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legume85
Joined: 22 Dec 2009
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 Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2010 7:33 pm Post subject: Visa for China? ARC card rule? Agencies? |
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Anyone know if the 6 months remaining on your ARC card rule in order to get a visa for China is uniform all across Korea? Im in Busan, and am trying to go to China and thought it would the visa process would be simple. Then, it turns out that you can only apply for a visa through a travel agency? Then, it turns out you must have 6 months remaining on your ARC card in order to get the visa? Then, I read that in Busan, you don't need to have 6 months remaining on your ARC card to get the visa. Can anyone clarify this for me?
Also, I have never used a travel agency before in my life, so if anyone in Busan knows of any good travel agencies/agents to use, please let me know! What ever happened to being able to apply for a visa at the consulate?
Any info on all or some of the questions above would be greatly appreciated! Thanks. |
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0ju
Joined: 30 Sep 2009
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| Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2010 10:04 pm Post subject: |
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I can't imagine why an American would need 6 months on their ARC to get a visa to China while in Korea, when in the States one can apply and get their Chinese travel visa within 1-2 days.
Why not call the Chinese consulate and ask? |
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Konglishman
Joined: 14 Sep 2007
Location: Nanjing
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| Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2010 10:13 pm Post subject: |
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| 0ju wrote: |
I can't imagine why an American would need 6 months on their ARC to get a visa to China while in Korea, when in the States one can apply and get their Chinese travel visa within 1-2 days.
Why not call the Chinese consulate and ask? |
Then, you haven't been paying attention. Yes, you can easily apply for a visa to China in your home country. However, it is indeed the case that in Korea, there are these obnoxious rules now in place for getting a visa to China. These rules came into effect last June or July.
The odd thing is that this appears to only apply to foreigners living in Korea (except for the Chinese living in Korea). Don't ask me why. I have yet to hear of an actual explanation as to why China should care so much making it more difficult for foreigners in Korea to get a visa to China.
Incidentally, last July, I did call the Chinese Consulate in Gwangju and was told exactly what the OP was told. You need more than 6 months on your ARC card. You can only apply through a travel agency. And when I asked why, she merely said, "rule change" and would not give any sort of explanation as to why.
And of course, the travel agency told me that since I am American, the service just to get the visa would cost 180,000 Won.
Last edited by Konglishman on Tue Sep 07, 2010 10:43 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Italy37612
Joined: 25 Jan 2010
Location: Somewhere
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| Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2010 10:27 pm Post subject: |
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I just applied for a Chinese Visa today in Seoul. Yes, you must go through a travel agency if you are American. You need the following 4 items to get the visa.
1. Your ARC card with at least 6 months left before expiry.
2. Your passport with at least 6 months left before expiry.
3. One passport photo.
4. 190,000 Won if you are from the US.
They said it will take 4 days to process. |
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0ju
Joined: 30 Sep 2009
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| Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2010 5:20 pm Post subject: |
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| Konglishman wrote: |
| 0ju wrote: |
I can't imagine why an American would need 6 months on their ARC to get a visa to China while in Korea, when in the States one can apply and get their Chinese travel visa within 1-2 days.
Why not call the Chinese consulate and ask? |
Then, you haven't been paying attention. Yes, you can easily apply for a visa to China in your home country. However, it is indeed the case that in Korea, there are these obnoxious rules now in place for getting a visa to China. These rules came into effect last June or July.
The odd thing is that this appears to only apply to foreigners living in Korea (except for the Chinese living in Korea). Don't ask me why. I have yet to hear of an actual explanation as to why China should care so much making it more difficult for foreigners in Korea to get a visa to China.
Incidentally, last July, I did call the Chinese Consulate in Gwangju and was told exactly what the OP was told. You need more than 6 months on your ARC card. You can only apply through a travel agency. And when I asked why, she merely said, "rule change" and would not give any sort of explanation as to why.
And of course, the travel agency told me that since I am American, the service just to get the visa would cost 180,000 Won. |
Yech, that sucks. I'd rather just go to HK and do it there! |
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kiwigirl :O)
Joined: 05 Jan 2006
Location: Bundang
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| Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2010 7:18 pm Post subject: |
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I have just under 6 months remaining on my arc...
I read on Xanadu's website that they have a special service for people that have less than 6 months left....
They send your passport, arc and visa application to the chinese embassy in Busan and they process it...(I'm not sure why it goes to Busan when the Seoul office is so much closer)...
The fee is 55 000won for NZers and many other E2 countries but as a previous poster said it is much more for americans
I had to pay an extra 40 000 won....20 000 was the fee xanadu charged as I didn't book with them (I used expedia) and another 20 000 fee to send it to Busan for processing
It took about 10-14 days and I asked them to courier it back to me at work
Good Luck |
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Samanthat87
Joined: 25 Jan 2010
Location: Suwon
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| Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2010 11:44 pm Post subject: |
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I have just recieved my Chinese visa with only 1 month left on my ARC.
It seems from my research that only Kangsan travel in Busan offer the service because the Chinese consulate in Busan has not enforced this 6 months minimum rule. I may be mistaken though, there may be other agencies in Busan that will do this service. However, the only problem with this is that Kangsan knows they are the only or one of few agencies that can supply the visa to those with under 6 months on their ARCs; so the prices are pretty steep. I am a UK citizen so the price went from around 55,000 - 90,000. Not a huge jump but I imagine for a US citizen it could be pretty heafty since the usual price is already over triple what a UK citizen pays.
The number for Kangsan in Busan is 051 747 0031
I live in Suwon but I was able to send all the required documents to Busan and it took around a week to have my passport sent back to me.
I hope this helps. |
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Samanthat87
Joined: 25 Jan 2010
Location: Suwon
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| Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2010 11:47 pm Post subject: |
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| Oops, I only just read the above post! Sounds like I got ripped off if Xanadu are doing it for that price! |
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karri
Joined: 14 Jan 2007
Location: south korea
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| Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2010 2:46 am Post subject: |
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Another factor is that you have to have 2 blank visa pages left in your passport.
I took my passport to the consulate to see if there is enough room. I had one blank page and one page with a stamp that took up about 20% of the page. I was told no deal.
Silly Canada wont let you get extra pages so I cant go to China until I get a whole new passport. |
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