Question concerning free visa transit to China

[La Sirena Y El Tiburon]

As anyone ever went to China without a visa. We are going to Shanghai and Beijing with Celebrity Millenium in October. Thanks

[WestLakeGirl]

For those who might attempt to assist the OP with this question, please note they are in Canada.

[WAVTAM]

Definitely will need a visa considering the two stops.

[capsplace]

If you take a Celebrity sponsored tour, you should be ok without. But you can’t do anything on your own without a Visa.

[Essiesmom]

In this case I'm not sure country of origin matters. Had a friend from Vancouver whose group had problems with this because of air delays. Being from Canada made no difference. And I think she will need a visa. Cruise starts in Shanghai, could get by with the 144 hour rule. but next port is in South Korea, then Tianjin (China) and back to a port in South Korea. The rule seems to be that if the country before and after a stop in a Chnese port is the same, you need a visa. I understand this is discussed in detail on the Asia forum here, under Ports of Call. EM

[The_Big_M]

Yes, if going to/from the same country i.e. South Korea, will need a visa - minimum double entry in this case.

 

Country of origin does matter as the transit option is not available to all citizens, though Canada is likely fine - but irrelevant in this case.

[Coates55]

My understanding is also that a visa is required in view of the fact that when the ship leaves Tianjin it is returning to Korea and not onward to a 3rd country. Interestingly, there has been no visa reminder information for this cruise issued by Celebrity. This view is from a UK passport holder perspective but I believe this is the case for most nationalities.

[La Sirena Y El Tiburon]

Thanks everybody for the reply. I think that we will buy a visa to make sure even if Celebrity told me that I do not need one. I do not want to take any chance.

[sippican]

Celebrity just notified us that we do need a Multiple Entry Visa for our China cruise.

 

If you have any questions you can e-mail them celebrity@cibt.com

Or call 1-800-579-2406

Or visit http://www.cibt.com/CelebrityCruises

[gasman489]

I went through this whole discussion - ENDLESSLY - with my S/O's father, but finally convinced him to get one before he left for his trip. Everyone should get a visa for China. Regardless of what anyone tells you. Given the current state of affairs with our relationship with China, I would not go without a visa. My SO's parents are in their late 80s/early 90s (and yep, they're still cruising). If something were to happen, and you needed to leave the ship for medical treatment or whatever, you need to have a visa.

[sippican]

Any idea of how long the process takes?

[jammer5122]

Any idea of how long the process takes?

I live in California and I used a visa service. Mailed in my passport and had it back with visa in 10 days. My visa is good for 10 years.

[Esperanza7]

We are UK passport holders living in Spain.

I've spent a lot of time (actually too much!!) trying to get good visa information.

Conclusion being that we are applying for a double entry visa which will cover Shanghai (we're not going out the area) and Tianjin/Beijing.

We are going to try to use the 144 hour transit visa in Shanghai which, providing we have the correct paper work, should work ok. If so, we will still have a spare 'entry' in case of any problems!

We have to apply for the visas in Madrid,Spain and they are either single, double or multiple entry. Quite a big difference between the prices, especially as we have to do it by post. They are in Madrid and we live on the Costa del Sol.

I believe it can take between 10 to 15 working days providing the paper work is correct. As the visa is only valid for 90 days, we can't apply until August but will probably take till then to sort it out!! lol :')

Esperanza

[diesel1973]

In the US each state has a designated consulate where you can get a China visa. I am fortunate to live near Chicago which has a consulate. I downloaded app.,made copy of passport,had passport photo taken,made copy of my itinerary which I received from tour group and applied at consulate. I submitted my app.,passport,photo,itinerary and after they reviewed everything they gave me receipt and was told to come back in 4 days. Went back with receipt,paid $140 on cc and received my passport back with 10 yr. visa attached to page. Google Chinese visa and MOST of the instructions are available. Some of the info. is outdated but this is what I experienced. Enjoy China as it is a fascinating country. I will be going back again in Sep.

[sippican]

In the US each state has a designated consulate where you can get a China visa. I am fortunate to live near Chicago which has a consulate. I downloaded app.,made copy of passport,had passport photo taken,made copy of my itinerary which I received from tour group and applied at consulate. I submitted my app.,passport,photo,itinerary and after they reviewed everything they gave me receipt and was told to come back in 4 days. Went back with receipt,paid $140 on cc and received my passport back with 10 yr. visa attached to page. Google Chinese visa and MOST of the instructions are available. Some of the info. is outdated but this is what I experienced. Enjoy China as it is a fascinating country. I will be going back again in Sep.

 

Great information, unfortunately, the consulate responsible for your state may be quite a distance away, and not actually in your state.

https://www.tripsavvy.com/chinese-embassy-and-consulates-in-the-us-1535865

It may be helpful to some.

[diesel1973]

I agree. There is no sense on how the states were assigned each consulate. Was just pointing out what is involved when obtaining at consulate. Most importantly is they do not mail the visa to you after completion so it requires 2 trips to consulate..They also do not do same day service. There were several people in waiting room with suitcases that were annoyed when told they would need to come back. I think they offer 2 day service but of course there is an extra fee for that. Also the person applying for visa does not need to be the submitter. So if a group of people need visas they can send one person to apply for all of them as long as they have the right documents for each.If anyone has questions there is an e-mail address you can submit questions and they do reply. I hope this helps