10-Year Visas for China for EU citizens?

[hutong_denizen]

I understand that 10-year visas for short visits are now available for US citizens visiting China and for Chinese citizens visiting the US. From what I can gather, there was discussion in the UK about doing something similar, but it has yet to happen.

 

I wonder if we will ever see a similar 10-year visa offered to EU citizens. It seems like the question is complicated by the EU not having a single visa regime for visitors from China (most countries are in the Schengen area, but a few are not and require additional visas). As visa arrangements are usually reciprocal, maybe some changes would need to be made on the EU side too (perhaps some kind of Schengen+ visa for Chinese visitors).

 

What do you think, will we ever see something similar introduced for EU citizens? It would certainly make life easier for those of us who visit China regularly.

[889]

As I said before, I think Schengen is the hang-up. The UK would never have been able to work out its own reciprocal deal for two-year visas if it had been tied into all-for-one one-for-all Schengen.

[happy_hyaena]

Like you said, the Schengen Area makes it difficult to create reciprocal visa deals, though I hope that some countries (read: my own) could negotiate good visa deals with China regardless. Perhaps they could introduce 10 year visa deals but make it very difficult to get unless you meet certain standards, effectively filtering away the "undesirables" (as bad as it sounds)?

 

Personally, I'm very interested in seeing how the transit visa situation develops. It's not perfect, requiring you to have a ticket to a 3rd country before going back to your own, but they've already expanded it to 6 days in some parts and included more cities in the 3 day transit visa.

[DavyJonesLocker]

Even if it did come in, the rules would likely be changed in the following year. 

 

Chinese Visa rules seem to have a element of randomness to them