China Visas

[CaliforniaGirl09]

I just wanted to pass on my great find in the hopes that future ABD China travelers from the northwest may be able to use it. I was not relishing the idea of paying a $140 service charge on top of the $140 consular fees per person (what the company recommended by ABD charges) and was contemplating the not very fun idea of going to the consulate in person, which would have required two trips into SF and lots of lines. I stumbled on http://www.freechinavisa.org in a Yelp search, and after reading the great reviews, decided to go for it. You have to live in Northern California, Oregon, Alaska, Washington or Nevada to use them, but they were fantastic. Great communication--even responding within 5 minutes to a panicky email on a Friday evening--and you can track the whole process on their website. They received my docs on a Thursday, they were into the consulate on Friday, and on their way back to me on Wednesday--so less than a week to turn around not including mailing time. The best part? $30 per person on top of the consular fees (plus fed ex fees). The $440 savings for the four of us almost pays for one room of our pre-night I guess the moral of the story is to look around, LOL.

 

[CrazyZeus1]

We are too far away to use that, but thank you for posting! Obtaining visas always stresses me out!

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

We are too far away to use that, but thank you for posting! Obtaining visas always stresses me out!

It was our first time for visas and it really stressed me out, too! I figured it was a pretty narrow audience for this as the states are limited, but hopefully someone in the future will be able to take advantage.

 

[CaliKris]

Thanks for the information @CaliforniaGirl09. We are taking the China ABD in June and my husband got his visa through work since he does business there. We are in Northern California. I may go through his work as well since they make it easy, but if it is too expensive I will definitely check them out. That is a huge savings!

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Thanks for the information @CaliforniaGirl09. We are taking the China ABD in June and my husband got his visa through work since he does business there. We are in Northern California. I may go through his work as well since they make it easy, but if it is too expensive I will definitely check them out. That is a huge savings!

Yay, glad it may be of use! And yes, *huge* savings. I was really impressed with everything--communication was great. But if your husband's work will take care of it that might even be easier