What is the easiest way for an American to get a visa for travel to Mainland China?
At the airport in Hong Kong from the China travel service. You can get same day service if you apply in the morning. You can’t get a visa from Taiwan. Please google or search for Huang Guang Chen’s thread on this.
Interestingly enough, I have heard that you CAN get visas when applying from Taiwan - IE you give your passport to a Taipei travel agency, and they will take it from there, IE sending your pasport back and forth with courier service.
I don’t have any information on it - if anyone do, I would be happy to hear about it.
You used to be able to do this. When I tried last fall, I was told that you couldn’t anymore. I talked to a number of travel agencies about this. I’d love to hear otherwise.
I just asked recently and was told it can be done. I still went to HK though as I had to get a typhoid shot and they don’t have them here.
But then I am a Canadian so the rules might be different. We already get longer visas that Americans.
Apparently you can now. I got one through my travel agent a little over a month ago. It was only a single-entry (and was sent in at the same time as my wife’s travel documents), though.
This topic is really old, but I thought I’d offer what I found out, since very few people actually seem to know any specifics.
I asked one travel agency, Interlink (www.interlink.com.tw) if I can handle my visa to China in Taiwan, and they said it is possible. Since I’m American, they said it would take two weeks and NT$4800, which is exorbitant, but I guess it’s not really necessary to get it done here so you’re paying for the convenience.
I asked another travel agent, which YAJ recommended to me, and she told me that she can’t get visas for me because I don’t have an ARC and an employer in Taiwan. (I’m a student.) She said she can only handle visas for gainfully employed people! So that’s that.
I know getting a visa in Hong Kong is not too hard, but I had wanted to avoid the wait. Now I realize that, for most people, it’s very likely not worth the trouble. Hope this helps.
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