Job Discussion Forums

edbuch · Joined: 16 Nov 2010 Posts: 34 Location: Gansu

Can anyone tell me if it is true that in order to get a z visa in the USA you can no longer just go to the embassy or consulate and get it within a few days but instead you must use an agency and that the agency may take some time to process your visa?

The reason I ask is that this is the story I am getting from a foreign teacher who claims he wants to come over here from the States to take up a job he has accepted but even at this late stage he is claiming he still cannot get the visa.

Also, I am just curious about this. If it is true, maybe other people will want to know.

Bud Powell · Joined: 11 Jul 2013 Posts: 1736

If one is in the U.S., it may depend upon the location of the Consulate. Things change at the consulates. Your best bet is to contact the Travel Document Systems in your Chinese Consulate's jurisdiction and ask what the prevailing procedure and lead time is. You can't always depend upon the consulate to have current information on its website.

I refer to Travel Document Systems because they handle literally hundreds of documents every week, and they know every consulates' procedures and requirements. In both the New York and the Washington, D.C. Chinese consulates, procedures for applying for a Z visa and other visas have changed a few times during the past three years.

Unless one lives in the city where the Chinese consulate resides, he's really better off using a courier service to handle the processing. If you have made a mistake in the simple paperwork (it happens) or if you apply with the wrong paperwork, they'll catch it. Unless you need your visa in a very short period of time, there's no advantage to applying for the visa yourself. You may go all of the way to the consulate, drop off the paperwork, then be told to pick it up in two days.

Go with a courier service. It's worth the added expense. Next day FedEx return of your passport with the visa costs less than $20.00, and the charge of the courier service is worth it to spare yourself a headache.

I've done both, and I've found that if I can live for a week (maximum completion time including FedEx) without my passport, the courier service is worth it.

mw182006 · Joined: 10 Dec 2012 Posts: 310

muffintop · Joined: 07 Jan 2013 Posts: 803

Be sure you are looking into the proper visa. Initially I thought they meant just a simple letter of invitation but that last bit you mentioned sounds like...I don't even know what. Nobody is going to assume your expenses. The bit about you having enough funds sounds like an L(tourist) visa....the guarantee I can only imagine being related to an F(business) visa though it does not seem right to me at all. I came over initially on an F and didn't have those headaches.

Find another company imo.

choudoufu · Joined: 25 May 2010 Posts: 3325 Location: Mao-berry, PRC

"...A business letter of responsibility (sample) is required,..." for a business visa.

a quickie google search sez you're reading traveldocs business visa page.

China Business Visa SF - Traveldocs.com
www.traveldocs.com/?page=china-business-visa-sf‎
A business letter of responsibility (sample) is required, to be typewritten on your company letterhead and addressed to: Consulate of China, Visa Section, San ...

you wanna apply for a z-visa.

http://www.traveldocs.com/index.php?page=china-work-z-jurisdiction

mw182006 · Joined: 10 Dec 2012 Posts: 310

Well, I hope you're right but I clicked apply for Work Visa "Z", then chose Texas jurisdiction. Here's the link once I got to the requirements page:

http://www.traveldocs.com/index.php?page=china-z-visa-ho

choudoufu · Joined: 25 May 2010 Posts: 3325 Location: Mao-berry, PRC

i just read their texas page. work visa also asks for the business letter.
click the link to the sample! ridikulous.

*****hmmm.....traveldocs won't open in hainan.********

previous poster is right, these guys have their heads up their kerry.
they also require proof of residence in order to use specific consulates,
which ain't the way it works.

try these guys...........visaexpress. they offer same day service if you
go through the san francisco office.

http://www.visaexpress.net/china/chinaworkvisa.htm

(i used them way back when for my long, long ago student visa.)

psss....visa express $49. the other guys $80.

mw182006 · Joined: 10 Dec 2012 Posts: 310

Bud Powell · Joined: 11 Jul 2013 Posts: 1736

It doesn't really matter which service you use, I recommended TDS because they've been reliable,PLUS they answer the phone.

Again, it doesn't much matter which service you use. I recommend that you call the courier service for clarification.

It sounds like you read requirements for an F visa.

Make a call.

mw182006 · Joined: 10 Dec 2012 Posts: 310

Guerciotti · Posted: Mon Sep 09, 2013 10:20 pm Post subject:

Which Consulate will you use? I went through the Los Angeles consulate. If you pay an extra $40 and start early, you may finish it in one day doing it yourself. I prefer to drive there and back and do it myself, but that's just me. Oh, bring two passport pics, or you can do that down the hall for $10, if I recall correctly.

This was for a Z visa.

Non Sequitur · Joined: 23 May 2010 Posts: 4724 Location: China

I'm lost.
Why all the chat about F and L when OP only asked about Z?

Bud Powell · Joined: 11 Jul 2013 Posts: 1736

Non Sequitur · Joined: 23 May 2010 Posts: 4724 Location: China

parnett · Joined: 29 Jun 2012 Posts: 179 Location: China

I just returned from the US with a new Z visa courtesy of the Consulate in NYC. This is the second time I have done this- the first time I drove from upstate NY to NYC to get it. Total cost to submit my papers and then pick up my passport 5 days later was more than $650 (hotels in NYC are not cheap). This time I used an agency from NYC to do the work for me. The total cost was about $440 and that doesn't include all the stress I didn't have to deal with driving to NYC (6 hours), staying at a hotel, taking a train in, waiting in line, taking a train back to the hotel, and then driving home. There was a minor problem with my paperwork which caused a one day delay, but all in all, it was much easier using the agency.