The Difficulty of Getting a China Visa

Filed in archive Asia on February 5, 2009

Getting a visa for China can be a knotty problem. Paul Traynor describes it well:

To begin, there are no regulations set in stone in any one place that details what kind of state the Chinese visa situation is in at any one time. Each city in China is different in terms of what they can offer foreigners...

Of course, it becomes even knottier if you're not actually abiding by the (admittedly vague) rules to start with. Paul is there as a student and wants to work, instead. The visa switch is made more complicated by the fact that his student visa Expired while many of the officials he needs to deal with were away from work, celebrating the new year. It's an interesting story, and you can read about his visa experience here.


© Heidi & Jeffrey