First Trip to China? Please read this.

[waiguoren]

This summer is supposed to be both my first time outside the US and my first trip to China. I'd like to share my visa experience with all of you in the hope that you can avoid the same outcome.

My departure date was supposed to be 12:30 AM EST on 14-May-2009, i.e., about 8 hours from now. I applied for my passport on 23-March-2009, and received it a little over a month later, around 25 April. I prepared to make the trek over to the Chinese Visa Office in Washington,D.C. on Friday, 1 May. Unfortunately, I neglected to check the office's website before I left; I was greeted at the door of the visa office by a pissed off east European guy who told me the office was closed for International Labor Day.

The office is also closed on the weekends, so I prepared to head over on the following Monday, 4 May. Note that even when the office IS open it has sparse hours and is woefully understaffed. I was still not very worried at this point; according to the embassy website, processing takes only four days, and if I were really worried I could do a rush order.

But when I got to the visa office, I was told of the new swine flu policy: six-day processing and no rush ordering. That left me significantly more worried, but I was assured the visa would be shipped out on Monday, 11 May via USPS Express mail. USPS is overnight and allows tracking, so I was confident I would receive my visa on Tuesday,12 May or Wednesday, 13 May at the latest.

Today is 13 May and I still have no visa. USPS has no record of any package sent out with my tracking number. Getting through to an embassy representative is an exercise in self-torture. Under normal circumstances It involves mashing '2' or extended periods, often an hour or more, until you get through to the sole person answering the phones. I spoke with this woman three or four times today. The first time she told me the visa was sent out a day late, on 12 May. Then she said it was never sent out--no reason given. Then she said it was sent on 12 May but that USPS doesn't actually pick up mail every day. This is of course contrary to what USPS says. And so on.

I will be missing my flight tonight as a result. To reschedule my flight to Monday I will have to pay a $350 fee.

The moral of the story is nothing new, I suppose: apply for your passport/visa as early as possible and don't hesitate to check up on the process at every step along the way.

[self-taught-mba]

Sorry to hear about that. Thanks for sharing. Agents can help, but even they are subject to these new processing times.

[roddy]

Ouch. Sorry to hear about your hassles, and thanks for posting the cautionary tale . . .

[chrix]

Edited: on second thought this is not really OT, so I better create another thread. sorry

[renzhe]

I hope that you manage to get your visa and changed ticket and make the best of your trip in the end.

Last time, I did a last-minute job and it worked fine, but I guess I won't try to push my luck the next time.

[roddy]

Edited: on second thought this is not really OT, so I better create another thread. sorry

Thank you! Could all comrades please study this example. Message ends.

[xianu]

I had some visa nightmares this year trying to get 11 individual visas for students and myself. Since we don't live in an embassy or culsulate city, I had to use a visa service agency. Our trip begins May 28, so we had actually plenty of time if these were for individual visas going straight to your home. HoweverI needed to get the visas back to the students before everyone left campus after finals (May8). I sent them in to the visa service agency (I used Oasis China Visa in DC), who were very helpful, and who took the applications in to the DC embassy back in maybe last week or two of APril. Because we were also hitting some cities on the SIlk Road, the embassy sent all our visas back on April 30 saying we needed to have a detailed itinerary of that portion of the trip (unforseen). Of course, even though I sent it all immediately, the office was closed on May1, so we had less than a week to get it done. Monday, the embassy changed their policy to no rush service because of the Swine Flu (i guess they wanted to delay issuing visas in case we somehow died of Swine flu?) The visa service took in all the info and applications and despite the new "no rush" service on visas, they were still able to get the visas rushed, and we got everything overnighted, and got the visas back on May 7, in time for everyone to pick up their visas. I guess what I am saying is that a visa service agency in this case, was actually extremely helpful. They were probably somehow able to negotiate for a rush service from the embassy, which, I am certain that if I had tried to do this by myself, I would have just been frustrated (which I usually am when it comes to bureaucracy in China), and would have had to figure out a way to get the visas back to the students before we all boraded the planes. On top of that, Oasis didn't even charge us their express fee. I think that using a service agency, even though it costs some, might be the easiest way to take care of visas from the US.

[Madot]

How long before leaving should one apply for the visa? There can be problems if you apply too early too! Is it safe to apply, for example, more than 2 months before you need to leave? You only have 3 months from the DATE OF ISSUE of the visa to use it, right?

Mado

[peekay]

Not necessarily. If applying very early, just point the first entry date to the consular officer and they'll try to accommodate the "Enter Before" date (or tell you if it's not possible.)

I once had an L-visa valid for entry 6-months after the "Date of Issue", and of course with a double- or multiple- entry visa you can enter anytime before the visa expires (often one year or longer after the issue date.)

With all the problems waiguoren encountered, I guess it's now best to apply at least a month before the trip.