Invitation letter for visa

[Lu]

I'm planning a trip through China for this summer (July, will be out of the country before the Olympics), and visa are hard to get these days. We need a hotel reservation and a plane ticket, but as me and my friend are staying with friends of mine, we don't have a hotel reservation. Now I have two questions, and I hope someone knows the answer:

- Would an invitation letter from the friends at whose house we're staying work instead of a hotel reservation?

- What must such an invitation letter contain?

I'd ask the local Chinese embassy, but Taiwan doesn't have one. I will ask the visa agent, but don't know how reliable her information will be. So I'd be happy with any help.

(Additional question: the visa agent said she could set me up with a fake ticket and hotel reservation. Does it show on the tourist visa that I'll get in which hotel I'm supposed to be staying and in which plane I'm supposed to be arriving? If I take a train in instead, will I get in trouble? I expect not, a previous visa to China that I got in Taiwan was issued in Chongqing, where I've never even set foot, and that was no problem, but I would appreciate any input.)

[imron]

I'm not sure about your other questions, but your visa won't have anything on it about your flight, or your hotel reservations.

[anthony87]

i tried the letter of invitation and they required a bunch of supporting documentation.

in the end, i just booked something with hostelworld for about 1 USD per day and used that as my hotel confirmation

[BaoMiHua]

May i ask what supporting document they asked? My visa just runs out and i was thinking of the invitation letter route for next one..

[Lu]

I'll make sure to post the answer once I figure it out myself.

Thanks imron, I think I'll just go the fake reservation route then, but I still need to know about the invitation letter for my friend who's not in Taiwan (but in Holland).

[anthony87]

i gave them my letter of invitation and this is what they said was missing:

- photocopy of my friend's photo ID was not clear enough

- her photo ID was not the updated version of the card

- they need a copy of some kind of residence certificate proving that she owned the house where i was planning to stay

- proof that i had been friends with her for over one year (i.e. copies of email conversations, etc)

I'm not sure if any of these are standard rules, or whether it's at the discrepancy of the visa clerk. anyways, in the end, i just booked 60 days worth of $1 hostels and i received my 60 day visa (including days during the olympics). Also, my flight was into HK instead of mainland China and they didn't seem to mind at all.

[Lu]

And what did they ask for initially? What had to be in the letter, and what kind of documentation did they want?

[anthony87]

according the the website it was hotel and flight confirmation.

since i didn't have a hotel, i decided to try a letter of invitation (basically it just had a short paragraph saying she would provide me accommodation as well as her signature, photocopy of id card, address, and contact info). but, i'm not really sure if it's posted anywhere what officially needs to be included.

[adrianlondon]

Book a hotel on, say, expedia. Don't do their special rates! Those are non-refundable and you'll get very angry with me ;)

Print out the booking confirmation.

Cancel the hotel booking (for full refund if anything was paid).

If you're really worried, leave the booking in place for the few days the Chinese embassy has the passport.

When my boyfriend had to apply for a (not Chinese) visa a couple of years ago, I simply took an existing booking and re-wrote the html before printing it out ;) It's all a game.