Visa problems

I went to get my visa for China this week, in the hope of getting a 3-month F-visa. To get this visa I was aware of the fact that you needed an invitation letter from the host company/school that you intend to work with. So waking up nice and early, I headed over to the Chinese consulate on Toorak Road in Melbourne. After waiting about 40 minutes in line I got to the front and presented my documents. The Chinese lady behind the counter had a look at the documents and matter-of-factly rejected them with little explanation as to why. I tried my best to figure out what was wrong, but she sent me over to reception to ask them. The man at reception was Australian however it appeared as though he was able to speak fluently in Chinese as he was taking a call at the time I walked up there. As per normal terrible customer service protocol, he failed to even acknowledge I was there while he took the call. Once he hung up, he asked me what he could do for me, but said it in the same tone that you would say ‘What the hell do you want?’ I told him that I was just rejected for the F-Visa and he gave me a copy of the actual document I required which was not an invitation from the school, but an invitation from both the school and the local government.

When I got home I sent an email to the school outlining what had happened and went onto the consulate and embassy website to see whether it was even possible to get an F-Visa with just a school invitation letter. It turned out that on one of the websites it said you needed government approval, but this information came under the heading of X-Visa and so it’s not surprising that I never saw it. The school emailed me back saying that I should try and get a Cultural visit F-visa rather than a Study F-visa as that would mean I wouldn’t need government approval. I checked on the consulate and embassy websites and nowhere did it say that I needed government approval so I thought that this would be the way I could get an F-visa. This time around however, I wasn’t going to risk waking up early and waiting in line for 40 minutes, so I decided to try and call and email the consulate directly. To my surprise the consulate has no email address for visa enquires. Additionally, you could only phone the consulate between 9am-12pm each day and that when you tried to ring it, you would get a engaged signal. This happened for nearly an hour as I called and recalled only to hear nothing. Finally, I got through and once again was speaking to the man from the reception at the consulate. He basically said that once again I needed government approval and I could not get an F-Visa without it. I felt like telling him just how bad the visa instructions and consulate website was, but felt that it was going to do me little good.
As a result of all of this my final option was to go and get an L-Visa (Tourist Visa). This would allow me to come to China and once I got there, the school would personally help me upgrade it to an F-Visa. Although, I must say, I will only believe that when it actually happens. When I got to the front of the line at the consulate they told me that I couldn’t stay for the 60 days I had planned (which it clearly states is allowed according to the website), so they gave me 40 days instead.

At least I have approval to come to China now and hopefully I won’t need to worry too much about Visa problems in the future.

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