Tip to get China visa from Taiwan

[irishpolyglot]

Not sure if anyone else here will be as terribly unorganised as I was, but since there is no embassy to China in Taiwan, if you find yourself in Taiwan and need to get a visa for the mainland, this travel agency http://www.interlink.com.tw/home.asp has an office in Taipei, and will send your passport abroad for you to either Singapore or the states and process the visa. It came recommended to me by several people, and they did indeed process the whole thing in about 2 or so weeks.

The whole process is of course expensive, and there is only one fee (so I had to pay the American visa price, even though it's cheaper for Europeans), but it STILL works out cheaper than a visa run, with prices of a hotel and flights taken into account. I suppose you could also fedex your passport home to a family member, have them do it, and send it back to you, but if you are feeling lazy and would rather not take a non-necessary trip and a few days out to deal with the hassle, or a diversion to Hong Kong and a rush visa process, these guys could help.

Just in case you need it! I'm sure there are other agencies, but these guys worked for me. Of course, the smartest thing to do would be to simply arrange for that mainland visa in advance before arriving in Taiwan

[imron]

he smartest thing to do would be to simply arrange for that mainland visa in advance before arriving in Taiwan

Although that might not work if you plan on staying in Taiwan for 3 months or more, because most Chinese visas have a 3 month entry validity (i.e. you have to enter the country within 3 months of the visa being issued).

[irishpolyglot]

The visa says "enter before August 21", which is six months after the issue date.

[jkhsu]

According to the link below (Visa Validity and Duration of Stay section), it's either 90 or 180 days from the date of issue. It looks like you got the 180 days.

http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/hzqz/zgqz/t84246.htm

[imron]

Note I didn't say all visas

Though I wonder what the ratio of issuing 90 day vs 180 day ones is. In visas going back over 10 years, I've only ever had ones with a three month validity from date of issue- though to be fair I don't think I've ever applied for one more than 3 months in advance, mostly because the Chinese embassies/consulates and their respective visa issuing agencies state not to apply more than 3 months in advance of your intended entry. See for example here.

[irishpolyglot]

One thing I should point out is that my visa is for two 60 day entries. There is some unclear ambiguity as to if that entry limit I mentioned is for the first or second entry (obviously if you only plan to enter once it wouldn't matter), but perhaps if you apply for a multiple entry visa (even if you only plan to visit for a few weeks on one trip), it will naturally lead to a longer validity.

[imron]

That's quite possible. I've only ever had single entry visas and/or residence permits which don't require a visa for re-entry.

[jbradfor]

Just because you made me curious, I checked my last two visas (2005 and 2006). Both were tourist (L) 30 day stay. Same passport office (Chicago). One was a single entry and was good for 3 months, the other was a double entry and was good for 6 months. Which makes sense, the more entries, the longer you (might) need.

So I think the conclusion is that getting a visa more than 3 months out might be risky, but you increase your chances of getting a longer validity of you get more entries.

[fanglu]

The standard validity for one entry is 90 days, two entries 180 days and m entries one year. At least thats what it says on the visa form.

(null)

[roddy]

Yeah, it's a single / double and multiple thing - only realised this recently myself.