US citizen - am told I have to go to my home country to get a Z visa...

[Pengyou]

The schools that I am applying for are established universities. The recruiter that I am working with is also an established recruiter. Is it possible/acceptable to fedex my passport to a traven agent in San Francisco to get the z visa? or do I need to go with it? It would be difficult for me to squeeze into the envelope... ;)

[antonjames]

Hi Pengyou

I was also in the exact same situation as you and it sure is a crappy one to be, what i actually did was left China as unless you leave china you will still have a stamp on your passport entered China and not left and they are very likely to see that at the embassy. I dont know if that will affect your application but I imagine it would as "apparently" you are meant to be in your home country to get the visa.

So I left China went to Thailand and I fed exed my passport back to my home country Australia. I have a stamp on my passport entered Thailand but no left Thailand stamp (But I have a 100 stamps in my passport) but the Chinese at the visa center in Australia missed that and as a result I got my passport back with my new visa. Saving me the cost and trouble of going all the way home!

Worked fine for me I think it would work as well you can try doing it while you are still in China but it might cause trouble

[Matty]

As an Australian I took a holiday to South Korea for a few weeks and got mine done there. The key was that the documentation (the government issued document) had to instruct me to apply for my visa in South Korea.

As a US citizen I don't know if there are any other restrictions. That was in 2009 I believe.