Emergency visa plan needed

[PaulB]

I planned on learning Mandarin in Harbin for 3 months. I chose Harbin because it's relatively inexpensive and I want a standard accent. I moved out of my condo and booked a flight to Hong Kong thinking it would be easy to get my China visa there. Well, I'm in Hong Kong now and the various agencies here are telling me that this unfortunately is not the case.

China Travel Service and Forever Bright both say that I can get a 6-month visa but have to leave China every 30 days.

Japan Travel Agency says I'd have to get three separate 30-day visas.

My school in Harbin (Bincai) says I can apply for a 30-day tourist visa and apply for an F visa when I get there, but will have to pay additional costs for the extension form (200 RMB) and the difference in cost between the L and F visas.

This visa issue is making me have second thoughts. I'm a US citizen so visa fees are expensive for me ($130+ USD), and if I have to fly out of the country every 30 days then I don't want to go at all. Now I'm thinking maybe I should cancel my Harbin flight (a $60 penalty) and either hold off studying or plan a stay somewhere else.

Any thoughts on what I should do?

[roddy]

I'd say just take your cue from Bincai - if they say you can get the visa extensions and won't need to leave Harbin for the three months, do that. By all means ask them what the costs will be, and if it knocks your budget out of the water then maybe you need to change your plans - but if that's the case you were at risk of any unexpected event causing problems. Otherwise, no point in changing three months worth of plans for a couple of hundred dollars extra costs.

Let us know how you get on at Bincai.

[weilian]

Also, a bit shady, but I you could send your passport back to someone in the United States to have them apply for the visa from there. I know that in some cases(and this differs from place to place) that you would be able to get a 90 day tourist visa. There are visa agencies in various cities that could help you with that as well.

[PaulB]

I decided on going to Harbin. Worst case scenario I can leave after a month. :/

[m.ellison]

You can go to Shenzhen. Because of the high level of internal migration you should be able to find a teacher from the north, and it is easy to get to Hong Kong to renew your visa.

[flameproof]

Also, a bit shady, but I you could send your passport back to someone in the United States to have them apply for the visa from there.

I have some doubts. From my experience you can not get a China visa if you have already a valid and unused visa in your passport. Since that single entry visa is only used up upon exit I doubt it will work.

But then of course, everything can be possible in China....

From my hearsay knowledge you can go to the PSB and can extend your visa there.