could you help me? Im in China. I dont have my passport now

[SuperRacoon]

hello, everyone.

I'm a student who is studying in Tsinghua.

On this thursday, 02 of august, i applied for renewal my student visa via visa agency.

So, now I dont have passport. 

But, today, urgently, my friend asked me to help his busniess in Ghuanzhou.

In this situation, is there the way for me to travel to ghuanzhou?

I asked visa agency about it, he said no.

do you think i can get permit to travel the city if i go to public security bureau?

thanks

 

[anonymoose]

Go by bus. You don't need (or at least you didn't use to need) ID to buy a bus ticket. You will need the passport, though, if you intend to stay in a hotel in Guangzhou.

[SuperRacoon]

thanks. so... actually there is no way for me to go there excepting a bus....

[mungouk]

Are you from a country that has photo ID cards as well as passports?  Is there any chance you could use that to travel by train?

 

[NinjaTurtle]

One time I tried to buy a train ticket and I forgot to take my passport. They wouldn't accept a photo ID. I was unable to buy the ticket. I had to return to my apartment, get my passport, and go back to the ticket office.

 

SuperRacoon, perhaps your friend could arrange a car or taxi...? Black taxi...?

[ChTTay]

There IS a way but it seems too late for you to do it unless the Visa service hasn’t done anything with your passport yet. There’s a thread on it here but I can’t find it because I’m behind the GFW. 

 

Essentially, when you give your passport to the PSB you can get a yellow receipt with your photo on it. This is specifically designed to allow you to travel within China while they have your passport. You need to supply the PSB with 1-2 passport sized photos. Once you have this you can use it to board trains, planes (technically) and check into hotels (technically).  They won’t give this kind of receipt unless specifically asked. 

 

I have done this myself. I took 2 trains and a boat without any hassle. However, when it came to hotels it was a major hassle. Essentially, the 2-3 hotels we went to all said I need the local police to give me permission to stay as I’ve just got this yellow paper and no passport. The police of course said the yellow paper is my permission and I don’t need anything else. When I try the hotel this they don’t believe me. In the end I went to a 4-5 star hotel and they accepted it without a second glance. 

 

I’ve heard / read of people trying to fly with it and having to argue for a long time before they let them on the flight. 

[mungouk]

2 hours ago, NinjaTurtle said:

They wouldn't accept a photo ID.

 

Some European countries have a Photo ID card which is accepted for international travel within Europe instead of a passport. About the same size/format as what PRC nationals use to get into trains stations. 

I wondered if that might do the trick.  Maybe not.

 

 

[Tomsima]

3 hours ago, ChTTay said:

I’ve heard / read of people trying to fly with it and having to argue for a long time before they let them on the flight.

 

I have done this, argued for about 5 mins at the check in, then another five minutes at customs, but got through in the end.

 

I have traveled by bus without passport many times, but they are meant to check for them now. I was caught out once, and the security just ushered me through quietly.

 

Driving licenses/other forms of ID acceptable in other countries are not accepted anywhere in China from my experience.

 

If it was me and I was really desperate, I would go to the local police station I'm registered at with a photocopy of my passport, sit down with the officer for foreigners in town and try and talk him into stamping the police station stamp on my photocopy. Stamps open doors.

[NinjaTurtle]

I would not even try to buy a bus ticket without a passport. They definitely seem to be cracking down on this.

 

I have found one good way, first find out when they will take my passport away when they are processing my visa, then schedule trips/hotels/currency exchange for a time outside this time frame. Doing this definitely makes things easier.

 

(Of course this doesn't help for a need to travel that comes up suddenly.)

[vellocet]

Passport is now required for bus travel, too.  They removed that loophole some months ago.  

 

You're supposed to be able to travel with your passport receipt, but in typical Chinese fashion the government never told the travel functionaries about it.  Thus nobody has ever heard of it and they think it's invalid.  

 

What I did was take out my old expired passport and used that.  It has two holes punched through the cover, but nobody knows what that means.  Not everyone has an old expired passport, but if you do keep it around for just this purpose.  Won't work for hotels but will for trains and buses.

[ChTTay]

1 hour ago, vellocet said:

You're supposed to be able to travel with your passport receipt, but in typical Chinese fashion the government never told the travel functionaries about it. 

What transport did you have trouble with?

 

Fast train down toward Xiamen wasn’t a problem for me there and back. Boat down there also worked. Just hotels were the real pain!