The 60th Anniversary of the People's Republic of China is Making China Visas Hard to Get

Filed in archive Asia on May 10, 2009

Foreigners who want a business visa to China in the next few months are evidently having a harder and harder time getting them. The China Law Blog has compared the situation to the politically inspired difficulty people had getting visas during the run up to the Beijing Olympics.


© schuey

The CLB has had two pieces recently on the situation (here and here). The situation is aggravated by the practice many foreign investors in China have of trying to skirt the law and form informal partnerships under the table. That leaves them with no real standing when they apply for a visa.

Dan at the CLB sums up the situation this way:

Bottom Line. There are three very important things that should be taken away from all this. One, if you need certainty in terms of being able to get into China, you cannot rely on either an F visa (business) or an L visa (tourist) for that. Two, if you need certainty in terms of being able to get into China, the solution is usually to legitimately set up your own company so you can get a Z visa (employee). Three, and probably most important, is that the Chinese government will nearly always place politics and stability over economics.