Living in Beijing for a year. Visas?

[amithereyet]

Hi all,

This forum has been great so far, though i still have many questions floating around in my head. I'm an Australian, and i'd like to live in Beijing for a year from about April 2006 onwards. Ideally i'd like to study in small colleges and with tutors for six months, and then perhaps do six months at a university when the september semester starts.

The problem with that, from what i can tell, is visas. I'm trying to work out if its possible to exist on tourist visas for six months, and then convert that to a study visa when september comes. What is the likelihood of getting and/or renewing tourist visas to last for six months? By what method.. trips to Hong Kong? Would it be impossible, and/or send me broke?

If necessary, though i'd prefer not to, perhaps i will have to come at it from another angle: arrive on a tourist visa, quickly find an english school to teach at that will give me a Z visa and not too many teaching hours, and then learn in my free time. Then convert the Z to an X visa inseptember, or go for a trip to HK and get one.

Regardless of the scenario, i'd like to rent a place instead of living in some kind of campus accomodation. Is this possible under any visa (incl tourist visas) as long as i tell the local police when i move in?

How would people in the know about visas rate these scenarios?

Thanks a million in advance.

[Kare]

Why dont you just pay for a one year multiple entry visa. In Sweden the cost is just three times the normal visa fee.

[xiahai]

Hi,

I think the most convenient visa is F (business).

You can get a multiple entries F visa for 6 or 12 months in many embassies, including HK (I'm sure about 6 months in HK, don't know about 12). You get the visa with no questions asked, especially if you do it through a travel agency.

One thing to note, though, is that some universities will require an X visa to accept you, and I don't know about F->X conversion procedures.

Turist visa are much harder to extend and as far as I know you get 1 or 2 months at a time for a limited number of times, but as usual in China - you just need to find the right person and you can get any visa extended to any period of time. I once got my own 6 months visa visa extended by exactly 2 months and 10 days

[snarfer]

You can get a 90 day tourist visa and extend twice for a total of 5 months, and almost any educational institution can keep your visa current as long as you are enrolled. I would not worry too much about it.