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Q: Changing Resident Permit to L-Visa or family visa
So I thought changing my resident permit to a family visa would be no problem but I am told I have to leave the country to do that from the PSB. I have about a month left on my current visa. I've had one school and local PSB try to tell me to change my visa to an L-visa for changing employers which is not true (I got that resolved by going to the provincial office), but now when I want to change it I am told I have to leave the country. From what I found so far online it says I have to leave the country if I am changing the type of visa I have. Is this true? Any feedback would be most helpful.
Thanks
10 years 46 weeks ago in Visa & Legalities - China
When,I went with my wife to ask about the same question,they said yes okay.In Xian
According to Chinese laws and regulations, only Embassies abroad can issue visas. Local PSB offices can only issue "permits" (who work like a visa, but are not a visa), and only those PSB offices located at entry points are authorized to issue them to arriving passengers. But as PaulMartin said above, some PSB offices have a different interpretation.
But also please be aware that you do not have to travel bhack to your country of birth to apply for a tourist visa. Please allow me to explain the way I do renew mine without leaving China, and must add I have done it 4 times already without any problems.
I am from the USA, and there, either you travel to the corresponding Embassy or one of the 4 Consulates and apply for the visa in person, or you use a visa agency for a fee or $ 30 to $ 45 US dollars. You afre not allowed any other option. So, about one month before my visa expires, I contact a website called "XXX" (those interested may ask me the name via private email, so this is not perceived as an ad), download the visa application form, and obtain all corresponding documentys and photos required. Make a nice little package, and FedEx it to them. It gets there in less than 10 days. Then 5 days for them to process the visa (they are located at the same building as the Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC), and anothyer 10 days or so to return my passport with the visa attached via FedEx.
Total expenditure is between $ 225 and $ 300 US dollars, depending on type of service you desire.
One thing I do is to scan every page of my passport into my computer, and print it in color, and I use that with me while the passport is "traveling". And I refrain from going out of my apartment to places where foreigners gather while my passport is gone, to avoid "raids".
So far, it has worked for me, and it beats a much largefr expenditure of airplane tickets and hotels to fly back home just to get a visa.
