Chinese Visas

[2PrincesseInTow]

We are headed to China in June and I’m working on our visas.... can anyone recommend a service that they used? I thought about flying to San Francisco and doing it myself but after a little research the cost, time, and stress of the process don’t seem to outweigh the cost of going through a service. Thank you for your help!

 

[sayhello]

The problem with flying to San Francisco yourself is, if there's anything that turns out to be wrong or missing or not acceptable, you could quite possibly have to go back. The service that I used said the copy I sent them of one of the documents was not clear enough. Only a couple of days were lost while I got a clearer copy scanned & sent to them.

I used CIBT. They were a bit pricey, but really knew what they were doing. I would definitely recommend them.

That said, I'm pretty sure that @CaliforniaGirl09 is from Northern California, and used a more local service that was considerably less expensive. She seemed to be very happy with their services. Hopefully she'll chime in here with the service she used.

Sayhello

 

[Cousin Orville]

We used CIBT as well. Several years ago, I applied on my own. It’s doable, but for 2017 we used CIBT. Expensive, but saving myself the time was more important. If you do use CIBT, I believe they had a discount for ABD that you had to request. Also request a 10yr Visa if it’s not automatic yet. There’s no extra charge, and you never know if you’ll be back.

 

[kaseyC]

How far in advance did you apply for your Visas. I don't want to request too early in case we are only given a 90 day Visa. I'm going to use CIBT too.

 

[sayhello]

How far in advance did you apply for your Visas. I don't want to request too early in case we are only given a 90 day Visa. I'm going to use CIBT too.

CIBT would not let us start the procedure more than 3 months before the start of the trip (for that very reason).

Sayhello

 

[pjacobi]

I've heard good things about ivisa.com, but I've never actually used them.

-Paul

 

[kaseyC]

CIBT would not let us start the procedure more than 3 months before the start of the trip (for that very reason).

Sayhello

Thank you. Did you contact CIBT before the 90 days?

 

[sayhello]

Thank you. Did you contact CIBT before the 90 days?

I did, and they sent me a sample packet (not the real one, because the real one listed ABD and the discount) just so I could get a look at what they were going to need. But they wouldn't give me the real packet until 90 days out.

Sayhello

 

[kaseyC]

I did, and they sent me a sample packet (not the real one, because the real one listed ABD and the discount) just so I could get a look at what they were going to need. But they wouldn't give me the real packet until 90 days out.

Sayhello

Fantastic. I'm a little more than 120 days out so I will plan on contacting them this week so I can see what I need.

One more question. What type of day bag/pack did you use? Especially on the day with 2 flights? I have a variety of pack safe purses/bags but wondering if I should look into one of their small back packs or stick with my larger crossbody.

 

[sayhello]

I'm pretty sure I just used my normal cross-body travel purse. I took my normal carry-on and personal item on the flights with me (with the purse shoved in the personal item for the flights). I took the purse out, and the rest got held under the motorcoach while we were in Xi'an. The checked bag was handled by Tinkerbell the night before (ie, Joe, our Chinese Adventure Guide). The only issue I had was my memory foam pillow which I normally packed away in my checked bag, which I couldn't do since the checked bag was already gone by the morning. So I shoved it in the ABD duffle, and no-one said anything about me schlepping the extra bag. It was rather cumbersome, but I managed.

This is my normal cross-body travel purse. The Piazza day bag from ebags. I've used it for years and I *really* love it.



https://www.ebags.com/product/ebags...?productid=10553385&lastsearchterm=piazza+day

Sayhello

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

We are headed to China in June and I’m working on our visas.... can anyone recommend a service that they used? I thought about flying to San Francisco and doing it myself but after a little research the cost, time, and stress of the process don’t seem to outweigh the cost of going through a service. Thank you for your help!

The problem with flying to San Francisco yourself is, if there's anything that turns out to be wrong or missing or not acceptable, you could quite possibly have to go back. The service that I used said the copy I sent them of one of the documents was not clear enough. Only a couple of days were lost while I got a clearer copy scanned & sent to them.

I used CIBT. They were a bit pricey, but really knew what they were doing. I would definitely recommend them.

That said, I'm pretty sure that @CaliforniaGirl09 is from Northern California, and used a more local service that was considerably less expensive. She seemed to be very happy with their services. Hopefully she'll chime in here with the service she used.

Sayhello

I used YELP and found https://www.freechinavisa.org They were awesome! Totally responsive and way cheaper than the agency recommended by ABD. Turn around after I submitted my docs was less than a week. Unfortunately if I recall correctly, they only work with Northern California and a couple western states.

 

[kaseyC]

I'm pretty sure I just used my normal cross-body travel purse. I took my normal carry-on and personal item on the flights with me (with the purse shoved in the personal item for the flights). I took the purse out, and the rest got held under the motorcoach while we were in Xi'an. The checked bag was handled by Tinkerbell the night before (ie, Joe, our Chinese Adventure Guide). The only issue I had was my memory foam pillow which I normally packed away in my checked bag, which I couldn't do since the checked bag was already gone by the morning. So I shoved it in the ABD duffle, and no-one said anything about me schlepping the extra bag. It was rather cumbersome, but I managed.

This is my normal cross-body travel purse. The Piazza day bag from ebags. I've used it for years and I *really* love it.

View attachment 386459

https://www.ebags.com/product/ebags...?productid=10553385&lastsearchterm=piazza+day

Sayhello

Ok. Thank you. That purse is very similar to one of my pacsafe bags. I will stick with that and my usual carry on

 

[tinks_mom]

Thank you so much, sayhello! We are heading to China in July and I've been stressing over the luggage situation. You always provide such helpful insight on these boards - it is truly appreciated!

 

[sayhello]

Thank you so much, sayhello! We are heading to China in July and I've been stressing over the luggage situation. You always provide such helpful insight on these boards - it is truly appreciated!

You are quite welcome! The only issue I had with luggage was, when they loaded and/or de-planed us on the tarmac a few times, having to shlep my carryon up and down the stairs. While it wasn't the most fun in the world, it was totally manageable. And I also occasionally got help from others from our group! Another plus of group travel! And I'll tell you, just getting off the plane & walking out of the terminal without having to wait for my checked bag was something I could really get used to! The Adventure Guides took care of all that!

I do need to mention that they are *really* serious in China about scanning and checking your personal item/carry on! I had my personal item pulled apart & re-scanned multiple times for the most mundane things (my travel umbrella, my makeup bag, my eyeglasses case). It got old, but there's not much to be done about it, but go through the scanner over & over again. I keep wondering if they disliked my Vera Bradley bag...

Sayhello

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

Another vote for CIBT. Excellent service. Recommend them without hesitation.

 

[AquaDame]

We used Peninsula Visa as that is the company my work uses; they were great to work with though I admit I don't have further experience to compare them with.

Edited to add since other people mentioned it, we requested and received ten year visas as well.

I do need to mention that they are *really* serious in China about scanning and checking your personal item/carry on! I had my personal item pulled apart & re-scanned multiple times for the most mundane things (my travel umbrella, my makeup bag, my eyeglasses case). It got old, but there's not much to be done about it, but go through the scanner over & over again. I keep wondering if they disliked my Vera Bradley bag...

Sayhello

Yikes, maybe you're right? We had all kinds of stuff in our bags such as my kindle and various food/drink containers (empty drinks of course) but they never gave us a second glance.

 

[sayhello]

Yikes, maybe you're right? We had all kinds of stuff in our bags such as my kindle and various food/drink containers (empty drinks of course) but they never gave us a second glance.

Well, I've since replaced that bag. *NOT* because they maybe didn't like it in China! Since I won't likely be going back there anytime soon, I'll never know if that's what triggered the searches.

Sayhello

 

[bamagoofy]

Our guides told us to take out umbrellas and magnets from our bags to hopefully prevent this.

 

[DVC Doc]

We went through CIBT and just got our visa for our May trip. Very pricey but they have a nice and organized way of getting everything taken care of for you. Of note, we both received the 10-year visas.

 

[NashSmartGuy]

Same here. The CIBT process was relatively painless, and we requested and received the 10 year Visa.