Visa run to Mongolia - any experiences?

[zhouhaochen]

A friend of mine is in a dodgy visa situation (English teaching etc.) and cannot get his visa extended. As things in HK got pretty difficult, he is looking at other options. One option that I heard about but really do not know much about was the Mongolian border. Also found this blog post from Smart Beijing.

Anyone has tried getting a visa for China at the Mongolian border there? One comment on the article says that only people from

USA, Malaysia, Israel, Cuba, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macao, Ukraine, Laos

can get a visa there - but I have no idea how reliable this is. It is described in the blog post as a quite standard thing, so I am a bit suprised I never met anyone in Beijing who has done it, but then maybe I am just too old and most people I know are on work visas by now.

In a perfect scenario, does anyone have a contact number of someone at the border he could call? It would not be fun to go all the way to Mongolian border, leave China just to be told he cannot get back in.

[gato]

I remember someone posting here about a trip to Mongolia for a China visa, but I can't find it now (despite several tries using both google and the built-in forum search tool). I remember him saying that it was more difficult and unpleasant than expected, and probably wouldn't try again in hindsight.   Maybe someone else can find it?

[James3]

Not sure if you've tried this kind of search on Google or not. If not, try copying/pasting this into Google search:

site:chinese-forums.com mongolia

[roddy]

Gato, I suspect you're remembering the smartbeijing post Zhouhaochen links to - abcdefg linked to it once in an earlier topic. I don't recall anything posted on here, and I've had a look for it with no joy. 

 

James3, using the 'Google' option in the top right search box is the same as using the site:chinese-forums.com operator.

 

Zhouhaochen, the guy in the blog post is NOT getting a visa there - he's crossing the border because he has a 90-day-stay restriction on his visa. If you look at his Step 7, there's NOTHING about getting a visa, just getting stamped back in. 

 

I wouldn't even consider recommending this approach, and I'm usually pretty laid back about (other people's) visa risks. Even if you can get a visa at the Mongolian border, are they going to give you one when you have the tourist and business visa-laden passport of an off-books English teacher? At the least make sure he can afford to fly home from Ulan Bator.

[gato]

I guess that was it, Roddy. Didn't check the link at first.

[imron]

In 2002, I had friends try to get visas in Inner Mongolia, going from a Z-Visa to an X-visa.  The embassy wouldn't do it, and they had to come back on their Zvisa (or maybe get a new tourist visa I forget the details) and then get their university help them sort out the X visa.  From their retelling, it was a major pain.  That was 12 years ago, so I'm a little hesitant to mention it because 12 years is a long time and things may have changed.  I wouldn't bet on it though.

[anonymoose]

I assume you mean Outer Mongolia as opposed to Inner Mongolia.

[imron]

Ah yes. Good catch.

[zhouhaochen]

yes, thats similar to what I felt and the discussion confirms this. However, I heard of one Singaporean guy who applied for a new visa at a Chinese consulate - but then a lot of stories are told after a few beers in Beijing (Roddy: you are right, the blog post is for someone who already has a visa and only needed to exit to get an automatic new 90 days, I somehow missed that when I read it, thanks for pointing it out).

 

Anyways, too vague and unreliable I would say at the moment. If anyone gets information in the future on any Mongolian visa options, please post here. Theoreticaly it would be a good alternative from Beijing.

[leeovisa]

The visa run to Mongolia is to re-activate another ENTRY of a valid China visa with double entries or multiple entries. In other word, cross the border to get an EXIT stamp, and then come back with an ENTRY stamp. Thus you have another 30, 60 days, which depends on your present valid visa's DURATION OF EACH STAY. 

 

It's NOT to apply for a NEW visa. 

 

Not all foreigners can go to Mongolia to do the visa run, since the Mongolian visas may be required. As far as I know, Americans always do the visa run, as they can always get multiple-entry visas and it is visa free for them to go to Mongolia. 

[waiguoren]

I did the re-activation journey to Mongolia earlier this year. Huge pain in the ass and I will not be doing it again.