Applying For A Chinese Visa From Outside Of Your Home Country

January 9

Disclaimer: this is an edited article taken from Kudosbay酷豆湾. For the original article

In this article, we will detail under which circumstances you can apply for a Chinese visa from a third country, i.e. if you wish to apply from a country that is not your home country.

Please note that some larger countries such as the United States have jurisdictions regarding if you legally reside in a certain area then there is a specific consulate or embassy you must use.

Applying For A Chinese Visa From Outside Of Your Home Country

In the past (at least before the 2008 Olympics), it was possible to apply for a Chinese visa via a third country or region, which is not your home jurisdiction, however, these days this may not be possible.

Most consulates and embassies around the world require the applicant to meet one of the following criteria to prove a legal long term stay if they are not that country’s national: a residence permit for that place, permanent resident status for that place, or being that country’s dual national. Tourist or business visas, visas on arrival, and visa wavier entries are NOT considered long term visas.

There are many documented cases of people that were successfully able to apply and receive a Chinese visa from Hong Kong. Some of them used an agent, while others submitted a direct application to the China visa office; however, this is still considered to be very risky because the chances of your application passing are much lower when you apply from a third country if you do not meet one of the mentioned criteria.

Whether it is Hong Kong or any other place, we would first suggest you check that place’s consulate or embassy’s website for details. If, as in the case of Hong Kong, the above information is mentioned, then you would need to decide if it is worth the risk or not.

If you are declined a Chinese visa, it will be much more difficult when you try to re-apply or if you are applying for a work visa. All of the invitation documents would need to be redone and reobtained from the government for a different location. You also risk the fact that your potential employer may not want to get these documents redone and/or they may, as a result, cancel your job offer. Besides, it is not just the visa fees you need to think about, but also the fees relating to the travel and stay in Hong Kong.

Many Hong Kong-based visa agents are very quick to say that they can process the visa, but they offer no guarantees and while some of the fees are refunded if your visa does not pass the application, there still is a fee and this does not get around the issues with not having the visa and difficulty with regards to another application.

Source: Ikbal & Julian for Kudosbay酷豆湾

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