Has anyone recently obtained a long term (3 or 10 year) multi-entry visa for China with a US passport? I am hoping to be able to get at least a 3 year visa and any tips for this would be welcome.
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I just got one and it is for ten years. I think most passport services will get that for you. I had no problems getting it. Ditto on the earlier reply for passportvisaexpress.com.
My experience turned out a lot better than yours. I applied in person at the Chinese consulate in NYC 4 days ago. They wanted just the travel arrangements for the China segment of a multi-country trip - flights in and out of the country, internal flights and hotel bookings - all of which I had made myself as individual bookings and that was no problem. No China itinerary or activity/tour documentation and no non-China travel documentation required. I requested a 10 year multi-entry visa and picked it up this afternoon (4 days later). The consulate issued a 10-year multi-entry visa with no limit on the number of entries and each entry up to 60 days. Perfect!
My big tip -- DO NOT try to get the visa yourself through a China Embassy/Consulate. Use a visa service. Personally I use passportvisasexpress.com, and have 100% satisfaction, but there are other good services out there. Following is my frustrating experience trying to do it myself (sorry it is so long). In particular, note that they want your end to end itinerary (actual airline/train reservation itineraries) from your home through all your travel (which in my case included several countries in addition to China) all the way back to your home. What a pain. So here is my story which is a copy/paste from my posting on FB "Every Passport Stamp".
Here are some tips if you are doing DIY for a visa at the China Houston Consulate which covers residents of most of the southern US from Texas eastward:
The consulate is at the corner of Montrose Blvd and Harold St. The entrance for visas is on Harold St. There is a small $5 "consulate parking" lot across the street which has out/in privileges (you will likely need the out/in, see below).
There likely will be a line going down the sidewalk when you get there. The guard at the entrance door is helpful. Go to him first to be sure you should join the outside line, which in all probability will be the line for US citizens applying for a visa. However, if you are a Chinese citizen/heritage, there is a different line and it probably doesn't extend out the door. Not sure what non-US non-China folks are supposed to do. And if you are there to pick up a visa that you applied for previously, that is a different line that probably doesn't extend out the door.
The line moves extremely slowly. They open at 9:30 and I was there at 10:00. I had just made it inside the door before 11:30 when the door is closed for their lunch (reopen 1:30-3:00). If you have made it inside before they close the door, they will continue processing folks in line for a while, but at some random time they just shut it down so they can have lunch, and tell the rest inside to come back after 1:30. They do issue a numbered paper which supposedly gives priority to the morning folks in the afternoon queue, but it is just crowd enforced so good luck on that (just handwritten on a Post-it note).
There are 6 service windows inside, and other than what the door guard tells you there is no helpful signage for this (all windows have a sign saying something like "dropping off" other than windows 1 and 2 which say "picking up"). US citizens applying for a visa want to be in line 5. Chinese citizens in line 4. Line 6 which you have to shove through the crowd to get to is for people who were there earlier and had to go away and then come back with more documents. Lines 1 and 2 are to pick up and pay for a visa when it is ready. There was no line to window 3, and it seemed to be used on a floating basis whenever an agent wanted to send someone for special handling.
The Houston Consulate's website is apparently out of date, but I assumed it was good and didn't check their DC embassy website or other sources. Don't assume that if you do/bring what the Houston consulate website says you will be good to go. It doesn't say to bring a photocopy of your passport data page, but you need one and if you don't have it you will have to go out somewhere to make a copy and come back (a guy in line said there is usually a van parked at the curb by the entrance with a photocopy machine for hire, but he wasn't there today). They want a copy of your FULL travel itinerary from your city of residence back to your city of residence, not just the flights/trains/etc into/through/out of China (my itinerary has 38 destinations in 9 countries, including China destinations in the middle of the pack, and all I brought with me was the China part). They only need documentation of hotels/hostels/residences/etc within China, not the rest of your itinerary.
They don't want a standard 2" x 2" photo. Fortunately what they want is smaller 33mm x 48 mm (the size of the photo box on the application form), so the 2" x 2" can be trimmed down if the facial size of 28-33mm high chin-to-crown and 15-22mm ear-to-ear is met. I saw one person sent away to find a way to trim his own photo, then he had to rejoin the line. On the other hand, a different counter agent pulled out scissors and trimmed a lady's photo for her.
There was a small sign, only visible once you are nearly up to window 4 saying "No Rush & Express Service Request!". I had sufficient time for regular handling, so didn't have to test if they enforce this.
The counter agent will THOROUGHLY check your application and all documentation, which is why the line moves so slow. The good news is that once you pass this painful inspection (perhaps after one or more return visits), there likely will be no problem with issuing the visa. The bad news is that while I was there, my observation was that around 50% were turned away for one reason or another.
I submitted my application today, Friday, and they gave me a slip saying it will be ready for pickup next Wednesday.
... and here is the rest of the story (to borrow a trademark phrase from Paul Harvey, RIP) ... so I returned to the Chinese consulate last Wednesday to pick up my passport with new Chinese visa as promised. I went to Line 2 as per my original post. The lady handed me my passport and application and simply said "denied". I replied with something profound like, "huh?" She just pointed to Window 6 and said "go have an interview." After standing in line at Window 6 for around an hour, a woman (I think a supervisor) took my fingerprints and asked me a series of around 12 questions, all of which except one were already asked and answered on my application. The one new question was: Q: "I see that you have gone to a lot of countries. Why?" A: "Tourism. I like traveling the world to see new places, meet new people and experience what life is like everywhere." She simply replied, "OK" and gave me a receipt to return again yesterday to pick up my passport with new Chinese visa. So yesterday, I went to pick it up which went smoothly, except that when I looked at my new visa, it was a 6 month, 2 entry visa, not the 10 year, multi entry visa that I had applied for. This covers my upcoming trip, but leaves no room for several future return trips to other parts of China that I have in mind. I asked if a mistake had been made, and the counter person looked it up on the computer and said, no, that is just the visa that the consular officer decided to give you. No, there is no way to ask for it to be changed. Just apply for a new visa in the future if you want to return to China. I asked why I had been given the short term visa rather than the 10 years I had applied for, and she said the officers don't give reasons. Ugh, so i just walked away with my 6 month visa. Has anyone else had their China visa term shortened like this?