URGENTLY NEED ADVICE!

[EMG1996]

I'm travelling to China from the UK, arriving in Beijing on the 31st July. When applying for my Visa, they have said I need to hand in my passport so that my visa can be processed. However, I am travelling to America on the 10th July (4 Days) until the 18th July, and so I will need my passport. So I have 12 days in between arriving back in the UK and travelling to Beijing to process a visa and I'm not sure if that will be sufficient time!

 

Does anyone know of any way of my visa being processed without having to hand over my passport? Need help, urgently!

[imron]

The visa gets stuck on a page of your passport.  There is no way to get one without handing your passport over.

 

When you get your visa, you should be able to pay extra for express service.  If all your documents are in order, then even without the express service it should only take 4 business days, and with express, it can be from 2-3 days, so I think you'll be cutting it close but should be fine.

 

Just make sure you have everything you need to get the visa the first time - proof of return flight, proof of accommodation, etc.

[Lu]

What imron says. It's not possible to get a visa without handing in your passport, but it should not be a problem to get a visa in less than 12 days. Sometimes you can even pay extra for same-day or next-day service.

[ShelbyR]

My son recently had a similar problem and paid extra to have an expedited passport.  I think it took about ten days to get to him.  You have to send it in to get a visa, as others have said.

[abcdefg]

This plan would make me lose sleep. There's no allowance for Murphy's Law. Is the US trip absolutely essential?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy's_law

[LinZhenPu]

There's the quite recent story of the guy who had one page left on his passport, and he found out at the last minute that to get a working residence permit renewed, you must have at least two pages left in your passport. He managed by the skin of his teeth to avoid having to go back to the US. He got a new passport and a new permit, just in time, despite the office assuring him that it would not be processed in time.

[onebir]

 

to get a working residence permit renewed, you must have at least two pages left in your passport.

 

Why？ They'll put several entry/exit stamps on a page...

[LinZhenPu]

Good question. Well they need to take up a whole page for the new residence permit, but even then it's only one page. That's just how it is, if you don't have two pages left in your passport then you need a new passport, and you can't have a page added to your passport.

[889]

"They'll put several entry/exit stamps on a page..."

 

There's a sign now up at Luohu Immigration stating only eight stamps per page.

[Guest realmayo]

Taiwan put my entry stamp on one blank page and then my exit one on a completely different blank one. Quite uncalled for.

 

Also twice now, mainland immigration has stamped my entry stamp with the date incomplete: I'm guessing I was that official's first foreigner of the day and then hadn't put the new date into their stamper (so Christmas Day would read "2016/12/2-"). Meaning I have to go to some higher-up guy's station and have him cancel the initial stamp, and give me a new one, while he talks to me about what I'm doing coming to China again. If it happens a third time I'm going to get paranoid...

[LinZhenPu]

Taiwan put my entry stamp on one blank page and then my exit one on a completely different blank one. Quite uncalled for.

I've heard of this happening in Hong Kong too. You have every right to physically stop them from putting the stamp on the completely different blank page and demanding that they put it on a page with stamps on it already. I'm going to make sure I'm on my guard when I go to border crossings and make sure no customs staff wastes any of my passport pages, it's not on.

[889]

"You have every right to physically stop them from putting the stamp on the completely different blank page and demanding that they put it on a page with stamps on it already."

 

Really? Just how do you suggest exercising that right? I've had this problem for years -- though not in Mainland China, where they seem to group stamps as a matter of course -- and have found marking out the page where I want the stamp and making a polite request usually works. If you want entry to a country, you don't start demanding things from the guy wielding the stamp.

 

As to Hong Kong, it hasn't used stamps for years. Like Macau, you just get a disposable slip.

[LinZhenPu]

I think the guy who's youtube video I saw (serpentza on YouTube, long-time China V-logger) was crossing the border from Hong Kong to Shenzhen. So it would have been on the Mainland China side, where they do use stamps. Or it might have been an exit stamp he was talking about. I do have a bad habit of misremembering things and I'm often too lazy to double check. But I still feel compelled to make forum posts about it. Maybe it will eventually cure my misremembering especially since I keep getting pulled up on stuff.

 

What I remember him saying he did was put his hand over his passport when the border crossing agent went to put a stamp on a fresh page, and got her to stamp it on a page with stamps already. That's all I intended to suggest to anyone to do. There's no reason why they have to use a fresh page unless there's a stamp limit per page that has been reached.

[yueni]

US immigration once flipped through my passport, right to where it opened up in the middle and stamped my entry stamp in the middle of the passport. Quite uncalled for, in my opinion. one stamp, two pages. Really? We need to do that now?

[LinZhenPu]

It seems like more of a common practice thing than a rule that has to be abided by.

Well I shall report on my experience, when the time comes.

[Saxondale]

Should be fine.  Go to the visa place in London or Manchester and go for the express service.  

[guest1234]

They can do next day or usually it will take 4 days in both London and Manchester.

 

BUT, YOU MUST HAVE AN APPOINTMENT .

 

So go to the web site and book an appointment for when you get back , fill the forms in correctly,and you will have no problems. If you just turn up now it is very difficult to get seen.

 

Regards