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?

china visa is more than o.j.

this is the truth.

we dont know how to call chinese today.

this is not good at all for business.

chinese do not respect people right they are becoming more and more problematic and stubborn.

i dont know if they dont know their people are also abroad in all over the world,

sorry, i do not appreciate their silly way of behaving.

every day cheking visa in their country....

Dear Non-Lawyer (and others...)
China is not alone in the World when it comes to arduous and overly complicated immigration policies and visa requirements... and yes, there are many situations where improvements would be most welcome!

I sympathize with your visa issues, and I would like to make a few points which may help;

Firstly, my guess is that you received an 'L' visa in London because you did not have the required documents for an 'F' visa (A signed and stamped Letter Of Invitation from Chinese registered corporation; The approval letter from the Public Security Bureau which should be processed by the same Chinese registered corporation on your Letter Of Invitation). This policy is not new, however many China Visa Agents in different cities previously used their own company identity for this process so we are often not aware of this in our past visa applications... and so it helps if you read up on the visa application rules... which many China visitors fail to do!

Secondly, as is the case in USA, Australia, Europe and most Western countries, there are separate visa classes for tourist 'L' visa, business visitor 'F' visa and the working 'Z' visa; you can not work on a tourist visa nor on a business visitor visa. If you tell the China Visa Office staff that you need an 'F' visa to work, you will be denied such a visa. Again, this requirement is common in Western countries.

Yes, it is true than many business visitors from abroad are visiting their China factory (owned by their employer at home) as part of their normal work... and they have a 'F' visa, so it depends on the situation, and you need to be careful with your choice of words - "I'm going to work in China" has different meanings depending on the context, and if you know and understand the visa rules, you will have less difficulties.

Many of us reading this blog are citizens of Western countries which have reciprocal visa agreements in place with each other, so we don't need a pre-issued visa in our passport when we travel to such reciprocally agreeing countries... our governments have made it quite easy for us (although we are often not aware of this) and so, those of us who are inconvenienced by visa requirements such as in China, are ofter too quick to attack the Chinese, whereas our own government will not allow Chinese nationals visa-free privileges (to visit our own country), which is the basis for the China government's visa requirements upon us! This is reasonable!

And finally, I have been visiting and living in China for 6 years (effectively living here) and I can say that if you take a little time and study and understand the visa rules, you will cease to complain, and respect the rules, and get on with your business. I have met many foreign visitors and residents in China who are very ignorant of visa and residential regulations in China and actually treat such requirements with complete disdain. Such abuses are often overlooked by authorities in their effort to allow the 'business' to go smoothly, and for that we should be grateful!

So what are the visa rules like now after the Olympics? I have heard conflicting information.