Monday, January 28, 2008

Visa or Mastercard?


Visa please!

I got mine. You have yours? Rather easy. Simple application you can download and complete. I brought it to the Chinese Embassy Visa and Passport office here in Chicago. It takes 4 days normal service, you can pay for rush if you want, but there is plenty of time.

I picked it up today. A big FYI. The information we received said the visa cost is $100. Fees went up earlier this month. The fee is now $130. They are hosting the Olympics this year, coincidence or smart business? Anyhow, they do not take personal checks for payment. Upon pickup you need cash, money order or a cashier's check.

The visa is good for 6 months from the date of application, mine is good until July 22, 2008 in the event I get lost in the streets of Hong Kong and it takes me a little while to get back on track. The visa itself is good for 90 days from date of entry. The basic visa is good for one entry only. In the event someone is going back into China after Hong Kong, they would consider that a separate entry.

3 comments:

Rich said...

Thanks for sharing...

Mine is in the mail... Yeah, I found out about the price increase 2 days before they went up. Too late to get it expressed to SF where the agent's office is. You are lucky that you live close to an consulate.

Funny thing, after I mailed it I realized that I need a passport to get into and back from Belize in 2 weeks. Thank goodness the turn around time was only 4 days. Also, I can concur about the re-entry aspect. The agent recommended checking the box for 2 visits(or whatever) so that if for some reason we wanted to pop back in from Hong Kong we could.

Rich

Rich said...

Hello - here is a short update. Got my passport back with the Visa attached. There was a small problem with the dates though. By way of a typo the embassy entered apr282008 as the Enter By Date. Should have been June282008. So, just a note to check the dates when you get yours.

Rich

KaraMia said...

i got my visa today :-) sooo official!