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Visa in China?


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We are flying to bejing for 3 night stopover then  cruising from Beijing onto Japan, Tiawann, Vietnam, Hong kKong, then flying back to UK from Singapore. 

Can we get the 72/144 hour free visa?  and if so , are there long delays at beijing airport to do this. We have been told they hold your passport and it takes so long that transfers are missed.

I cannot believe everyone who cruises from China has to go in person to Chinese embassy and pay £150 each for visa. 

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  • Matt changed the title to Visa in China?
25 minutes ago, Maureen Phillips said:

We are flying to bejing for 3 night stopover then  cruising from Beijing onto Japan, Tiawann, Vietnam, Hong kKong, then flying back to UK from Singapore. 

Can we get the 72/144 hour free visa?  and if so , are there long delays at beijing airport to do this. We have been told they hold your passport and it takes so long that transfers are missed.

I cannot believe everyone who cruises from China has to go in person to Chinese embassy and pay £150 each for visa. 

I cannot address the first part, but I can address the second - no, it's very unlikely you would physically need to go to a Chinese embassy or consulate unless you wanted to. In the UK, US, and other countries, there are visa services that will take care of it...for example, send an application and your passport (and a fee, of course) to a broker who then deals with the embassy/consulate, gets the visa, and sends it back. It's usually more expensive than just going to the embassy/consulate, but of course reduces the time and expense of actually going there. My colleagues and I all have Chinese business visas and none of us has ever gotten them at a Chinese embassy/consulate (Back when I worked in China for two years, I had to go to the Chinese consulate for a work visa, but that was, of course, a very different scenario).

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1 hour ago, NJCruisers said:

My daughter just started traveling to China for business and although she has a work visa good for the next 10 years now, she never had to go in person to get it.  I do know there was a fee, but her company obviously covered it. 

 

Does she have a business visa or a work visa? I'm guessing it's the former...they're quite different (business visas allow you to conduct business trips to China; work visa allows you to hold employment in China). I was always able to get a business visa without going, but my work visa required me actually going. That being said, I worked in China almost 10 years ago, so that may have changed too.

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1 hour ago, Zacharius said:

 

Does she have a business visa or a work visa? I'm guessing it's the former...they're quite different (business visas allow you to conduct business trips to China; work visa allows you to hold employment in China). I was always able to get a business visa without going, but my work visa required me actually going. That being said, I worked in China almost 10 years ago, so that may have changed too.

She has a work visa.  She was just there for 10 days earlier this month.  

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https://www.travelchinaguide.com/embassy/visa.htm

This site is pretty informative but it appears that you apply for the 72/144 visas when you arrive in China.  You would do that when you get in from your flight.  I don't see there's a way to get that process taken care of ahead of time, so you will have to deal with the wait in Beijing. 

The only way to avoid that is to visit your local Chinese embassy and pay for the full tourist visa or go through a broker that handles it for an extra fee.

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50 minutes ago, NJCruisers said:

She has a work visa.  She was just there for 10 days earlier this month.  

Interesting, I've never heard of a work visa having 10 years validity, seems shocking to me. Business visa, sure, as I currently have a 10-year business visa since I am no longer eligible for (nor want) a work visa, but yeah...definitely interesting.

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31 minutes ago, Zacharius said:

Interesting, I've never heard of a work visa having 10 years validity, seems shocking to me. Business visa, sure, as I currently have a 10-year business visa since I am no longer eligible for (nor want) a work visa, but yeah...definitely interesting.

Yes, it's basically a sticker on a page in her passport.  It's almost all in Chinese but it's good until 2028.  She is supposed to travel there several times a year but she's only been twice so far.  

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