Tourist Visa Question

[Lino]

Hello everyone,

I have a group of friends coming over during Chinese New Year and they encountered the below passage when looking up information on their tourist visa:

Applicants planning to tour in China should provide the return flight ticket and booking document for the hotel in China. Applicants planning to visit family members should provide the kinship documents. Applicants planning to visit friends should provide the invitation letter, assurance and identification of the friends or permanent resident (copy). The applicants who live in own house rather than hotel should provide the copy of title deed of the house.

Is this applicable? Do we really need a ID and an invitation letter? Sounds improbable to me but better be safe than sorry.

Lino

[Astrid]

it’s better to ask your Chinese friend to invite them, which just need a invitation letter( no other documents are necessary indeed). my boyfriend applied tourist visa in Thailand this year by this way , and he got a three month tourist visa easily.

here are the format i used. its better to write in both languages.

邀请函

尊敬的中国驻X国使馆工作人员:

您好!

本人***（身份证号****）邀请朋友xxx先生于 201x年 月 日至201x年 月 日到中国探访我，此行期间xxx先生将会住在我家，具体地址如下：

XXXXXX

联系电话：

由于XXX先生是X国籍，需按照规定办理中国入出签证:

XXX

出生日期：XX

护照号码：XXXX

请予以协助办理相关手续为盼，谢谢 !

邀请人

XXX

—————

201x年 月 日

[Rick in China]

Maybe my visa situation was different, but when I was in Canada less than a month ago my return visa is a normal 3 month L visa. I required nothing, no letters or IDs, no return flight ticket, or anything of that sort.

[Liam]

I’m applying for a tourist visa right now, yeah they say that it’s a recent change but they want a hotel and plane ticket, I’m guessing they don’t check up on this. Seems like they’re starting to crack down a little bit more on who can get a visa and how, or at least make it appear as if they are..

[Charlie]

Years ago I was coming into China and I knew they would ask me to show proof of a flight out of China. What I did was check on flights from Chengdu to Bangkok, but before paying for the ticket I printed out the confirmation page which listed all the information: my name, flight number, destination, etc and printed that out. Showed that to them and it worked.

What a lot of people also do is purchase tickets that can be refunded, use the ticket to get the visa, and then get a refund on the ticket. There are a lot of ways around these things.

[Lino]

Thank you all for the advice. The part I am worried about is the assurance and ID. I can provide a copy of my passport, but what do they mean with assurance?

@Astrid: so an invitation letter is something i write myself and send to my friends, right? There is no formal invitation letter template?

@Liam: Even though my friends probably won’t be asked for the documents they are first timers at leaving the safe haven of EU and venture into another continent, so having all the required documents will set them at ease. Just to be on the safe side

@Charlie: Standing in front of security control with a return flight that hasn’t really been booked must have been a little bit exciting I can imagine haha.

[Brendan]

Quote:

What I did was check on flights from Chengdu to Bangkok, but before paying for the ticket I printed out the confirmation page which listed all the information: my name, flight number, destination, etc and printed that out. Showed that to them and it worked.

Kudos.

[Brave Chengdu]

@Lino, I totally understand your situation. I’ve had a few friends and family visit who’d never been to a country they needed a visa for before. They (reasonably) read these forms , have in their mind what they’ve heard about the totalitarian bureaucracy here, and think they’ve gotta to follow it to the letter.

Don’t get involved in this “Applicants planning to visit friends” at all. thousands of tourists come to China every year without having fiends here to visit. think about all these south East Asian backpackers that tag China on the end for example. it’s a little bit of ‘we’re watching you – so you should behave yourself’ nonsense I think.

My parents in particular were worried about this ‘invitation’ stuff the first time they came, now I never hear from them while they’re getting their visa 🙂 pros!

Try and tell you’re friends to relax, and just skip that section.

[Lino]

Got it.

I will create a quick template based on Astrid’s example and create an English counterpart, together with a stamp from my school just to be sure. That should seal the deal and put people at ease.

Thanks for the advice everyone

[Astrid]

you are welcome Lino. I haven’t found any formal invitation letter. But it was proved that one will do.

[Tracy Lee]

Quote:

What a lot of people also do is purchase tickets that can be refunded, use the ticket to get the visa, and then get a refund on the ticket. There are a lot of ways around these things.

I agree with Charlie. My friend, dont make the things complicated. Just apply as tourists who have flight tickets and they can book a hotel and then cancel the booking after they get the visas.

[Chris Ziich]

I applied for a tourist visa from the US last week. I showed only a one way ticket. For the address, I put my apartment address. And here I am, no issues.

[Lino]

In the end I simply created a template and had my school place a stamp on it to make it look “official”.

My friends will apply for their visa soon, but everything should go well

[Author]

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