Visa Problems
June 25th, 2006 by MarkI guess it isn’t as easy to go to China as I’d thought. On Thursday, my travel agent told me that Americans can’t get landing visas in China. In the interests of being “reciprocal”, we also have to pay more than anybody else does, and take our visa application forms to the embassy in person. Needless to say, that’s a bit difficult since I live in Taiwan. The travel agent can mail my passport and papers to someone in Hong Kong and have that person hand in the forms in person, though. According to the travel agent, they normally need 12 working days to get all this stuff done. So it looks like it’s going to be tight. My plans to visit the mainland just may fall apart for the third year in a row.
The worst part about it is, the travel agent didn’t even mention the whole visa issue when I made my airline reservations two weeks ago! Her excuse? She said she thought I was Taiwanese when we talked on the phone. Yeah, right. Like anybody would confuse my Chinese for a local’s. I know this game…
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June 25th, 2006 at 7:23 am
Mark, if you can stop over in Hong Kong on the way you can probably get a visa without any hassles. You should be able to get a visa the same day although expect to pay $$$$$$’s for it.
June 25th, 2006 at 12:18 pm
The tickets my agents registered for me are via Macao, with only a 2 hour lay-over. I don’t think I can use that method this time.
Just how much did you have to pay in HK last time?
June 25th, 2006 at 12:24 pm
go to HK and then do it there; I think Spicygirl could put you up.
June 25th, 2006 at 12:44 pm
I guess I’ll talk to my travel agents and see if I can change the tickets. How long of a layover should I plan to spend in HK? Overnight? Can either of you guys give me a link to a web page that describes this process or at least has the address of whatever office I need to go to?
June 25th, 2006 at 6:09 pm
ye you’d better stay in Macau or HK over night. you can pay around 50$ to get the visa in 2 days,so stay there around 3 days is better. you can go to HK china embassy to do the visa by yourself, but the embassy there is just too many people,you have to wait at least 3hrs. So in case you want to make things easier,pay a little bit more money to a travel agency.
Macau is lovely city. It’s worth it to hang out.
June 25th, 2006 at 6:23 pm
It was a few years ago that I last travelled from Taiwan to China. From memory it cost HK$900 for a six-month multiple entry visa issued the same day. I assume a shorter tourist visa would be cheaper, although they charge US citizens more.
The agency I used was Shoestring Travel. It is on the 4th floor of Alpha House on the corner of Nathan and Peking Roads. This is a very central and prominent location in the Tsim Sha Tsui district of Kowloon. Again, it is a couple of years since I was last in Hong Kong, but I assume they are still there.
You could also post a message on Lonely Planet’s Thorntree to find a recommended agency for getting a visa in HK. Good luck.
June 29th, 2006 at 11:39 am
Supposedly you can get a visa for China issued in Macau.
June 29th, 2006 at 11:33 pm
I told you it’s better to go to HK. Did you get my email? Anyway, I think you should change your ticket and use the HK method. Let me look for the link again and post it here, if you don’t mind.
June 29th, 2006 at 11:41 pm
http://www.tdctrade.com/vod/visa_china_c.htm?OVRAW=%E7%BE%8E%E5%9C%8B%E4%BA%BA%E8%BE%A6%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B%E7%B0%BD%E8%AD%89&OVKEY=%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B%20%E7%B0%BD%E8%AD%89&OVMTC=advanced
http://big5.fmprc.gov.cn:89/gate/big5/www.fmcoprc.gov.hk/chn/lsfw/wgrqz/default.htm
Some links for you.
June 30th, 2006 at 5:16 am
My agent worked some awesome visa-fu. I’ve got the required visa to go to the mainland, and it didn’t take any side trips to HK or Macau, or anything! Woohoo!
June 30th, 2006 at 10:05 pm
Mark,
You might be interested in this. Sorry, it’s long, but there is no website, so I copied the whole email.
Eli
Position: English Teacher, Qinghai Province, China, August 2006 (do not reply to the list)
********************************************************************
From: “Kevin Stuart”
Contact: Charlotte Jefferay: jyekuteach@yahoo.com,
charlotte.jefferay@gmail.com
ENGLISH TEACHER WANTED
Qinghai Province, China
Reporting to work 28 August 2006
Huangnan Nationalities Teachers’ College is looking for a qualified experienced English language teacher to take responsibility for a class of 30 specially selected English Training Programme (ETP) students from Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in the Amdo Tibetan area of Qinghai Province.
Conditions of employment:
Salary: Equivalent to a senior local teacher’s salary: 2 500 RMB a month for 12 months.
Contract: One year initially with the possibility of renewal. (September 2006 to August 2007)
Duties: Up to 15 hours of instruction in English language a week using a variety of different teaching methods and activities (with limited resources) and helping to create a syllabus.
Extracurricular: Several hours a week in informal student contact and assisting the students with small-scale development projects.
Accommodation: An apartment with running water, heating, inside toilet, electricity, gas cooker, telephone and basic furnishing.
Visa: The school will assist with getting a ‘Z’ visa
Travel: The teacher will have to pay his/her own (return) airfare transport to Xining the Provincial Capital. A portion of this cost will be reimbursed at the end of the first year and up to 10,000 RMB at the end of three years.
Medical Insurance: The teacher will be covered by a local medical insurance but international cover is the teacher’s responsibility.
Holiday: There is a six-seven week break in the winter and
approximately 5 weeks in the summer
Qualifications and skills required:
English proficiency: spoken and written English with native fluency. B.A. degree plus EFL/ESL training.
Teaching experience of at least two years preferably in an Asian country and preferably in China. Willingness to learn the Tibetan language and/or Chinese.
Awareness of local sensitivities and an attitude of respect and support for all indigenous religious and cultural beliefs/customs. Good interpersonal and communication skills with school administration.
Independence, self reliance and creativity.
Background Information:
The college is situated in Tongren Town (Tibetan area called Rebgong) approximately 180 km SE of Xining City, the Provincial Capital. It is in a picturesque river valley at an altitude of 2,500 meters. Summers are warm and the winters are cold - below 11 degrees C at times. It
is a small town (perhaps 50 000 inhabitants) with restaurants, hotels, banks, markets, smallish supermarkets and Internet access. There are many monasteries and easy access to the rural mountain area. The majority of the town’s residents are Tibetan. There are smaller populations of Han Chinese and Muslims.
There are currently two ETP classes and there will possibly be a new class starting in September 2006. The main aim of the ETP is to train excellent students as future English teachers in an area that is one of China’s poorest. At the end of the three years, the students will write entrance exams for higher education and be in a stronger position to explore employment and further study opportunities to the benefit of the Tibetan community.
July 1st, 2006 at 3:44 am
Thanks, but I’m not looking for a job.