have to wait for the passport before you can apply for the visa). Also to issue the visa, you would normally need to show some sort of evidence that the person will return to China once the visa period expires, and that they have sufficient funds for the duration of their stay. This is usually done by showing evidence of property ownership, bank statements, etc.

Agree, completely! Even if your financial conditions are sound enough, you still must pay attention to sensitive questions on “immigration intention”.

Thanks!

[roddy]

If you are a Chinese student living in China, how long does it take to get a passport if you are in a hurry? How much does it cost? Is it complicated?

There's another potential complication for students - although thinking about it it also might make things easier. I'm not sure how common this is, but it did happen to a friend of mine in Beijing.

To get your passport you need to apply wherever your hukou - household registration - is. Commonly this is in someone's hometown. Same with getting married - both processes can often involve a long trip home to take care of the formalities.

Your hukou is usually your families, and then when you get older / marry / buy a house you get your own. However, students are often on a 集体户口 - ie a mass hukou managed by the university.

Advantage: Your hukou is therefore in the city where you study and you don't need to go home.

Disadvantage: You need your university's permission / assistance. In the case I know of the university refused to hand over the necessary documents until a requisite amount of shouting and refusing to leave the office had been performed over the course of several days.

I'm not sure if your 集体户口 replaces your normal one or runs alongside it. Perhaps you could apply in two places. Or even get married twice, if your university is so enlightened as to allow that kind of thing. And as I said, I have no idea how often this becomes an issue.

As the others have said, passports are relatively easy. It's visas that are the hassle.

[MartinF]

thanks for the helpful replies.

So do you think if a chinese student wanted to come to England for 2 weeks at the end of the summer, before classes start again, it would be too late to apply now?

Do you have to have a return ticket in hand before you apply for the UK tourist visa?

The timing looks a little tight to me.

[roddy]

Have a look at the UK embassy site and see what you can figure out. I had a quick look and couldn't see any timetable, but it does say applications referred to London take 17 working days, so presumably most applications are dealt with more quickly.

[imron]

Looking through their section on travel visas, it seems it could take as little as 4-5 days. It also recommends not to buy a ticket before applying for the visa.

Assuming 2 weeks for a passport, and 1 week for the visa, I guess it would be theortically possible to sort it out in time. It doesn't leave much margin for error though.

Still, if you think the opportunity for this student to travel to England will come up again, it might be a good idea to get the passport sorted out now (they stay valid for 5 years), so that next time, there's only the visa to worry about.

[cdn_in_bj]

Does this friend of yours happen to be female, and unmarried?

[roddy]

What on earth would make you think such a thing? Just because poor Martin has posted almost nowhere except the dating discussion . . . .

It's something worth thinking about - I would wager young single females going to visit young single males have a lower pass rate. Also, a failed application now may potentially complicate things in the future.

[cdn_in_bj]

Yes, I seem to recall reading that thread.

I don't know if the UK is more lax, but for Canada and the US, it is nearly impossible for someone such as described to get a tourist visa (even though neither gives any official indication of this).

I have heard suggestions of joining a tour and getting a group visa instead. Or to try getting visas for other European countries first. Anyways, good luck to you Martin.

[MartinF]

yes, we are both single and this is somewhat romantically related, but I don't think there's a risk of her overstaying.

She's got a university to go back to and I don't want to jeapardise her education. Usually you would show that you are a returning student and that keeps the visa people happy, I think. No?

Hey, I've posted on other topics too

Martin

[roddy]

Usually you would show that you are a returning student and that keeps the visa people happy, I think. No?

Good luck . . .

To be honest there's going to be a hell of a lot more info available in Chinese on Chinese forums - get the young lady in question to do some research. A few years ago one Chinese forum for students applying to study abroad had a running commentary on what the UK embassy visa staff were wearing each day . . .

[imron]

Family (i.e. someone married with children), house, car, large security deposit - these things count highly as evidence that someone will return to China. Continuing education not so much.

Another factor is how long you've known each other, and what records/evidence you have to prove that you've been together that long, and you're not just two random people trying to game the system.

[MartinF]

wow, Imron. That's pretty tough to prove. I doubt she has any of that. She just has parents living in China. We haven't known each other very long.

It seems tough for Chinese to come to the UK. I have a Mongolian friend who managed to get a visa for England. I don't recall it being too hard. It took quite a while though. She got a student visa.

I didn't have any problems getting a Chinese visa and I'm a UK citizen. I don't remember having to prove anything. It took 4 days but if I was willing to pay more I could get it the next day. It's a shame the UK can't reciprocate the same priviledges to Chinese citizens.

Oh well, we can still try.

[cdn_in_bj]

Another factor is how long you've known each other, and what records/evidence you have to prove that you've been together that long, and you're not just two random people trying to game the system.

What you have described sounds like the screening process for an immigration application after marriage. I would think that in this case, it's better for her not to reveal the fact that she is going to visit her boyfriend in the UK.

I didn't have any problems getting a Chinese visa and I'm a UK citizen. I don't remember having to prove anything. It took 4 days but if I was willing to pay more I could get it the next day. It's a shame the UK can't reciprocate the same priviledges to Chinese citizens.

Sorry to say, but it's because Chinese nationals are considered an immigration "risk".

[imron]

I didn't have any problems getting a Chinese visa and I'm a UK citizen

That's because China is quite confident that you'll return to the UK once your visa is up, whereas the UK doesn't have that confidence about a Chinese person (based on the number of Chinese who overstay their visa, or simply don't return). It's usually far easier for a person from a developed country to get a visa for a developing country, than it is for a person from a developing country to a get a visa for a developed country. Mainly because there is a huge risk that the person from the developing country will enter the developed country and then decided not to return. For this reason, things are much stricter for Chinese going to the UK and most other developed countries, and they are required to show that they have sufficient incentive to return.

What you have described sounds like the screening process for an immigration application after marriage.

Last summer, I invited the son of one my Chinese friends to come and stay with my family in Australia for a month. We were took care of all costs when he was here, and not only had to show evidence that we could support him for that time, but also had to show evidence/make a declaration of how long we'd known each other.

If you are going to be financially supporting your friend during her stay in England, then the visa officers will probably want to know how well, and how long you know each other. If you're not going to be financially supporting your friend, then she will need to provide evidence that she has the means to support herself during her stay. I'm guessing the former will be easier than the latter, based on what you have mentioned about your friend's economic situation in previous posts.

In both cases you will need to show evidence that she has incentive to return.

[johnd]

If you are a UK citizen, the British Embassy in China is really quick and helpful in answering email questions. Check their website.

[cdn_in_bj]

If you are going to be financially supporting your friend during her stay in England, then the visa officers will probably want to know how well, and how long you know each other. If you're not going to be financially supporting your friend, then she will need to provide evidence that she has the means to support herself during her stay. I'm guessing the former will be easier than the latter, based on what you have mentioned about your friend's economic situation in previous posts.

I agree that having a sponsor would help to increase the chances of getting a visa, and hadn't considered this in my original reply. But I still think if the visa officer suspects that they are romantically involved, it could hurt rather than help her chances because it would be an incentive for her to stay.

Anyways, I suggest Martin for you to find and talk to people who have been in the same situation as you and your friend. The embassy will only give you generic answers and aren't going to tell you their selection criteria (for obvious reasons).

[imron]

But I still think if the visa officer suspects that they are romantically involved, it could hurt rather than help her chances because it would be an incentive for her to stay

I agree with this completely, I'm just not so sure that the alternative is going to be any better

[gato]

Here's a Chinese web forum on apply for UK visas. Ask your girlfriend to have a look over:

http://bbs.taisha.org/forum-86-1.html

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