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anonymous
Q: How many times can you extend a tourist visa now?
Last time I was in China you could extend a tourist visa a number of times (though after five they started to look at me strangely), does any one know what the situation is now?
I have this annoying feeling that it is only once.
10 years 25 weeks ago in Visa & Legalities - China
Are you extending a current visa? Or going to say Hk and getting a new tourist visa? If its an extension, then the last I heard its just once. If you are coming to china for this long for business then get a yearly Business Visa. If you are a teacher or working for a company here then get a work Visa. If your here for a woman, get off your ass and marry her already.
There really isnt any excuse to be extending visas the amount of times your saying.
And even business visas will get harder to get, unless you're got a legit reason to have it and a ream properly stamped papers (and that wasn't even easy 3 years ago for me). If you're working here, definitely get a work visa, the government will only continue cracking down and its worth the peace of mind.
Visco8:
Ahh Brenden ~ and here we go again, what in fact are the qualifications for a teacher's work visa in this paradise on earth? Pls specify...
ironman510:
A BA/ TEFL or TESOL/ a clean record and a willingness to learn.
BrendanE:
To be honest I don't know as I'm not a teacher. Mine was diplomas, letters specifying work experience, med check, termination letter. Now also background check.
My friend is having a most confusing time trying to get his visa sorted out. The best advice he seems to have been gives is that if it's Tuesday, it must be Belgium.
Good luck with it, cobber.
And well lets see, every other day, week, month or year the laws change or with up coming events the laws change making it 99% impossible to give you an answer, but that answer that Mike gave you, he is correct, you can only get a new one once now in HK, so you're asking yourself how are these other guys doing it? The illegals are still here?! Well it's simple really, they mail their passport overseas now to California, U.S... Thats right, thats why you see all those visa agent fools post there offers for 1 year visa's.
But just like Greg a guy I know doing freelance found out the hard way, yes your passport was mailed and did come back with a visa, but did it have the exit stamp?????Or Visa record? No it didn't, it was mailed to you, and Greg, well he was caught in Louhu, Shenzhen last week trying to buy an iPhone5s.. Yes the immigration found it strange that he didn't have a record of his visa coming in or going out. His Chinese GF is now in HK with him trying to fix all of this..
So the whole mail your passport sh*t is just that, a risk and foolish choice. Get a working visa, thats why the laws were changed to stop tourist renewing illegal guys like you.
It can only be extended once in China. But it's better not to do it.
Multiple entry visas granted in HK are only for people with HK ID cards now. I know this for sure as my boss is based in HK, and before he got his HK ID he had to get a new visa for every trip across the border. He is European passport holder.
Another European passport holder I know went to HK to get a new business visa. They gave him a 14 day single entry and was told no more after that.
There is a lot of good info on visas on loads of Chinese forums. You need to do your research and then decide if it's worth coming or not. The days of consecutive tourist and business visas without regular trips home are gone forever now.
They seem to be getting harder to get, I applied for a one year, 90 day stay, thought about asking for 180, what I got was a 1 year, 35 day stay, S2 visa. Why can't you apply for the visa that you want and not extend?
ironman510:
It's holiday cleaning up time,, it's been 6 months now, so many visa's will expire this month, my friend told me 40 legal working and qualified foreigners went into the PSB to bring up this issue.. They said they're tired of the F or L visa workers replacing them only because it's convenient and it's also important to remember that this also happened because of a crazy foreigner that raped that Chinese girl..
BrendanE:
It's more than that although that incident certainly pushed it over the limit. For too long it's been too easy for every 23 year old with a white face and no experience/qualifications whatsoever to come here and teach. I'm so tired of seeing these kids all over Beijing getting stupid drunk, acting like idiots and making the rest of us look bad by association. Those who complain that a working visa is too hard to get either aren't qualified or haven't looked hard enough. I won't hazard a guess about other cities but at least in Beijing there's a million schools desperate for teachers.
TedDBayer:
I don't work in China and don't want to be an English teacher. Maybe an instructor for "Vinyl Siding 101"? ha ha.
ironman510:
@TedDBayer, This isn't just for English Teachers, there are many jobs people do on the wrong visa, why do you take interest in this site when you have no connect to or in China?
TedDBayer:
@ironman I was just there and going back in a week, Why is what I do any bodies business?
for those devious in nature, an alternative for a guy is find a western lady that will let you use her z visa as a fiance. since its rather difficult for 2 foreigners to marry here, you can remain on her visa here as long as she does as an arrangement and never marry.
when they stopped filipinos from staying in shandong, a pinoy lady got an american to add her as a fiance even though he is married to a chinese girl, since he works on a z visa, not a spouse visa, she can stay also.
many foreign teachers here have fiance pinoy live in gf's working for cash teaching english.
sure this would work for others but female teachers are limited somewhat in china.
also know an austrailian couple, young fwb arrangement, she is on his z visa and she is from wealthy family, she travels all over china on daddy's money and he works and she takes her breaks in travel at his place for some mutual exercise.
ironman510:
I find this method very hard to believe... There's no evidence to prove it.
ambivalentmace:
you are allowed to have a spouse or fiance on your work visa, you can show a faux marriage certificate from abroad and add you psuedo wife to your visa, not a problem, you can do anything when it "appears" that you have the write paperwork.
most people are not very devious so many people would not think of this.
I find all of these troubles hard to believe. I have lived in Wuhan, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Foshan and shenzhen. Every place ive been ive never had trouble getting a Z visa. My newest one was coming off a business visa as i changed companies so its not like i already had a Z so it was easy. I handled everything myself. Registered my apartment, got medical check, gave that shit and copy of degree to apply for expert certificate few days later got that, applied for Z visa. ten days later i had it.
7 years, 2 passports zero issues. I think most people that run into problems arent being entirely truthfull from my experience and just straight up arent qualified. If you arent qualified and still wanna try and stay then all the power to ya but dont go blaming anyone but yourselves. you all know the deal by now.
