kroy123 Posted March 30, 2018 at 06:54 AM Report Posted March 30, 2018 at 06:54 AM I am Australian and want to stay in Shenzhen for several months without working or studying (Reddit link) but am having trouble figuring out how to do this easily, as it looks to me that Australians can only apply for a limited number of tourist visas over a certain time frame with each one being a maximum of 30 days. I found this website ivisa.com which states "apparently, Australian citizens can get a 10-year Chinese visa" but haven't found any information on this anywhere else - does anyone know the status of this? I have heard UK/US citizens can apply for a 10 year visa to China but have no idea about it for Australians. Quote
889 Posted March 30, 2018 at 07:30 AM Report Posted March 30, 2018 at 07:30 AM If Australians can indeed now get ten-year visas, it's a policy change that's been kept very quiet. So far as I know, these are available only to Americans, Israelis, Canadians, and Argentinians, with Brazilians eligible for five-year visas and Britons for two-year visas. By the way, there were rumblings in the press recently that the Trump administration may cancel the ten-year visa agreement with China. Any Americans even just considering a tourist visit to China should get their visa applications in now. Better safe than sorry. Quote
kroy123 Posted March 30, 2018 at 08:46 AM Author Report Posted March 30, 2018 at 08:46 AM Emailed the site about it and they said "You can apply for 10year visa but you should be residing and a green card holder in the US" (page on the website doesn't say anything about htat) so turns out it's not a thing for Australians yet. Quote
roddy Posted March 30, 2018 at 08:50 AM Report Posted March 30, 2018 at 08:50 AM There's a trial of ten-year Australian visas for Chinese people, so I wouldn't be surprised if there's something reciprocal in the future. Quote
889 Posted March 30, 2018 at 09:49 AM Report Posted March 30, 2018 at 09:49 AM And if it is reciprocal, expect it to cost the earth: "During the trial, the 10-year ‘Frequent Traveller’ visitor visa will only be available to Chinese passport holders in mainland China. This visa has a visa application charge of $AUD1000." http://china.embassy.gov.au/bjng/trialof10yearfrequenttravellervisa.html Actually, I suspect the Chinese haven't offered a reciprocal visa because they don't want to deal with the abuse they'd get for charging AUD$1000 for it. Quote
DavyJonesLocker Posted March 30, 2018 at 10:24 AM Report Posted March 30, 2018 at 10:24 AM In any case even if you have a long term visa, the length of stay is limited to usually 30, 60 or 90 days I believe. longer the stay the harder it will be to obtain. Norm is 30 days I am not really sure what the benefit is of a ten year visa apart from unnecessary multiple applications. I would image the length of stay doesn't change. Do you really expect to go to China frequently over the next ten years as a tourist? My passport is littered with previous chinese visa. Once you do it once it's pretty straight forward. I used the same agency in UK who had all my details on file, and it was only a matter of signing a form, giving them my passport and paying the pay. Done during my lunch break Quote
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