Residence permit about to expire, want to stay longer

[pprendeville]

A friend who's studying here in Minzu uni in Beijing has a residence permit which expires in July. The residence permit allows him to exit and enter the country at will. He wants to stay until end of August. What's the best way for him to do this if at all possible. He's going to go to the visa office later in the week but I said I'd try and get him a headsup.

He's going to Malaysia in June. Would this be an opportunity to apply for so e sort of visa while outside the country?

[m000gle]

Hopefully someone else can provide a more definitive answer, but here are a few things to consider:

1. Extending a Residence Permit or transferring one to a new passport is relatively easy if, and only if, one is planning to continue his/her employment or studies and the organization is willing to help him/her through the process.  Were your friend planning to continue at Minzu University in the fall, for example, it would probably be as simple as paying any fees in advance, and having the local PSB process it with documents from the university's International Student Office; turn around time 7-14 days, and duration equalling number of semesters paid for.

2. Extending the Residence Permit to August without any plans to continue one's employment or studies is much more difficult, if not impossible, as the organization would have no incentive to take on the hassle and risk of sponsoring the change for someone who is no longer their employee/student.

3. It may be possible to change the Residence Permit into a 30-day tourist visa, at the local PSB, as I'm sure the request to travel for a month after one's studies has come up umpteen times; but, like most things in China, your mileage may vary and a visa type change, such as this, typically requires a visa run to exit the country and enter on the new document.

4. Applying for a 30-day Tourist (L) visa while abroad should be pretty straightforward, especially with an invitation letter, return airfare, and a hotel booking; but doing so in June doesn't really gain your friend anything, while relying on either a 60-day Tourist (L) visa or extending a tourist visa of shorter duration simply increases the odds of complication and/or rejection.

5. One can only have a single valid visa or Residence Permit associated with their person, and passport, at any given time.  This is important because either: a) receiving a tourist visa abroad would immediately cancel the residence permit; and/or b) any tourist visa application abroad may be rejected on the grounds of a pre-existing, still valid Residence Permit associated with his/her passport.

Again, I'm no expert.  However, assuming your friend has no luck at the visa office, I would recommend one of two things, either:

 

- Return to Malaysia in July, and only apply for the Tourist (L) visa once the original Residence Permit has expired; or
- Return home before the expiration of the Residence Permit, and simply visit China again at a later date (this fall, Christmas, Chinese New Year, or even next summer) to travel.

 

Please, let us know how it goes.

Best of luck

[Matty]

In my experience you can extend your stay with a tourist visa one time per entry by the shortest of (a) 30 days [or] (b) the length of the current visa. Your original visa and all extra entries are cancelled and it can not be extended again.

 

Example:

You have a 1 year student visa, it is about to expire, you can extend it for up to 30 days.

You have a 5 day tourist visa, you can extend it for up to 5 days.

 

If you go to Hong Kong you may find it difficult to get a new visa if you've been in China on a tourist visa for more than 3 months (a) over the past 12 months [or] (b) during the current year [i'm not sure which].

 

Then again, the laws are continually changing, who knows. My first stop would be the PSB.