I’m currently in Fuzhou, with my visa due to run out in about 20 days. I’ve been told though that it’s absolutely impossible to get a new visa inside China, and that I’d have to go to Hong Kong. Then other people are telling me that I can’t even get one in Hong Kong, I’d have to go back to my home country, New Zealand.

It sounds though like you just went in to any old PSB and asked there, and it was possible to get one? How recently was it that you did that? Stories about visa’s are changing every day… I keep hearing horror stories about how hard it is.

Hopefully it’s not so hard. It sounds like you managed to do it without too much trouble.

came back to Beijing gave my passport to the psb, and after 2 months of waiting for my working card, they told me that my Z visa was cancelled. this happened back n april. right around the delightful time of the torch relay.

in the end i had to pay a 5000 yuan fine for overstaying on a cancelled visa, bc my duration of stay said 0 days, but they didnt tell me that my visa was cancelled until april, but i still had to pay for the four months i unknowningly overstayed while i was waiting for my working card, and resident permit.

confusing i know, still trying to figure it out but anyone who knows china knows that when the govt makes a mistake, its not “their fault.”

so i was told that i had to get an F visa instead. word to the wise, if you are in beijing, dont go to hong kong to get a new visa, go to seoul south korea, plane ticket and hotels are cheaper.

anyways, got to korea, was told no more f visa, only 30 day L visas with proof of round trip airfare and hotel reservations.

but i was told i can extend the 30 day L visa twice, 30 days each while inside china, making it legal to stay in china for 90 days without leaving.

so not only are they making it harder to get Z visas, they actually cancel them too. the bs excuse they gave me was im too young to work in the industry i was working in.

All this is for your own good and for the sake of a harmonious society.

Gotta pay for that billion dollar Baghdad embassy somehow.

China is indeed matching the US fee increase.

Chinese applying for US visas at least get the benefit of the ever increasing value of the yuan versus the dollar, though.

That’s quite interesting they made you and your family, and all I had to submit was my request letter, letters from friends in China, and an itinerary…all of which could have been easily faked if I didn’t truly have arrangements. They didn’t ask to see any financial information. I’ve always found it a bit ridiculous to ask for bank statements in the first place, since I usually survive on around $10 a day in China anyway. If I were to save up around 30 grand, I could probably move to China and retire.

Yes, I think Chinese embassy or consulate general does treat expat Chinese differently than they would with a plain lao wai. The fees stay the same, though. I went through a Chinese “travel agent,” which was hand-picked by the Chinese embassy to represent them since we don’t have a Chinese consulate general in our city. The “travel agent” lady (she actually doesn’t run any travel business) asked for the Chinese names for all 4 of us and told me that the consulate general in Houston would definitely treat us better when they see us with Chinese names. Also, my travel agent lady said that Chinese embassy might now require to see bank statements, just as the U.S. embassy would with Chinese tourists. My guess is that it could be another nationalistic gesture.

@ouyang

I was surprised to learn that Taiwan would charge U.S. citizens extra for their visa. We are U.S. citizens and don’t need visa to go to Taiwan if we stay for less than 30 days. If we stay over 30 days, the visa fee is so little that I don’t even rememeber how much it was last time (maybe $25?). Of course I applied from the States. Applying in Hong Kong would be different.

I have talked to several Chinese American friends who have traveled between the U.S. and China a lot more than I do. They all say that the high visa fee was first started by the U.S. China just “retaliated.”

One world, one dream, and one expensive Chinese visa!

” Visa applicants are increasing in a large number and need longer waiting time in the visa office recently. If you don’t reside or work in Hong Kong permanently, you are required to apply Chinese visa from the Embassy or Consulate-General of Peoples’ Republic of China in your resident country. You are welcome to China for tourism, business, visit of the Olympic Games.”

You’ve hit on the golden rule again, there are no rules. In a perfect (or even a not-so-perfect) world, there should be a definitive way to tell somebody “yes, we are giving Z visas in Hong Kong to Americans” or “We are not, you need to go home.” It seems like a pretty black and white question to me.

The whole system doesn’t make any sense. If it’s all about a shakedown, then I think most people would happily pay an exorbitant fee, rather than schlepping around the world.

I haven’t applied for a Z visa myself in several years, but from what I’ve heard, they are no longer giving Z visas in Hong Kong, and applicants need to return to their home countries. Back in the glory days of 2004 I remember flying to Fuzhou on a 30-day tourist visa. Once I arrived, my school simply took my passport and applied for a 1-year Z visa in town. I didn’t even have to leave my apartment. Gotta miss the good old days.

By the way… most people are telling me to forget about going to Hong Kong to get my legitimate Z visa for a new job in Beijing. I’ve got all the proper paperwork and stamped forms. An Australian I know applied for a Z visa in HK and was only given an F visa and told to get the Z visa in Australia. But a British guy I know had no problems, and received a next-day Z visa.

What do you think I should do? I called CTS and they said I should come down and “try”. But the savings of getting the visa in HK are quite serious when compared to going back to the US, but only if I’m successful. (If I fail in HK I’d have to go back to the US anyway.) Argggh!!