So I guess my passport with add on pages , not to expire til 2015, will not be useful should I decide to go to china.

lin--some of my add on pages say visa on them??

but I thought I just read on your post that the china visa had to have two blank pages NOT of add ons. I only have blank add on pages now.

rhkkmk,

I'm going to the visa process right now. My travel agent is pretty much screwing as he is not a qualified person to be doing this and I kind of rushed this and am flying to to SE Asia in a week and eventually China.

When you got rejected with for the visa, how long did it take for them to reject it and send your passport back? The guy handling my application claims to have mailed my passport in already but now need more information regarding hotels, invitations, etc (things he should have told me earlier). Assuming he did and it's missing information, when do you think the passport will be returned?

Mme Perdu,
In my last remark to dgunbug, I was referring to using her visa service, mychinavisadotcom, not Travisa. Originally, I had been recommended to Travisa, but of course, didn't consider it after Bob's experience.

dgunbug, we should get together after I get back to FL...which now won't be until early next year. Now, I'm "up north."

Another resource I trust had a good experience with OasisChinaVisa. And, a consumer reporting site listed PassportVisasExpress as #1, and TravelVisaPro as #2. Wendy Perrin, from Traveler mag had always used ZVS (Zierer Visa Service), which Peter Greenberg also recommended, but they've been bought by VisaCentral (CIBT)...so I've basically been going crazy looking into all these resources....calling them to see how the phone rep was, etc. Now, I've got to settle on one and fill out the damn forms!

Also, for those of you who do your own passport photo....beware. I had done some myself that I thought were perfect, and at least, Vietnam accepted them for their Visa application. But, I was cautioned that you really need to go to a Walgreens, etc. and get an official type photo because China is strict about how big your head should appear in the photo (1' to 1 3/8") and sure enough, my head in the other photos would have been rejected at 1 3/4"!

AAA does good photos too.. any camera shop or walgrens/cvs will do good ones too.

my application was rejected first when we hand carried it to travisa, and next the day after we again hand carried it..

it was never sent back to me..

my blame for the whole things is first my lax ready of the instructions, and secondly the severe tightening of the regs on aug 1 and the strictness of the ny authority.. not to mention chinese mentality..

Yes, they are strict on photos, last year our DIY ones were rejected and I went to CVS and DH went to Walgreens.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am proud to announce that my DH & I will be off to China on Oct 8th. Our passports were delivered today! Yahooo.... The only snag was that on my husband's passport the name is slightly misspelled. We called the agency and were told that they have had this problem before with the Embassy, but it never presents a problem. We asked for a letter from the Embassy stating that it was there error and were promised a call back tomorrow from MyChinaVisa.com. For anyone that wishes to use there service, you may also contact them by calling 1-800-799-6560. We were very satisfied with their responsiveness to questions that we had on several occasions and the ease of obtaining the Visa. Incidentally, we took our own Visa pictures and had no problems.

june, we will bring stale bread with us on the 25th when we arrive in shanghai for your DH... btw, chinese prisons do have buffet meals.

Congrats dgunbug!

Looks like we'll be seeing you in Shangahi. BTW MyChinavisa.com just sent us an email with our FEDEX tracking# for our visas. Checked online with fedex.com and it shows the parcel in progress to be delivered on 9/7. Will let you know when we have them in our hands. So far its been a very good experience with mcv dot com.

Aloha!

Looking forward to it. By the way Hawaiiantraveler, how long will you be in shanghai? We arrive on the day of the gtg.

Bob - I got a good laugh from your comments!

Apologies, barefootbeach. And glad for you that I was mistaken. Carry on.

dgunbug, congrats on getting your visa. I await word from HT and from Bob on their visas.

june, we arrive in shanghai on 10-20 and leave 10-30 for bangkok

Wow - you have a long time there. You'll be able to tell us what to do and where to eat as we only arrive on the day of the gtg. We want to do the day trip out to Suzhou and tongli as suggested by shanghaiinese. Will you be doing other day trips?

Yes, we plan on doing a watertown....as to which one(s)that is now being decided by the higher ups. Other than that though we plan no other day trips but to sight see,shop,relax and do the Shanghai Tango(bob,think Heineken commercial)

Aloha!

dgunbug,
Congratulations! so happy to hear that mychinavisa came through. I'll be sending my mess off them tomorrow...shouldn't be a problem as we're leaving Oct. 16th.

Ha, ha, Bob, I guess gov't. cheese and moldy bread are looking pretty good to you now, aren't they??

BC

Barefoot - what's your itinerary? Any overlap with ours? Oct 9-16 Beijing
17 - 18 datong
19-20 pingyao
21-23 xi'an
24- Luoyang
25-26 nanjing
27-28 hangzhao
29-nov 4 shanghai

OMG, finally travisa just called to say my passports are in Boston awaiting my pick-up with the chinese visas..

not toooo bad 1 day short of 2 weeks even with all the problems...

end of story