Visa for 4 years of CSC scholarship - Passport expires before that

[karakorum]

Hello,

  I am a very happy European student who has been awarded 4 years of studies in china via the CSC scholarship.

 

 Everything is going fine except for the fact that I am currently not in Europe, I am in another continent for vacations. I will go back home in 2 weeks (17th of august).

 

 The file sent by my embassy with the university invitation letter and the jw202 form needed for the visa application is waiting for me there, but I have no access to it and I do not know what it contains exactly until I get back.

 I have been googling and reading this forum on the procedures that I will have to get done in order for my visa to be  ready within two weeks, before I leave again to China to start the semester.

 

 I think I have everything down, but if you could confirm a couple of things for me it would be great..

 

 My passport type should be X1 (I assume) and I quote" X1 visa can be issued for multiple entry with validity up to 5 years. "

 However, my passport expires in early 2019, which is in less than 2 year. Does this mean the visa will be only valid until then? Or will they give me the full duration visa anyway? Or will I be unable to apply for any Visa altogether until I present a passport that is valid for at least the duration of my studies?

 

 Renewing my passport  and applying in just 2 weeks might prove to be problematic as you can imagine, although doable if I pay for the "urgent service" fee. (I know this is all my fault, but after waiting for CSC results for months I decided to go on vacations for 2 weeks and the results dropped right as I left).

 If it is possible I would prefer to only renew my passport in summer 2018 (I will go back to europe every summer).

 

Thank you!

[MangoESL]

I'm not too familiar with student visas, however in my experience they don't like to give out long term visas for more than a year.

Most likely, you'll get a visa for one year, then extend it after a year.

A visa will be granted for no longer than 1 month before your passport expiry.

 

Anyway, there should be no problem extending your visa later when you have a new passport.

[grawrt]

Just get your visa. There's not enough time to renew your passport and do the visa, also not worth renewing your passport so soon when you still have two years. 
If it makes you feel better I was issued a 5-year X1 student visa last year even though my passport is expiring in 2018 (same situation as you, I had 2 years left on my passport before it expires). You can always renew it when you're home for the summer since you'll have to redo your residency permit every year in the fall like clockwork. 

 

edit: I don't think your visa will carry over to the next passport when you renew it in 2018. Odds are you will have to reapply for a student visa and do that nonsense again. 

 

Also you don't necessarily have to go back home to renew your passport if your country has an embassy in China in a location that's ideally where you plan to study. My friend renewed her passport in Beijing when she stayed with me over winter holidays. They made her reapply for a new visa and then redo her residency permit despite not having left china. 

 

Hope this helps. 

[karakorum]

Thanks for your replies, I finally got a hold of someone at the embassy and @grawrt is correct.

In fact, they told me that I won't  have to renew my visa for 4 entire years, as long as I keep the passport that  the visa is attached too, even if it is expired. (Of course I still need the have a  new valid passport when the old one is expired but I get to keep both.)