F visa 'invitation letter' Q

[jobin]

i need a new visa, current one expires 1 march. my friend's dad has a chinese company, fully legit, here in Hebei and can give me a invitation letter. but we are not sure of 'invitation' to do what. one thread here suggested that F invitation letter agrees to hire the foreigner, which is a big hassle for chinese company, and will cost them money. can the letter merely invite for 'internship', or inspection visits, or consultation, all no pay? can such a letter also invite for one year, cause i need (want) one year visa? just what does the invite letter need to say to make the PBS happy, at least satisfied? thanks

[fanglu]

Exactly what documents you require and what kind of visa will be given to you will probably largely depend on the particular place you apply and the mood of the person processing the application, but my advice would be...

The letter should not say you are going there to work as that requires more documents. Any of the other options should be ok. The letter should have your name, passport number and specifically request a one year multi entry visa. As far as I know long-term single entry F visas are only supposed to be given for study, you could try though (internship in particular might be an option).

Its not impossible they will ask for a 被授权单位签证通知表, which the company needs to get from the appropriate government agency. I have no idea how you go about getting one of those.

[Erbse]

Apply at a cheap University for study.

They won't mind that you never appear for class, as long as you pay for their course fees.