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newbie84
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 58
Location: Huashi, china
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 Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2004 10:04 pm Post subject: I NEED YOUR HELP! |
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I'm getting the run around with my visa and forms. ALL I NEED TO KNOW IS DO I NEED A RETURN TICKET TO GET INTO CHINA ON A TOURIST VISA. Nobody will give me a straight answer.
Let me give you some insight as to my situation. I want to leave vancouver for china in exactly 20 days, still don't have my ticket or my Visa (long story as to why so late). I want to get tourist and change to working visa while I'm there.
I know you can pay one of those express visa places like $120 for you visa but I also know that its only $50 @ the embassy.
So if any of you smarty pants out there knows anything that can help me I would love you forever if you will share!!!!! |
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randyj
Joined: 19 Jan 2003
Posts: 460
Location: Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
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| Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2004 11:14 pm Post subject: |
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| Last Wednesday I went with my brother to the Houston consulate to apply for tourist visas for himself and his boss. They plan to attend a trade show in Shanghai this November. He came from Tulsa on a business trip, so I helped him find the consulate. Absolutely nothing was mentioned about flight arrangements. In fact, they have not yet booked the flights. The visa form contains no space for that information. |
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ieea
Joined: 07 Aug 2004
Posts: 29
Location: haikou City, Hainan Province
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| Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2004 12:38 am Post subject: Re: I NEED YOUR HELP! |
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| newbie84 wrote: |
I'm getting the run around with my visa and forms. ALL I NEED TO KNOW IS DO I NEED A RETURN TICKET TO GET INTO CHINA ON A TOURIST VISA. Nobody will give me a straight answer.
Let me give you some insight as to my situation. I want to leave vancouver for china in exactly 20 days, still don't have my ticket or my Visa (long story as to why so late). I want to get tourist and change to working visa while I'm there.
I know you can pay one of those express visa places like $120 for you visa but I also know that its only $50 @ the embassy.
So if any of you smarty pants out there knows anything that can help me I would love you forever if you will share!!!!! |
You do NOT need a return ticket.
It would be wise to have a letter of invitation from the school and go to CHina with a "z" visa. Make sure you research the CHinese embassy website concerning "z" visa prior to departure. |
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Norman Bethune
Joined: 19 Apr 2004
Posts: 731
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| Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2004 2:07 am Post subject: Re: I NEED YOUR HELP! |
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| newbie84 wrote: |
I'm getting the run around with my visa and forms. ALL I NEED TO KNOW IS DO I NEED A RETURN TICKET TO GET INTO CHINA ON A TOURIST VISA. Nobody will give me a straight answer.
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Sorry, but there are no straight answers, despite what Chinese Government Websites and posters here may say.
Yes, in theory you need an outward bound ticket or enough money in your pocket to get out of China after you arrive on a tourist visa. But, this is China...what rules are in theory and practice are two different things.
You will probably encounter more hassles from a US based flight departure desk clerk than you will from customs and immigration when you arrive in China. Airlines try to keep people off their planes if they don't have the right visa and outbound ticket the destination country needs in published regulations. It will probably be an american trying to limit his airline's liability that will keep you getting on the plane in the first place.
So, come to China on a tourist visa. Don't tell anyone you plan to work here. Converting your visa to a work visa can be done later in China by your employer.
When leaving from the states, tell the desk clerk if he asks why you only have a one-way ticket, that you will be transiting China to get to Laos, or Thailand and you will arrange the visa for those countries while in China.
Flash a credit card or travellers cheques to show you have money to pay for travel and lodging while in China and to leave for a third country.
When you arrive in China, again I doubt you will have problems entering with that one way ticket. If you are stopped and asked about it, tell them you are a tourist, you will arrange Visas to leave with the Laotian or Thai consulates here. Show them you have enough money to travel and buy a ticket on a train or plane to another destination later. Your plans are flexible.
Don't worry. Your just a tourist. But you need enough credit or money to show people you are.
This is China. Nothing happens the way it should. |
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Roger
Joined: 19 Jan 2003
Posts: 9138
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| Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2004 8:35 am Post subject: |
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A one-way ticket has always been enough for me to come here; I don't understand why we have been seeing a flood of similarly-worded queries of lat..
But don't come without some money to buy you a return ticket if need be... |
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latefordinner
Joined: 19 Aug 2003
Posts: 973
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| Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2004 9:17 am Post subject: |
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A wise doctor posted:
>Sorry, but there are no straight answers, despite what Chinese Government Websites and posters here may say.
Yes, in theory you need an outward bound ticket or enough money in your pocket to get out of China after you arrive on a tourist visa. But, this is China...what rules are in theory and practice are two different things.
Get the visa first, then a one-way. My visas only took 4 days turn around both times, although that was visiting the consulate in Toronto. Vancouver might be a day slower. Didn't need return tickets either time. Arrange the Z visa and medical when in-country; although employers being what they are here, that may be as simple or as dificult as imaginable. But hey, one adventure at a time, right? |
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Norman Bethune
Joined: 19 Apr 2004
Posts: 731
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| Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2004 11:20 am Post subject: |
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| Roger wrote: |
A one-way ticket has always been enough for me to come here; I don't understand why we have been seeing a flood of similarly-worded queries of lat..
But don't come without some money to buy you a return ticket if need be... |
Some airlines in North America, after 9/11 clamped down hard on following regualations.
For a short time in Canada and the U.S., Gate clerks would refuse people boarding onto planes if they had only a one way ticket to places like Korea, Japan, China, Thailand, and Taiwan. Big EFL markets where young people head every year in hopes of landing a job.
Those countries would often refuse entry to some dense wet-behind the ears backpacker types if they just had a tourist visa, but told the immigration control officer upon arriving that they were coming to the country to work. The airlines sometimes had to make arrangements to fly that naive guy back out on the next plane. Occasionally, the airline would be fined for not ensuring all passengers had proper documents before boarding.
The airlines, are doing the policing. The tourist Visa thing keeps popping up, because occasionally some kid is told he can't board the plane after he talks too much to the gate clerk about how he is going to teach in China. The Visa in his passport doesn't match his intention. |
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The Red Baron
Joined: 06 Aug 2004
Posts: 183
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| Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2004 9:07 pm Post subject: |
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Well, well, well!! What have we got here??? |
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Chris_Crossley
Joined: 26 Jun 2004
Posts: 1797
Location: Still in the centre of Furnace City, PRC, after eight years!!!
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| Posted: Wed Aug 11, 2004 3:18 am Post subject: Someone using a name using reverse order! |
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| Red Baron, I think we have someone with a username where all the letters are in a single continuous string in reverse order. Work it out! I think the original phrase contains three words! |
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The Red Baron
Joined: 06 Aug 2004
Posts: 183
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| Posted: Wed Aug 11, 2004 5:20 am Post subject: |
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| Don't think literal Chris, think lateral....think.."victoria"...or think...."laurent"....reincarnated.!.......also think..."another serial pest". |
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lagerlout2006
Joined: 17 Sep 2003
Posts: 985
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| Posted: Wed Aug 11, 2004 5:33 am Post subject: |
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| Just another cowboy geting his kicks...S/he has set a record for making so many enemies in so few posts.. |
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