Visa Stories

While we were back in Chicago we also took some time to head down to the Chinese consulate and see if we could get our visas updated from a 30 day maximum stay up to a 90 day visa.

After what we went through trying to get our visas in Hong Kong, we tried to make sure that we were prepared this time. We had a new invitation letter, and it had Tina's name on it as opposed to just inviting me and my wife, which should allow her to get the same visa that I do.

One thing that we weren't sure of was if the consulate was open, being New Years' eve, and their web site doesn't really explain when they are open all that well. At the beginning of December Tina emailed the consulate to ask their hours and received a "We don't know yet when our holidays are, please check the web site when we are closer to the date." Ah, three weeks isn't close enough?

We got up early, got our visa photos taken, and made it down to the consulate at 08:30, a full 30 minutes before they opened and, yes, a line had already started to form. We stepped in and patiently waited for them to open.

By about 9:10 we were up to the window and then the new fun begins. The girl working looks through all of our documentation and tells me that I'm all set, then she looks at Tina's and says "I'm sorry, you can't get a 1 year multiple entry visa, for non-US passports we can only give you a 1 or 2 entry visa." What? That doesn't help us, we explain that we need one and that nowhere on the web does it mention that they can, "New rules," she says "they just changed them." Finally she decides to go in back and ask someone else, just to see if she might be able to make an exception for us, that's when we notice that right on the window is posted the new visa fares, and they have pricing for 6 month and 1 year visas for foreign passports...

Turns out she was wrong, and they will gladly provide both of us with new visas. We selected the same day turn around, seeing as we were flying back the next day, and she told us that we needed to make sure that we were back as soon as they opened after lunch to pick up our visas.

The consulate is open from 09:00-11:30 and then from 13:00-14:30. Not a very long day, but she informed us that because it was New Years' eve they would be closing early. "How early?" we asked, but they didn't know, just that it would be earlier. So, we made sure that we were there right at 13:00 to pick up our visas, as fun as it sounded we didn't want to have to spend another few days in Chicago.

We get our visas, beautiful 1-year multiple entry visas that allow us to stay in the country now for 90 days at a time. Tina's old visa was clearly marked with a giant red "CANCELLED" stamp, but my old one was not. Not good, I'm thinking, in case they let me in using the 30-day, I'd hate to end up in a Chinese jail for something like that, and we've heard stories about that happening to others...

I go back up to the window and ask to have my old visa stamped cancelled, and the lady looks at my passport, the old and new visas, and starts asking questions. "Why you get a new visa? Old one still good until September. You don't need a new visa." Great, I'm thinking, she's going to want to take my new visa back. I explained the need to stay in the country for more then 30 days at a time, but it didn't seem like she liked that answer and she finally said "Wait" and disappeared into the back.

She came back and had stamped my old visa cancelled, all is now good in our world. This visa experience was much less painful then Hong Kong, but still with just enough questions to make us worry a few times that we wouldn't get exactly what we wanted.