STOP….
Before you even consider going through this process from within Hong Kong at the Chinese Consulate, please do yourself a favor and read the below.
It is imperative that you have your first few destinations planned and have booking confirmations. If you use booking.com you are able to make reservations that will have a free cancellation period so you are able to change your travel plans after entering the country, this is especially useful if you are planning on making many short stops. If the accommodation confirmations only have one persons name on it you will need a declaration document to state you have booked on behalf of others. These can be obtained at the pre-check desk and you will need to submit one with each application not named on the accommodation, along with a copy of the passport fo the person who's name the booking is in.
It also helps to have your train bus or flight booked into china. This can be difficult as the visa can take between 2-4 business days to obtain (depending if you pay for the ‘urgent/service’ and often flights and train tickets can be non-refundable (you probably wouldn’t be able to claim on travel insurance either a it was not at fault of the provider that the trip was missed). I would suggest leaving yourself a decent leeway to make sure you aren’t going to miss your connection.
Make an appointment! I cannot stress this enough. There were people lining up for 3-5 hours to have their documents pre-checked. If you go to the link displayed in the photo you can make an appointment and you will jump the entire queue. There is a separate queue on your left once you exit the elevator. It is usually only 4-5 people long. Where as the non-appointment queue is 100 or so long and stretches around the entire office.
Arrive early. Avoid Monday and Friday and holiday times. If you haven’t made and appointment I would recommend getting there an hour or more before they open with all your documents prepared in order to avoid the queue.
Be patient and don’t miss your number. There can be quite a language barrier with some of the staff that work here. And the general feel is that they don’t want to make it easy to get into the country, so make sure you keep your cool and negotiate you position.
Before you even consider going through this process from within Hong Kong at the Chinese Consulate, please do yourself a favor and read the below.
Visa's can be applied for before leaving on holiday to China, which involves sending your passport, application & supporting documents away within a certain time period, once your Visa is approved (if approved) & depending on what sort of Visa you have applied for, you have a certain time period to then get into the country. Alternatively, you can apply in Hong Kong international airport Via Express service through a company called CTS once you arrive. We were not eligible for this service, due to one of us having a brand new passport & our Visa type. We have read good reviews about this service but can not personally comment. If there is an opportunity to avoid going in and applying in person at the Chinese consulate, I would jump at that option!
Follow the basic document checklist & don't be surprised if they ask for extra documentation. We supplied and recommend having multiple copies of your passport as well as your actual passport, copies of any old passports and the original's, copies and originals of international drivers licenses & Australian drivers licenses. Proof of employment such as group certificates, payslips and an official letter of employment from your employer containing your passport number. A copy and the original of your arrival card for Hong Kong. An itinerary, even a rough one that you can change as you go, typed in a word document explaining what sort of traveller you are and what you were seeing and where you are going. Booking confirmations for accommodation and your mode of transport into the country. We weren't able to supply this as we had to have a visa and our passports to book our train tickets. The lady at the consulate was initially going to reject our application but we kept pushing and explained we weren't able to book it and that we wanted to back pack, she asked a supervisor who said that was fine. Date & mode of departure from the country, they are particularly fussy about this, thankfully we had this planned and a flight from Beijing to Nepal already booked.
Follow the basic document checklist & don't be surprised if they ask for extra documentation. We supplied and recommend having multiple copies of your passport as well as your actual passport, copies of any old passports and the original's, copies and originals of international drivers licenses & Australian drivers licenses. Proof of employment such as group certificates, payslips and an official letter of employment from your employer containing your passport number. A copy and the original of your arrival card for Hong Kong. An itinerary, even a rough one that you can change as you go, typed in a word document explaining what sort of traveller you are and what you were seeing and where you are going. Booking confirmations for accommodation and your mode of transport into the country. We weren't able to supply this as we had to have a visa and our passports to book our train tickets. The lady at the consulate was initially going to reject our application but we kept pushing and explained we weren't able to book it and that we wanted to back pack, she asked a supervisor who said that was fine. Date & mode of departure from the country, they are particularly fussy about this, thankfully we had this planned and a flight from Beijing to Nepal already booked.
Visa photos that aren't older than 6 months. They are particularly fussy about this as well and were very quizical about my facial hair growth that was not on the visa photos taken 5 weeks prior. Allisha had to take new photos and remove all jewellery from her ears and face. This is very unexpected and a lot of women have to redo their visa photos. We were unable to remove some of Allisha's new cartilage piercings in the top of her ear but successfully covered them with band-aids a similar colour to her skin.
You will need an application document, that as far as I know can only be obtained from the office itself. Pick this up and return another day with an appointment for the quickest service, this is what we chose to do. Otherwise if its not too busy you might be able to fill it out on the spot and have a 9:30-10:00 appointment pre- booked on the same day, so you can jump the queue once you have all your paperwork filled out. The office opens at 9am, on our second visit to the consulate we arrived early at 8:35am and the line was already very long, the entire lobby was jammed full of people waiting in the non-appointment line for the pre-check, we couldn’t get off the lift! At every visit to the consulate, we have arrived early in the morning and the lines have always been excruciatingly long... 5 hours long for a pre-check of your documents! If you have the money and not the standard 4 days turn around time, you can apply for an urgent Visa, avoid the massive lines, pay $900 HKD and have your Visa in 2 days.
It is imperative that you have your first few destinations planned and have booking confirmations. If you use booking.com you are able to make reservations that will have a free cancellation period so you are able to change your travel plans after entering the country, this is especially useful if you are planning on making many short stops. If the accommodation confirmations only have one persons name on it you will need a declaration document to state you have booked on behalf of others. These can be obtained at the pre-check desk and you will need to submit one with each application not named on the accommodation, along with a copy of the passport fo the person who's name the booking is in.
It also helps to have your train bus or flight booked into china. This can be difficult as the visa can take between 2-4 business days to obtain (depending if you pay for the ‘urgent/service’ and often flights and train tickets can be non-refundable (you probably wouldn’t be able to claim on travel insurance either a it was not at fault of the provider that the trip was missed). I would suggest leaving yourself a decent leeway to make sure you aren’t going to miss your connection.
Make an appointment! I cannot stress this enough. There were people lining up for 3-5 hours to have their documents pre-checked. If you go to the link displayed in the photo you can make an appointment and you will jump the entire queue. There is a separate queue on your left once you exit the elevator. It is usually only 4-5 people long. Where as the non-appointment queue is 100 or so long and stretches around the entire office.
Arrive early. Avoid Monday and Friday and holiday times. If you haven’t made and appointment I would recommend getting there an hour or more before they open with all your documents prepared in order to avoid the queue.
Be patient and don’t miss your number. There can be quite a language barrier with some of the staff that work here. And the general feel is that they don’t want to make it easy to get into the country, so make sure you keep your cool and negotiate you position.
When you collect your Visa, you will feel like a huge weight has been lifted from your shoulders. China will be worth every second of the 6.5 hours we spent in the consulate!
- Tom
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ReplyDeleteThank you very much for your valuable information. can you help me in finding out more detail on China visa
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