China Visa ?

[Moonglow]

We are cruising from Anchorage to Bangkok with 3 port stops in China, plus Hong Kong. Our plan is to fly from Bangkok to Beijing after the cruise and take a land tour. Somewhere on this board I read that someone could not get the multiple entry visas they needed and now I am concerned about making plans as you can't get your visa until right before you leave. Has anyone one had any experience with multiple entry visas such as we will need? Thanks.

[rkacruiser]

I would think that you would be able to obtain a multiple entry visa. Why don't you check the web site of a visa service, such as http://www.zvs.com, and see what you can find out. There also would be a telephone number there that you could call and speak to someone.

[Spikesgirl]

We had no trouble getting a multiple visa for China. The name and address of a agency that handles visas came with our ship documents. You can't get your visa too early - I think it's 60 days out, but it only took us two weeks to get it through the embassy in SF. Just make sure the last day (not the first day) in China is 60 days away and you won't have any trouble.

 

Charlie

[greatam]

We are cruising from Anchorage to Bangkok with 3 port stops in China, plus Hong Kong. Our plan is to fly from Bangkok to Beijing after the cruise and take a land tour. Somewhere on this board I read that someone could not get the multiple entry visas they needed and now I am concerned about making plans as you can't get your visa until right before you leave. Has anyone one had any experience with multiple entry visas such as we will need? Thanks.

 

Your plans are very similar to what mine were and I absolutely, positively could not get a multiple entry visa. A double entry visa is what most everyone on a cruise needs-very easy. But multiple (3 or more) entries were a whole 'nother ball game. In 2005, you either needed to have family in China, a business trip to China or a letter from someone to vouch for you that you were actually going to enter and PERMANENTLY leave China after your multiple entries. This is what Princess promised me-a letter from their port agent was forthcoming and Zierer Visa service was going to work with Princess to get the multiple entry visa I needed.

 

The only reason I needed the multiple entry visa is because Princess canceled my first cruise (Beijing to Bankgok) due to SARS (2003), and put me on the next comparable cruise (2005), which was the same direction, but a different time frame. I already had permits to go to Lhasa and to spend time at the panda breeding facility and with the pandas in the wild. Those were things I REALLY wanted to do. So like you, I was going to disembark in Bangkok and fly back to China so I could go to Lhasa and see the pandas.

 

I never did get the multiple entry visa, canceled the cruise, lost my deposit (thank goodness, Princess refunded everything except the deposit as final payment had been made when I found out I couldn't get the multiple entry visa). I turned my trip in 2005 into a business/leisure trip, with only a double entry visa needed.

 

It has changed somewhat since I tried to get the multiple entry visa in 2005. And I have since been able to get multiple entry visas, but I am now considered a business traveler, not a tourist and get an F visa (business).

 

I have heard from other American's that multiple entry visa's (L visa-tourist visas) are NOW available for 6 month duration-due to the number of Americans that are flying in and out of Beijing for preparations for the Olympics.

 

If you are close at all, please check with the closest embassy/consulate IN PERSON. You will get various answers on the phone, some not the best.

 

This is the visa service I used to get the first multiple entry visa-I don't know how he did it, but I got the visa (2006). He was so kind and his service was fantastic. Even met DH after hours so he could pick up my passport with the multiple entry visa. http://www.timelyvisa.com/

 

If push comes to shove, you can get another visa in Hong Kong in about 8 hours. May take an overnight in Hong Kong, if the flight from Bangkok and the onward flight to Beijing don't work out right, but it is doable. If you need this info, please let me know.

 

But first I would try my guy in LA. His service was really great and the price was reasonable. And forget Zierer-they are a joke. Didn't even really know ANYTHING about a multiple entry visa-kept sending me paperwork for a double entry visa.

[Moonglow]

Thank you for your response. I knew I had read of people having trouble with multiple entry visas. Since we live in St. Louis, I will call your visa service and question them, otherwise I may have to rethink this cruise and do it from the opposite direction, going to China 1st. I don't understand China's thinking as the cruise stops in 3 Chinese ports plus Hong Kong. I was going to call the Chinese consulate in Chicago and ask them but I can see where hearsay is no guarantee. As I do all our travel arrangements myself, I want to be sure and get it right. Thanks again

Carol

[CathyK2]

Hopefully you are getting the visa situation squared away. We have been to China a couple of times. Once on a cruise and once for a business trip my husband had taken. We were going to NYC to get the same day visa's at the Chinese Embassy there since I always hate sending passports away, but that's just me.

 

My daughter is now studying abroad in Beijing at Peking University, so we needed to go through this procedure recently, just to get her there. I know they have all sorts of loop holes and try to tell you that you only need a certain visa and although she felt she needed the multiple entries, in reality, when she went to pick it up, that's not what they gave her, so yes, there must be some red tape going with this.

 

But now that she is over there in China, she has found that it has been much easier to getting multiples added onto her visa from over there, which she has done. I'm NOT recommending anyone do that, since this is your vacation and you don't want to leave something like this up in the air, but I did want to mention it, only because if you find you get in a bind, it CAN be something you can do over there as well. Just may take precious time from your already planned schedule which may not be good at all.

 

Good luck and enjoy Asia. It was a wonderful cruise and some of my best cruise memories of all time.

 

Cathy

[daquri]

Ray Yu at Timely Visa is the way to go! Nothing is too much trouble for those people! Very curteous and helpful.

[Lthrman]

We just received our Visas from the Chinese Consulate in SF. Same good for one year, multiple entry. Each entry valid for period up to 30days. There is NO LIMIT on the number of entries. Cost is $100 regardless of the number of entries, so if one asks for one or two entries, you are being not so smart if you intend to return within a year. There were actually people requesting one or two entry visas for the $100 fee and getting them, because they refused to listen.

[DonahCBrown]

We are cruising from Anchorage to Bangkok with 3 port stops in China, plus Hong Kong. Our plan is to fly from Bangkok to Beijing after the cruise and take a land tour. Somewhere on this board I read that someone could not get the multiple entry visas they needed and now I am concerned about making plans as you can't get your visa until right before you leave. Has anyone one had any experience with multiple entry visas such as we will need? Thanks.

 

We did the Sapphire Princess 10/17 and 11/2 Bangkok Beijing, Beijing Bangkok as back to backs and thus needed the multiple entry visa. Had no problem getting a 6 month multi-entry through a visa company, although it was pricey.

 

Do be specific about what you are ordering, though, and make sure to give yourself some time to check it and, if needed, send it back for the right one, if you don't have a consulate near by. Some of the folks we were touring with thought that they had the multi entry, but actually had the dual, and, because their flight went through Beijing and they had to pick up their luggage and recheck it, they were 'charged' with an entry for that landing, even though they never left the airport. When the immigration folks boarded and checked everyone prior to our stop in Shanghai, they were told that they couldn't get off unless they were willing to get off the ship in Nagasaki! They had to use the remaining entry for disembarking in Beijing where they had an extended stay already booked, so they had to miss Shanghai. The agency had evidently looked at their itinerary for the ship, without considering their air travel, and decided that what they required was a dual entry, rather than the multiple entry, so do be very specific about what you want and check it when it arrives. I would have preferred to have been able to do it in person, but that would have required a trip to the mainland for us, so we did use an agency.

 

You don't actually need the Chinese visa for visiting Hong Kong, but you do have to have it for Shanghai, Beijing and anywhere else in mainland China. Hong Kong and Macau, while part of China, have their own regulations on immigration and their own passports, as well.

[leonardray]

Our trip begins in March, received our multi-entry visa last week, it is good for one year and took 2 weeks exactly to receive it.

[greatam]

It sounds like China has finally relaxed the rules for one and all regarding multiple entry visas. In preparation for the Olympics, they had to do something. It was just toooo convoluted a process a couple years ago-some people got multi entry visas, some didn't. Some had to produce voluminous paperwork, some didn't (like when I used TimelyVisa in early 2006). Consistency in the visa process should make it easier for everyone, even the Chinese (who have NO consistency in most government dealings)

[daquri]

I know we are on the same March 24th cruise with you and was wondering why you needed the multi entry China visa? Are you perhaps going on to another city in China before or after the cruise? Thanks.....

[leonardray]

We are going over on the 18th of March for the Beijing precruise. When cruise ends in Hong Kong we are staying there for three days and then going to Shangai for three days, so needed the multi-entree visa. Doing Beijing once and Shanghai twice.