Nanjing Members' Concerns about Visa Restrictions Go back »

2008-05-29 | Nanjing

Over recent weeks The European Chamber has received many requests for information regarding the recent and unexpected restrictions on obtaining and renewing business travel visas ("F visas").

The main issues can be regarded as follows:

Ø Refusal of multiple-entry F visas,
Ø Suspension of express visa services for F visa applications
Ø Shortening of the length of issued single- and double-entry F visas.
Ø Requirements for additional documentation for business visas. Receipts of hotel bookings and oncoming and outgoing plane tickets for tourist visas have also been requested.

These new practices impede business cooperation between the EU and China. The new practices make plans to travel to China for business uncertain and significantly increase travel costs by limiting the number of entries per visa. Furthermore, the requirement that F visa applicants return to their home country to renew their visas has huge implications in terms of both time and money.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday denied that China had stopped issuing multi-entry visas to foreigners, insisting that visa issue procedures continue to be convenient. Applications are being scrutinized more carefully, spokesman Qin Gang said, adding that the new procedures are based on practices that were emplooyed during previous Olympics and other large-scale international sports events. "It does not mean all multiple-entry visas have been suspended," he told a regular news briefing. He said the policies would be in place "for a period of time". Visa processing usually takes four working days, he said.

Becky Xia, Senior Manager of Fragomen (Innovative Global Immigration Solutions for corporations and individuals) will deliver a presentation to members on June 16th. To view details and register for this event please click here.

Members' Views

“I can personally answer this question since my visa just recently expired this May. I went to renew it only to find out that passports must be valid for at least 6 months (mine expires this August) in order to renew one's visa. I immediately went to Shanghai to renew my passport so I could have that for renewing my visa (business class, multiple-entry, one year).I have only nice and positive comments for both Shanghai (US Consulate) who were more than helpful and informative...as well as Nanjing's bureau for renewing my visa. They were both helpful, understanding and extremely cooperative; with company X's assistance. I had no problems, no resistance.”

" I don’t think the restrictions have had a great impact on our business here. In company Y most customers are not on holiday but here for business, so they have all the necessary travel documents, even if the procedure gets more tedious these days. "

”We’ve seen a significant and negative impact on the business due to the current visa situation. Just as China is tightening visa requirements for overseas travellers coming into China, Chinese travellers are also experiencing difficulties in obtaining visas to enter certain European countries, according to our partner travel agency’s statistics. Our trainer from company Z's head office couldn’t even get a visa to enter China therefore the training has to be cancelled. Although the foreign affairs office has been trying their best to assist in obtaining visas for our invited guests, the procedure is still very complicated while most Europeans didn’t expect it to take that long as it now requires 1-2 weeks preparation prior to travel.”

Please continue to keep us informed of your experience. (nanjing@euccc.com.cn)

Visa procedures not made difficult - Foreign Ministry. (China Daily) 2008 -05-30 click here