Convert F to X visa from within China

[mingjiang]

I know there are other related threads, but I still haven't found exactly the information I'm looking for so I thought I'd post myself.

I just received a China Government Scholarship for a year of study at Sichuan U. in Chengdu. For this I will need to register with an X visa. I'm currently in a language program at Fudan U in Shanghai, for which they issued me a 90 day F visa. My program in Shanghai is over August 6th and I need to be in Chengdu by the end of August...how exactly do I go about converting my F visa into an X visa? Is this something Sichuan University will take care of for me, or is there some specific agency I need to go to in Shanghai (or Beijing or wherever) who will do this for me?

I have all the required paperwork; all I need to do now is get it processed. Any advice (details, especially) is more than welcome.

Thanks!

[roddy]

Probably best to call the university and ask - they'll have a better idea of what they can do locally than anyone on here. Hopefully (and I'd expect) you'll be able to deal with it in Chengdu, but it might be worth budgeting for a trip to Hong Kong.

[valikor]

I also switched from an F visa to an X visa. The school handled it, it was basically hassle free (except for the health exam, which was a minor annoyance), and cheap.

I would assume that the school HAS to handle it, since you technically shouldn't be able to get a student visa anywhere else? I've talked to at least one or two agencies that said they can "obtain" F or Z (work?) visas for anyone, but cannot give student X visas.

And I didn't have to go to Hong Kong, though I heard that if you haven't left the country in a long time, it might be required.

[Jimme Deknatel]

This summer I will follow a Chinese language program at Tsinghua university for 5 months, but after that I'm going to do an internship at a company for 4 months. So I'm staying for 9 months in China. The Visa application centre (in The Netherlands) told me that I can't get an X visa because I do 2 different things in China (study , internship) and that can only get an F-visa with a duration of 6 months.

They told me that there may be a possibility that I can extend it when I'm in China. Can someone tell me if an university (Tsinghua) or some other institution can arrange this for me and what papers and forms I need to have to succeed (to get an X-visa while I'm living in China on a F-visa) without any problems ?