China Travel Forum

[Daniel]

Hey All,

I am American student headed to China in March to study Chinese in Beijing. I just received my admission notice and visa application and I am wondering if there is a way to get around driving or flying to the New York consulate to get my visa, as I am from Ohio. The web site seems to say that you cannot mail your documents but must actually show up in person, or at least for the visa I am applying for which is a type "F". The web site also seems to state that you must go to the consulate that is designated to serve your state (Chicago would be closer to me, but New York serves Ohio). Has anyone done this before and know of an easier method? Any input/advice would be greatly appreciated.

Lots of thanks in advance.

[Mandy]

Probably. You can send your passport and application material to a visa processing service who will hand deliver the documents to the Consulate for you. For some reason this is okay, even though you are not there yourself. I have used http://www.justindocument.com/ for university faculty, presidents and such as well as for myself and had no problems. They charge $45 for 8-10 day service and more for rush processing. This does not include the consular fees and shipping, but you have to pay those anyway. I think that they can do an 'F' visa, but their website is not very clear about this so you should ask them first. Just be sure you have all of the documents correct and call them if you have any problems and it will go fine. There are many services that do this--Just-in-documents is the only one I have used.