Budget-Friendly Student Visa Options in Shanghai

[Lu]

 

In what country is there a "just stick around and not study or work"-visa?

Americans can stay in Europe for up to three months. Europeans and Americans in South Korea, three months (last time I checked). Taiwan is up to six months now. All on a landing visa. You can study if you want to, but not work. It's not that unusual.

[陳德聰]

And yet the reverse is not true, with a Chinese passport I can't just go to the US to chill out, so why would it work the other way 'round?

[gato]

It's very easy now for a PRC citizen to get a one-year multiple entry tourist visa to the US, with a permitted duration of stay of 6 month. I was surprised when I learned this earlier this year, but that's indeed the case.

On the OP's question, David from Sweden was able to get a 180 day X2 visa for studying at a private school recently:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/42575-f-visa-documents/?fromsearch=1

[abcdefg]

If that's possible by getting an tourist visa in HK and extending it twice in Pudong, than get another visa in HK and extend it twice again -- fine for me; could that work?

Visa availability varies with what passport you hold, so one answer does not "fit all." From what I've read, however, most nationalities cannot do what you are hoping.

 

The most desirable tourist visas are usually issued in your country of origin (length of stay, number of entries.) Extensions in Shanghai (and Beijing) are often more problematic than smaller cities that depend heavily on tourist income. Examples of favorable places are Lijiang in Yunnan and Leshan in Sichuan.

[陳德聰]

@ gato

 

I definitely wasn't aware of that. I thought that the US, like Canada did a lot of heavy screening for those tourist visas and excluded a lot of people based on the amount of money in their bank accounts, but it looks like Canada is just a big jerk.

[martin-parker]

Well, thanks for the helpful replies.

[abcdefg]

Martin-Parker, you might try also asking on the Thorn Tree China Visa Forum. Like most forms, you will occasionally get answers from people who don't know anything, but also some from people who follow the issue closely and are willing to help.

[Pavel123]

Hi, Im solving the same problem now. Need to go to China asap and looking for some school that could get me X visa for one on one tutoring. Do you have any recommendations? Thank you.

[MeiMay]

I think what 陳德聰 was trying to say was that most countries don't want an influx of lazy foreigners who aren't rich enough to have spare cash to splurge on local businesses for months/years on end without breaking a sweat as they'd just be hanging around idly with a temptation of possibly engaging in illegal activities to curb their idle boredom as well as their rapidly emptying wallet. That's one of the reasons restrictive visa policies are in place. All countries feel they already have enough "undesirables" so they understandably don't want to import any. Some countries are poorer and feel the benefits of bunch of rich foreigners outweigh the downsides of some undesirable foreigners and therefore have more lax visa policies or their officials are just more open to corruption/bribery.