Double-entry tourist visa (90 days) - will these documents be sufficient?

[Sydney Matt]

I'm looking to get a double-entry tourist visa, ideally for 90 days. I've been in China the past year-and-a-half on student resident permits, then came back to Australia at the start of September.

 

I want to go back to China at the end of this month/start of November. I was originally intending to go back to China on a work visa, but I don't have enough time for that at the moment, thinking about work & work visa will be something I do later down the track.

 

My girlfriend and I want to visit the Maldives early November, then return to China. So, if I have a tourist visa for China, I'll need a double-entry. Ideally, I'd like the visa to be for 90 days, but if it's shorter, well, that's not as important as the double-entry. 

 

But we're hesitant about booking the trip out of China until my China visa is sorted. So, I won't have evidence of two entries into China (e.g. flight bookings).

 

I can provide:

- evidence of round trip flight between Australia and China

- an invitation letter from my girlfriend (she's a Chinese citizen) outlining the plan, and putting down the address of our apartment as the address I will be staying (lease is in her name - will that help?)

 

Would this likely be sufficient to be granted a double-entry tourist visa?

 

Thanks for any advice!

[zhouhaochen]

depending on the embassy, your nationality and a number of random factors you might also be asked to provide hotel bookings and a travel itinerary. But then you might not. If you will be granted 90 days double entry is also another question - it might be another duration and/or entries.

There is no clear guideline on this and as the new visa rules were just applied there is not enough experience around yet to know what exactly each embassy issues under which circumstances. Go and apply for the visa and please post back here what you got ;)

[Sydney Matt]

Well, I've got the visa, double-entry, 60 days each entry.   I applied using an agency in Sydney, although I'm not sure that this necessarily made a difference to the outcome. I mostly used the agency for the convenience factor of them dropping off the application and picking up the passport/visa for me.

 

I included: the invitation letter from my girlfriend ('friend' on the application) and a copy of her ID; flight booking, hotel reservations and itinerary. A note that I've had two previous tourist visas for China (2005 & 2008) and a study visa; followed by resident permits for the past year-and-a-half.