Extend or Renew a Visa for China
Are you an expat in China who needs to renew their visa? Here are some tips on visa procedures for expats in China.
Steps
- Avoid the obvious location. The first tip is not to go to Hong Kong. The Chinese consulates in most Western countries are never very busy, but Hong Kong is where Westerners converge in one place to try to get a visa to the Mainland, usually arriving at the last minute. If you are a foreign professional applying for a new visa every 6 months, the Hong Kong idea is not very practical, and hopefully you can make it home to your home country at least twice per year to get the visa taken care of in a comfortable and less busy environment. This all depends on how far your hometown is from a Chinese consulate, though.
- Get the longest visa you possibly can. Don’t get a 6 month visa and say “I will just worry about renewing it in 6 months when I am rooted in China”. Those 6 months will fly by, you might not be as “expatriated” as you had originally expected by that time, and the last thing you want to worry about is applying for another visa or a visa extension and possibly needing to take a trip to Hong Kong in between all the other running around you have been doing.
- Make sure you get your visa renewal or extension done early. The fines for overstaying a visa are not worth paying when renewing your visa or getting an extension are both simple options. Waiting until the last minute will guarantee that the application process will be full of pressure, and Murphy’s Law has an added verse which states that the longer you procrastinate, the more that will go wrong. Besides, if you go to the PSB to try to finagle a visa extension out of them, they will be much more willing to assist you if there is still a few weeks left on your original visa and you did not show up at their office on the 2nd-to-last-day of your allowed stay.
- Do not underestimate the value of going through a visa service. Every visitor’s needs are different, and to some people a visa is more valuable to them than others. Those who urgently need a visa should be able to compute the agent costs and figure out if it is worthwhile for them to use an agent or apply by themselves. Companies like Shanghai Foreign Service Co., Ltd. and the service network at China Visa Online are great resources to apply for a visa without losing focus on the other urgent China tasks at hand.
- Ask fellow expats what their suggestions are if you are having trouble. Despite how special you may think your specific visa situation or case is, there is someone else in town who has experienced a similar issue, if not the exact same problem.
Tips
- If you submit your visa extension application within 7 days of your current visa's expiration, your application may be refused or may have higher fees.
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