Interview for L-Visa. Will study in China

[heihachi]

I'm going to study Chinese in Nanning this semester, today I applied Tourist Visa here in Bangkok. They told me to come to an interview tomorrow.

Should I tell them that I will study or will they just demand from me that I apply for Student Visa then? And if I don't tell them, can I get in trouble because I lie? I only mentioned one hostel I will be staying in.

Any other advice? I'm worried I will not get the Visa in time, maybe I have to go to HK.

[jbradfor]

[No one else dares respond?]

You are going to study on a tourist visa. In order to do that, you need to lie, as a tourist visa is only for touring.

It's very common to do, however, and we haven't heard of people getting in trouble for it, but you should understand this is what you need to do.

[fanglu]

It is not illegal to study on a tourist visa. For most short courses (eg a few weeks), it is totally appropriate. I doubt they will give you a tourist visa long enough to cover a whole semester though.

Do you have proper documents to get a student - X (or 'visit' - F) visa? If so, get that. Otherwise, just get whatever tourist visa they will give you and then get your school to sort it out once you get to China.

(null)

[heihachi]

I will study for one semester (5 months) so I will upgrade it when I come to China to a student visa. I don't have the proper documents yet, that's one problem.

I guess I will just have to lie, I will tell them I'm just going there for tourism.

[abcdefg]

[No one else dares respond?]

I'm guessing the OP is Thai and that the do's and dont's of obtaining a China visa in Bangkok may be different from in the West. For example, it is highly unusual to have to attend an interview for an L (tourist) visa in the US.

[heihachi]

I'm back from the "interview". I was overreacting a bit in my worries. It was just a counter where we stood in line waiting. They asked me what I was doing here in Thailand. I said passing through. Tourism they said, and let me go. I really thought they where gonna investigate me and deny. I was prepared to let go of my dream of China.

Thank you for your answers, hope this will be for some help for other nervous visa applicants in the future.

[xiaoxiaocao]

Weird, recently had a student in Italy who, for a tourist visa (L) application was asked to provide the following -

Contact person in China's passport and visa page scans

Copy of contact person in China's apartment housing contract

Invitation letter from contact person

Have never had anyone asked to provide these before. I'm guessing an Italian must have got into some serious trouble in China recently as persons in other countries have had no problems obtaining visas.

[heihachi]

Sometimes they choose random persons and give them a hard time getting the visa. I tried first in Singapore but there they told me I needed a return ticket, I could use their computer if I wanted. But since I'm taking the land route I left Singapore and went here instead.