So, I stood in a long line at the Chinese Consulate to get my tourist visa; I’m spending a few days in Beijing next month. They told me I’d need a letter from my employer verifying the days that I will be in China. I reiterated that I was applying for a tourist visa, and that I would not be representing my company in China. She responded “it doesn’t matter.” I inquired as to whether the fact that my job is in the media (as indicated on the application form) necessitated the requirement. “No, it’s for everybody,” she said.
Cite? The only reference online I can find to letters of employment with regard to visas is for business visas. So, is it a general thing? Or am I right to assume that my media job is the cause of this?
I went ahead and drafted a letter, using a template designed for business visas. I simply removed the references to business being conducted, and included “strictly for purposes of tourism.” I hope that will suffice. Not that I mind repeated trips to the boonies of western Manhattan!
It is what it is. You are requesting entry into their country. They make their rules. You may not like their rules nor how they interpret their rules but that’s life. It’s not that I’m not sympathetic to your concern. It just is what it is.
I am currently in China, and when a friend of mine visited recently I had to send her a letter of invitation so that her tourist visa could be processed.
My understanding is that most (all?) visas to China require that someone invite you or be responsible for you.
The PRC Consulate here is also a huge pain in the ass. I had to attempt to get business visas for clients. After collecting all the docs that are listed as required for business visas on the Consulate website, they asked my clients to sign statements that they would not do anything work-related during their trip. For a BUSINESS visa!
We complained that this made absolutely no sense, and in fact contradicted their printed instructions and all the other required documents (which included an itinerary of all their business contacts and appointments), but it was pointless.
Hmm, hope they like my letter then. I’m not so much complaining, as I am confused by the fact that this requirement isn’t listed on their website, nor did I see other people in line with letters. Could a person who’s out-of-work not get into China? I’m still convinced it’s the media job checkbox (I now notice that the clerk even underlined the word “media” on my form).
I hope the friend I’m going with has an easier time; he has to travel 2 hours each way to get to the Los Angeles consulate.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to keep unemployed folks out of the country, actually. I know that in the US, folks sometimes come in on student or tourist visas, and stay to find work. It wouldn’t be totally unreasonable for China to insist that visitors have a job to go back to in their home countries.
Shroud, I think you might be making a mistake by looking for logic here. Consular employees do not always operate on logic, but by different rules.
I’ve gone from Canada to China twice (my wife is a former Chinese national and has relatives there), and we never required any kind of written documentation to get a visa.
Sounds like they’re screwing with you because of the media thing. I’ve visited my US-Citizen wife’s family on a tourist visa 3 times in the last 8 years and never had to bring anything from my employer.
Or it could be a difference in consulates. The one in Los Angeles has its own asinine quirks, like you must apply for the visa in person, you must pick it up in person, and they don’t do same-day service unless you pay an outrageous “expediting” fee. And they close at 3:00 pm exactly. Doesn’t matter if you’re exiting the elevator across the hall from their lobby as they’re closing the door at 3 pm, fuck you, come back tomorrow.
Could be worse… (or maybe it will be). A travel website I was reading, someone mentioned that for no discernable reason their significant other was denied a tourist visa. It also involved hassles over the fact they had prepaid their tours and could not get a refund and the tour operator was of no help, seemed happey to keep their money and cancel the booking.
Speculation ran from everything like either posting something online critical of China or writing a letter to the editor somewhere (they denied) to having the same name as a known activist in one of the university protest groups or signing a free Tibet petition, etc. It still boils down to “they do what they do”; you just say “yessir” and do what they ask and hope they condescend to permit you to visit. Sort of like Canadians with the Border Patrol when crossing into the USA.
Oh, and never post with your real name online…
Sounds odd to me. I went a long time ago in 2001 and I was unemployed at the time so there was certainly no letter from an employer. I don’t recall any hassle whatsoever with the visa. I wouldn’t be surprised if things have changed since then. At that time I didn’t spend much time badmouthing people or countries on message boards.
Is that a dig at me? I certainly didn’t intend to badmouth anyone. Did I come across that way?
(And if I misunderstood the context of this reference, my apologies.)
This simply does not happen at the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok. I’ve never had to supply a letter, nor has anyone I know in the media. You pay your money and go back or the visa, that’s all. The visa section here is very busy, and they must receive hundreds of applications a day.
It’s not unusual, though, for different places to have different rules for embassies of any country. For example, foreigners who live here in Thailand long term on just tourist visas, exiting the country every couple of months or so, know which Thai embassies and consulates to avoid and which are more friendly. I myself even recall the days when the Thai consulate in Hawaii freely handed out triple-entry visas when the other ones on the mainland US would not.
My own beef with the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok is this little scam they have. There are three levels of pricing for the visa, depending on how quickly you want it. I always apply for visas far ahead of time if I can, so I always opt for the cheapest price, which entails a longer waiting time, several days. But when I pick it up, it’s always been issued the same day I applied! Always! They’re just holding it hostage for a few days because they couldn’t get a higher fee out of me.
But tourism is booming so much in China now that the days of having to be invited by someone to sponsor you just for a tourist visa are long gone. I’ve not heard of that for a very long time now.
Could be you checked the media box. I have colleagues coming to china all the time. I always ask them to get a tourist visa, which as far as I understand, is legit for a business trip.
I know some apply for a business visa, and hr sends out a boilerplate ‘invitation.’