The Hong Kong Visa Topic

[dorearendil]

Hi all,

For what it's worth, here come my 2 cents.

Went through Forever Bright to process my Z visa last week, smooth as silk.

 

Date of application:
Feb. 22nd, 2016

Nationality:
France

Visa applied for: 
Z

Consulate or Agency:
FBT, Hong Kong.

Documents required:
Passport

Invitation Letter

Alien Employment License

Hong Kong Entrance slip thing

Passport sized photograph

 

Cost / Service:
HK$500 for normal service (4 working days) - no rush service available for French passports

Reason for application:

Employment

Previous Visa History:
Resident permit issued 3 years ago

[andeken]

Hey everyone!

 

I have all the requirements for a Z visa (2 years experience, degree, job, etc). I'm an American living in Shanghai and I'm working on getting my Z visa, and hoping to apply for it in HK.

 

But when my HR contact and I were applying for the invitation letter online, the application for the invitation letter was rejected saying that I need to provide a Residence or Work permit from Hong Kong to be able to get an invitation letter that says I can apply for a Chinese Z visa in HK.

 

Have any of you come across this issue?? I see on here that another American successfully got their Z visa in HK a week ago!! So it must be possible!

 

Thanks for all your help, this has got to be the most useful visa resource I've found.

[muyongshi]

Hey everyone!

I have all the requirements for a Z visa (2 years experience, degree, job, etc). I'm an American living in Shanghai and I'm working on getting my Z visa, and hoping to apply for it in HK.

But when my HR contact and I were applying for the invitation letter online, the application for the invitation letter was rejected saying that I need to provide a Residence or Work permit from Hong Kong to be able to get an invitation letter that says I can apply for a Chinese Z visa in HK.

Have any of you come across this issue?? I see on here that another American successfully got their Z visa in HK a week ago!! So it must be possible!

Thanks for all your help, this has got to be the most useful visa resource I've found.

So far, it seems that the ability to have the invitation letter issued with HK as the place listed to do apply is very regional.

Your online application was through which department exactly?

[andeken]

 

 

So far, it seems that the ability to have the invitation letter issued with HK as the place listed to do apply is very regional. 

Your online application was through which department exactly?

I'm in Shanghai, and my HR person applied for the invitation letter through the 上海商务委员会. Is there another source to apply for an invitation letter?

 

Thanks so much!

[muyongshi]

I'm in Shanghai, and my HR person applied for the invitation letter through the 上海商务委员会. Is there another source to apply for an invitation letter?

Thanks so much!

And just to clarify we are talking the invitation letter from the duly authorized authority?

Mine was through a differently named department in Sichuan so I am gonna assume that the problem is a regional one.

[andeken]

 

 

And just to clarify we are talking the invitation letter from the duly authorized authority?

Mine was through a differently named department in Sichuan so I am gonna assume that the problem is a regional one.

 

Yes, the invitation letter from the duly authorized authority. I'm guessing it's a regional thing too, but what was the name of the place in Sichuan? Maybe there is a branch in Shanghai!

[muyongshi]

Yes, the invitation letter from the duly authorized authority. I'm guessing it's a regional thing too, but what was the name of the place in Sichuan? Maybe there is a branch in Shanghai!

I had to go look it up... It was the provincial foreign affairs bureau.

[roddy]

You could maybe try the Foreign Experts Bureau, but I'd expect the same result. Either get your HR person to plead your case (he's really important, he says if he has to go home he might as well stay there a few months and see if he gets any better offers) or start negotiating on who pays for the flight back...

 

Might help if you can demonstrate you had a 'legitimate' reason for being in China already - ie you've just finished a contract or course, you didn't come in on a tourist visa while actually job-hunting. 

[onebir]

"Might help if you can demonstrate you had a 'legitimate' reason for being in China already - ie you've just finished a contract or course, you didn't come in on a tourist visa while actually job-hunting."

 

 

Is there a visa class suitable for job hunting (that someone can get without being invited)?

 

If not, coming on a tourist visa to job hunt is about as legit as Chinese visa regs allow...

[onebir]

Successful HK Z visa report:

 

http://www.gokunming.com/en/forums/thread/13093/hk_visa_run_2016

[LaoDing]

Pending: X2 visa for my daughter to attend university in Henan Province

 

My daughter has a scholarship and a Letter of Invitation to study Chinese at a public uni. here in Henan. I teach at the same university on a Z visa. She is on a S2 visa now (multiple-entry, 10-year validity) and is a U.S. citizen, like me. I am her guarantor for now, though we have all the documents we need from the school and just need to get the visa. Can she get her X1 in Hong Kong? Aside from her passport and the Letter of Invitation what else would she need (I'll bring everything just in case)? Should we go through an agent?

Thanks!

[onebir]

Best thing might be to call the consulate in HK:

http://www.fmcoprc.gov.hk/eng/zjgs/lxwm/

 

[Newish address - but same building as old address IIRC:

http://www.fmcoprc.gov.hk/eng/fwxx/wgrqz/t1047417.htm ]

 

&/ an agent, eg Foreverbright:

http://www.fbt-chinavisa.com.hk/contact.html

 

Foreverbright doesn't ask for an HKID card, or otherwise restrict who can apply for X or Z visas in HK, contrasting with the categories immediately above X & Z on their page:

http://www.fbt-chinavisa.com.hk/services.html#x

 

& I've seen reports of people coming to HK from Mainland China recently getting Zs. So I suspect you're daughter has a good chance of getting an X there. (I think it's L, F & M visas that are now much harder to get to stop people using them to live in China, repeatedly applying in HK.)

 

There may be no real need to use an agent unless they say 'yes' & the consulate says 'no' - I saw this occur with a friend trying to get a Z visa a few years back! But generally they don't have queues, and make sure your form is correctly filled in, so may be worth it even if the 'Consulate' says yes.

 

Let us know how you (two) get on!

[LinZhenPu]

Might help if you can demonstrate you had a 'legitimate' reason for being in China already - ie you've just finished a contract or course, you didn't come in on a tourist visa while actually job-hunting.

 

Is there a visa class suitable for job hunting (that someone can get without being invited)?

 

If not, coming on a tourist visa to job hunt is about as legit as Chinese visa regs allow...

+1 on this, and what's wrong with job-hunting along with sight-seeing on a tourist visa..? As long as you're not actually working, it seems like as legitimate a reason as any to me. I would say the must suitable visa subclass for job hunting would be the tourist L visa. No reason why you couldn't do job hunting on a student X visa either.

 

http://www.gokunming.com/en/forums/thread/13093/hk_visa_run_2016

The last time I entered China was also on an RP. I told them this and they looked at me blank. I asked, "Do I put my last visa details or my last RP details in here?" Answer was, "Yes". Follow up question was, "Yes visa, or yes RP". Answer, "Yes". So I put in the last RP date and place of issue. I got my visa application processed so I assume that was correct.

This part is pretty funny. They should know that once you have a Residence Permit (RP) sticker in your passport you can go in and out of China as many times as you like within the Residence Permit's validity period but apparently they're not even familiar even with such a basic regulation. OK, it's a Mainlaind China regulation not a HKSAR regulation but they should still be aware of it if part of their procedure is to ask you for information about what you last entered China on. The visa could well and truly be expired and just as easily already used up the entries on it by the time you leave China and come back on your still perfectly valid Residence Permit.

[LaoDing]

 

Best thing might be to call the consulate in HK:

http://www.fmcoprc.g.../eng/zjgs/lxwm

 

So far so good. Listening through the recorded visa information service at the Hong Kong Consulate (852-34132300) they indeed have a section on the X1 an X2 visa, and 'kindly remind' you of the fact that in the case of the X1, you have to register at the PSB (which we already know all about). All you need is the original and copy of the Admission letter and the X1 application form JW-201 or JW-202.

 

There is also a section on the Z visa, though I didn't listen to it, sorry. I imagine it's a similar story.

 

Now I wonder if something goes wrong and we need to go back without an X1- my daughter still has her multiple-entry S2 so you can just bounce in again, correct?

 

I'll post once we're through it.

[LinZhenPu]

It also depends on what scholarship she has. If it's a Confucius Institute Scholarship for one academic year of study then you definitely cannot convert your paperwork over in-country, you must apply for a new visa from scratch in your country of permanent residence. However if it's a CSC scholarship or other category of CI scholarship it should be OK.

People also send in their passport and paperwork to a visa application agency in their home country and stay in China, this way you are applying for visa 'in' your country of permanent residence.

If she happens to have easy access to a third country, some countries' embassies do allow non-permanent residents to apply for a visa through them, however it's not clear who does and who doesn't.

[onebir]

@LaoDing: might be an idea to call the human line & check they're ok doing it, assuming you can get someone. (If they did it for a Z just recently can't see how an X is different...)

[LaoDing]

@onebir: yes- it would be great if you can ever get through!

[LaoDing]

Succesful report in acquiring X1 visa in Hong Kong. Note that this was for an X1 for my daughter, not me.

 

Smooth as silk and without a hitch.

 

Date of application:
June 27th, 2016

Nationality:
U.S.A.

Visa applied for: 
X1

Consulate or Agency:
CRC, Hong Kong.

Documents required:
Passport

Admissions Letter

Letter Informing of Acceptance (Former is the actual admissions letter; latter is an official document in English informing the student that he/she has been accepted)

Photocopies of documens plus passport

Hong Kong Entrance slip

Passport sized photograph

 

Cost / Service:
HK$1400 for one day expediated service (extra $300) for U.S. passport
Reason for application:

Study (under scholarship but that didn't matter)

Previous Visa History:

Was on an S2 and residing in Henan. Note S2 was cancelled upon issuance of X1.

 

There were no hassles, disturbances, or need for an agent. Also, visa are now on the third floor, and you're allowed to bring you backpack and computer. No water though. Everyone was very friendly and the lines were timely. After a next morning pickup, got straight on a bus to the mainland border. Pleased as punch.

[onebir]

At least one HK visa agent, mentioned above, has one year 60-90 day stay visas for 'developed country' nationalities but they're expensive (about $1000). These aren't mentioned on their website.

[LinZhenPu]

@LaoDing

 

Documents required:

Passport

Admissions Letter

Letter Informing of Acceptance (Former is the actual admissions letter; latter is an official document in English informing the student that he/she has been accepted)

Photocopies of documens plus passport

Hong Kong Entrance slip

Passport sized photograph

+ the JW201/JW202 form, right?

Could I ask what scholarship your daughter is under?