Results tagged “visa”

Shanghai's Exit-Entry Administration Bureau is warning foreigners to watch out for fraudulent visa agents after several people have been scammed... some even losing their passports. It said that over 50% of the 100 foreigners it put under detention in 2009 had overstayed after failing to get their visa from agents. The Shanghai Exit-Entry Administration Bureau suggests you go through them if you want to extend your visa, and to call 2895-1900 for more information. We suggest you use a little Magic.

As if it wasn't annoying enough already that the 60th anniversary was going to give us visa problems, China's now allegedly using swine flu as a reason to tighten visa rules for citizens from the United States. According to the AP, a May 3 notice said that all U.S. visa applications, including tourist and business categories, will now require six business days to process - express and rush services will be suspended until further notice. Applicants will also need to fill out a form declaring which countries and U.S. states they have visited in the last two weeks. China has denied discriminating against specific countries and insisted that “the adjustment of visa policy will not affect the normal entry of foreigners and exchanges of people.”

The deviant little grass mud horse has struck again - only this time, it's a real alpaca rather than an internet one that's the center of this controversy. According to Forbes Asia, two Chinese men used an elaborate scam to trick an oblivious 74-year-old Tennessean Alpaca farmer into giving them business visas.

So while some of us are struggling with our visas, fearful that the 60th anniversary might screw up our chances of staying in this country somehow, a newspaper has informed us that maybe there was a way for us to enter Shanghai without that coveted, gov't-stamped document.

City Weekend has an interesting look at some of the troubles that face Chinese bands trying to widen their appeal abroad. Recently, Wuhan punk band SMZB had an opportunity to tour the U.S. after being invited to participate at Washington D.C.'s Shamrock Festival. Unfortunately, they never made it there, thanks to visa problems:

... so says our favourite visa agency. In November, regulations were loosened to allow for the 3-6 month F visa, but since 6 December, the 12 month multiple-entry F visa has been made available again. Does the global economic crisis and dwindling tourist numbers have anything to do with this? Maybe, but who cares, really? Check for VisaInChina's updated services and price list here.

For those of you still wondering if the pre-Olympic easy visa days are going to return or not, here's your answer. They are a thing of the past, so don't look back because they ain't coming back anytime soon. Three months after the Beijing Olympics, the police are still maintaining their vigilance and conducting spot checks by knocking on residential apartments and offices to see if you are really what your visa application says you are. A Filipino maid has just been ordered to leave China for falsifying her documents. In her application for a residence permit in September, she claimed to be a Shanghai branch representative of an international company but was later found by the police to be working as a maid for an executive of a foreign-invested company. [Source]

We're sure this latest visa report from Reuters will be like music to the ears of some of you who have been waiting a few months to hear this:

Visa curbs on foreigners travelling into China via Hong Kong as part of a security clampdown during the Beijing Olympics will be lifted next month, a major travel industry association said yesterday.

Continue reading "Lift on curbs on visas obtained via Hong Kong"

Video: polskipekin follows three groups of artists around Beijing and asks them for their take on what it means to be painting in a rapidly evolving China [h/t Jeremy Goldkorn of Danwei]

The Shanghai municipal government has flat-out denied that F visa applications have been suspended as earlier reports in foreign media suggested, saying that "the reports did not conform to the truth". While admitting that "some related authorities adjusted the procedures of visa applications ahead of the Beijing Olympics in order to forestall possible security threats", a spokesperson has said that over 500 applications per day have been processed in the first half of this year, a rise of more than 170 percent from last year. [Shanghai Daily]

Trouble with visa renewal is one thing, but forced deportation is quite another. Foreigners whining about the former should take a look at the recent case of Dechen Pemba, a Brit of Tibetan descent who was detained, driven to the airport, and expelled from the PRC for five years when she walked out of her Beijing apartment last Tuesday. The seven plain clothes policemen who escorted Pemba allowed her only time to pack a bag, refusing to let her call her family or the British embassy until she was sitting on an Air China plane.

We've been writing a lot about the visa situation recently, which has gotten more and more bothersome as the Olympics approach. But this tactic is a new one: Matt of bizCult gives us a play-by-play of his experiences using a student visa... for business purposes. Pros: easier to obtain, multiple entry, much cheaper. Cons: actually having to go to class sometimes, like the Mongolian prostitutes using the same strategy. All in all, Matt gives the method a B++, which is probably better than his GPA, since he skipped his finals.

With less than six weeks before the Games, the Chinese visa situation Shanghaiist reported on earlier this month is not getting any better. Many foreign residents living here for years are now being forced to leave China, and some of them are reconsidering "how much of their operations they keep in China," Andrew Work, executive director of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, said. The Wall Street Journal follows a story similar to that of Canadian Daniel Yeung in the Globe and Mail. John T. McAlister, the American co-founder of a scientific-research company, leaves China today after making it his home for the past eight years. Through a series of complications, McAlister had been forced to live on a renewed F (temporary business) visa for the past six months. When it was time to switch to a Z visa, many of the registered companies he appealed to to sponsor him had trouble providing him with working papers. McAlister was told he was too old to qualify for proper work permits (he is 71), but wasn’t told what the official cutoff age was. "The problem about all of this is the suddenness and enforcement of rules that may have existed always but are hard to accommodate in a short period of time," McAllister told WSJ.

From the highly authoritative People's Daily:

The Beijing Olympics official website recently released "A guide to Chinese law for Foreigners coming to, leaving or staying in China during the Olympics" (hereinafter referred to as "the Guide"). The Guide points out that ticketholders for the Olympic Games from overseas will not automatically be granted a visa. They still need to apply for a visa from China's overseas embassies.

African nationals in the city have been running small businesses on flexible, six-month ``F'' visas and are now being given only tourist visas of up to 15 days, the Morning Post said.

• Via Danwei: For the first time, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has acknowledged that visa procedures have been tightened. Said Qin Gang, according to the AP:

  "We have made some arrangements according to usual international practice. That is, in the approval process we are more strict and more serious with the procedure," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said.

  Continue reading "China visa updates"

The British Embassy lobbied the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing and have now secured confirmation from them that 12 month multiple-entry business visas will continue to be available to all qualifying UK applicants.

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Latest message from the Commissioner's Office of the Chinese Foreign Ministry in the Hong Kong S.A.R.:

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.

We told you it wasn't going to work in Hong Kong. And now it won't even work in Shanghai! Here's the latest update from everyone's favourite visa guy, Magic, from VisaInChina.com:

From 1st April 2008, The Entry and Exit Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security update the visa policy again. According to that, now the Authority will not accept of changing the visa type from L visa to F visa or F visa to L visa. Only allow L visa to L visa or F visa to F visa extension.

Continue reading "Getting your F visa: Even magic won't work now!"