China Law Blog

Thank you so much for the article!

The linked article notes that L visa given to spouses of Chinese nationals are unaffected. Does anyone have any experience applying for these L visas within China? My wife are I are recently married and the F visa that I came over on is just about to expire. I've heard that I have to go to my wife's hometown in order to apply, but with a lease and a wedding certificate, I don't see why we wouldn't apply in the town we currently live in. Anybody have experience with this type of situation? Do you really have to go to your wife's hometown every time you need to apply/renew your visa?

Andy - I've been married and living in Shanghai with my Chinese spouse for eleven years. However she is from Xi'an - nothwithstanding we have propertry and a business in Shanghai we are now told we have to go back to Xi'an (by the Shanghai Police Immigation Bureau) but there may be a problem as the local police will demand a Xi'an adress! It does seem unduly time consuming as we are told I have to pick-up the visa (if granted!)personally after five days!
I too would welcome any aurthoratative information on this problem.

Great Post! It will help me for planning my trip to China.

hi i got f visa multiple for 6 months on june 4 of this month i got it till december i got it in chinese embassy in new delhi but i went to china on 13 and they have deported me from china with out any reason and they didnt put any stamps on my visa or passport tht i am deported so what can i do with it now can any one suggest me can i use it or not plzzz

It's easier to get a gold medal than to get a visa nowadays(lol). Put the next o"limp"icks on the moon next time so that we all get to enjoy.

I just had an interesting visa experience...

I'm in the process of arranging a Z visa and work permit, but as a non-lawyer employee of a foreign law firm in China, this takes some considerable time (up to one year in the past, god knows how long now). So, I've been working on an F visa.

As everyone else did, I found I could renew my F visa in China up to July 1 and not beyond, so I applied to have it renewed in London. Imagine my surprise when I collected my passport to find I had been given a tourist (L) visa, not an F visa, in spite of my visa application clearly stating that I wanted to visit China for work reasons.

When I asked why I had been given a tourist visa, the staff at the visa office in London told me that maybe there was a problem with the forms, but it didn't matter, as the main thing was that I could enter China.

I can think of several reasons why I was given a tourist visa:
i) it keeps me less-than-legal, which means that at any time I can be removed without any justification
ii) the office manager of the last firm I worked for told me that it was because the authorities don't want to issue any more F visas
iii) it was a simple admin error, and the person I spoke to at the visa office was simply trying to make life simple for herself by telling me it would be no problem.

In the climate of increased visa control, the logic of giving a tourist visa when from my application I am clearly travelling to China for work-related reasons seems strange.

What's point o' that, as Peter Kaye would say?