Chinese Visa Process

China had been on my radar since I first began looking for teaching jobs in Asia. I mean, the country is huge and manufactures a ton of goods in America, plus it has the Great Wall. So, I finally decided to book a tour to visit. I booked the tour through a company called China Discovery. They had booked our hotels, tours and given us an excellent itinerary. All we had to do was get a visa to visit. This is where all the fun began.

Firstly, you cannot get the visa at any other location in Korea other than Seoul. I guess this does make sense since Seoul is the capital. I looked up the Chinese Embassy's hours and they are only open while I am at work. I had to, unfortunately, take a half day off of work to go get this done.

Fortunately for me, Korea has an excellent train system and I caught a train straight to Seoul and was there around 11:00 am. I continued to be lucky as the Chinese Embassy was across the street from the train station! This was looking like it was going to be a breeze.

I had spoken too soon. Once I got to the desk and happily handed over my paperwork, passport and passport photos I as asked for the document from Korea from my last time entering the country (this information was not on their website). What? Korea does not give you a paper when you re-enter the country. They just look at my passport and ARC card and let me through. She then said that the tour company must get the hotel approvals before I am allowed to have a visa.

I frantically began emailing the man who booked my tour as I made my way to the Korean Embassy to get the missing document. The tour company quickly emailed back and sent a revised itinerary with hotel accommodation more blatantly laid out. I was unsure if this would satisfy the lady at the Chinese Embassy.

The Korean Embassy was amazing. I was in and out of their office between 5 and 10 minutes. They had obviously had to do this exact document quite a few times. So, I hurried back to the Chinese Embassy. All I had to do now was print off the new itinerary and turn in my stuff.

I was very worried. When I got back to the Chinese Embassy the line for turning in paperwork had become incredibly long. At this point, I was running low on time. I hopped back in line, waited for what seemed like an eternity, and then turned in my paperwork. Lucky for me, my paperwork got the initial approval.

One week later, I strolled into the Chinese Embassy and picked up my passport with a brand new visa inside.

If you are also looking to get a visa for China, I recommend going to their embassy as early as possible. It seems like they are pretty particular when it comes to granting visas. You really have to make sure you have all of the required paperwork and then some.