China visa?
 

Arriving in Hong Kong on 12/20 and would like to book travel to Beijing departing on 12/23 while in Hong Kong. Will we be able to obtain a visa in this time period?

Yes. A travel agent should be able to get you a visa in one day. However, they will be closed on weekends and public holidays

Actually agents can usually get you a visa on Saturdays, too. An ordinary three-month tourist (L) visa should cost you no more than HK$150-180.<BR><BR>Peter N-H<BR>http://members.axion.net/~pnh/China.html

You still have time to obtain a visa from the PRC embassy or a consulate in the US.<BR><BR>If I only had 3 days in Hong Kong, I don't think I would want to spend part of it trying to get find a travel agent. I assume you are arriving in the late afternoon on Friday the 20th, which means you will only have a half day on Saturday to find an agent and get the visa. The PRC consulate in Hong Kong is only open from 9 am to 12:20 on Saturdays. Depending on your flight out on Monday, you may also have some time on the Monday. However, either way seems to me to be cutting it a bit close. I lived in Hong Kong for 5 years and had to apply for visas on short notice on several occasions, and don't remember ever getting one in 1 day, the quickest turnaround was 2 days. However, those were business visas, so they may take a bit longer.<BR><BR>If you are a US citizen, you can obtain a visa as a &quot;walk-in&quot; applicant or by mail for the PRC embassy or a consulate in the US. Mail takes 7-10 working days and costs $35. For walk-in applications, normal processing time is 4 days and fee is $30. There are offices in Washington, NY, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Houston. You can appoint your travel agent or a third party to obtain the visa on your behalf, so you don't have to actually go to the embassy or consulate yourself, but you would have to mail the agent your passport and photos. You can also get visas on an expedited basis in one day ($60) or 2-3 days ($40). If your travel agent cannot obtain a visa for you, there are many companies which will obtain visas for you for a few. Check the web. One I know of is<BR><BR>traveldocscom <BR><BR>I don't know anything about their reputation.<BR><BR>Check the website for the PRC embassy in Washington for further details<BR><BR>china-embassy.org<BR><BR>If you are going to use the Hong Kong route, bring passport-size photos as you will need them for the application, and you won't waste time getting them taken there.<BR><BR>Hope this is helpful.<BR><BR>

Thanks to you all for the excellent information. I think I will try to get my visa this week from the NYC consulate. I'm sure getting one in HK would be easy enough but it will be one less thing for me to worry about if I get it here!