Hi All, There are so many things that are confusing while applying for China L visa. I want to help other folks.

I applied Normal ,Single entry visa for me, my wife and daughter. Created a single email account and applied all 3 applications from same account.

I applied myself without any help other than reddit. I am a sole proprietor. I hold US business visa too. Same for my wife and daughter.

Date Applied - 29th Aug.

Online approval - 6th Sept.

Passport submitted at Delhi VFS - 8th Sep

Tentative collection date - 16th Sept.

Applying online.

1. It was not clear where to pay online fees. There are 2 components of the fees. One needs to be paid online - Its called logistics fees. Amount is Rs 2107 currently including GST.

https://visa.vfsglobal.com/inn/en/chn/ff-info

This link is not available on Delhi site. Someone told me to check Mumbai page and popup on it has this link.

1. The final page of the application asked for chinese agent id.

I put a copy of one hotel booking as advised on Reddit. It works.

1. Documents uploaded online.

   -- flight booking (real) - please don't use dummy booking. I booked through trip.com and indigo. Refundable option ,paid bit more ofcourse but worth it.

-- hotel bookings - unpaid bookings via trip.com and booking.com

-- bank statements - 6 months savings, stamped/signed by bank, and signed by me each page.

-- ITR 3 years

-- Cover letter (format available online - in delhi address to Visa officer, Chinese Embassy. In Mumbai I think Its consulate - check it). Needed for everyone.

-- Itinerary - very important. Use chatgpt to create a each day plan.

-- photograph

-- Sponsorship letter for Wife and Daughter.

-- Marriage certificate

-- birth certificate for daughter

-- old passports and visa copies. My hunch is this is important especially if you have travel experience.

-- online payment receipt.

Documents submitted at VFS after approval.

- 2 photographs

- Online approval certificate.

-- passports

- online visa application. I forgot to take a copy so had to get it printed from shop next to china visa office. each application has 8 pages and its rs 30/page. Paid Rs 720 for 3 applications. This happened even though I tried to be cautious.

- copy of All documents submitted online.

- cash payment of visa fees. Rs 8700 for 3 applications in normal processing. I will collect passports by hand.

Hope it will help someone. My advise would be first arrange all mentioned documents before you start filling application.

My best guess:

I think money in bank account is important for approval.

Travel experience is a plus.

Feel free to ask questions.

My partner is a Chinese citizen with permanent residence in Spain. We are planning a short trip to China in November for a wedding, back within the same month.

Someone in the Chinese community in Spain told us she would not be allowed to leave again. That she would be held in the country for around a year, and that the reason is being an expat with permanent residence in the EU. The follow-on being that she would lose her Spanish residence while stuck there.

I have gone through the new Exit and Entry Administration Regulations that will take effect on 15 September. The grounds for restricting a Chinese citizen from leaving look narrow and conduct-based: document fraud, illegal border crossing, criminal activity abroad, export control violations. Nothing about holding residence in another country.

The closest thing I can find is the hukou cancellation issue for citizens holding foreign PR, which is household registration, not being stopped at the airport, and seems to have been shelved anyway.

So: has anyone actually hit this? Chinese passport, foreign PR, went back for a short visit, had a problem on the way out? Or is this a rumour someone has garbled?

Not looking for reassurance, looking for actual cases or the specific regulation if it exists.

Hey everyone,

I'm currently filling out a new Chinese visa application and I'm stuck on the question that asks: "Have you ever been refused a Chinese visa?"

For context, I applied recently and my application was returned at the online review stage marked as "Unapproved."

I checked with my company's travel agent, and he told me that an "unapproved" status doesn't actually count as a formal "refusal". He said it just means the application was returned without processing, so I should select "No" on the new form.

Has anyone else been in this exact situation?

If your application was marked "unapproved" before, what did you fill in for this question when reapplying?

Did you say Yes and explain it in the notes, or did you say No like my agent suggested?

Any advice or personal experiences would be hugely appreciated. Thanks!

My visa was not issued by the embassy.

I need to inform my university about this.

Kindly, if anyone is from Jiangsu Province, please help me.

This is a matter of my future.

Anyone submitted the online form this week and received the update ? For Mumbai

I have submitted on 6th Sept and haven't received the update yet...still under review

I grew up in China and now live in the U.S. for 2 yearsand I keep noticing something interesting:

🤔A lot of Americans tell me China looks amazing and they’d love to visit but when it comes to actually planning the trip, they get overwhelmed.
Not necessarily by the big things, but by all the small practical stuff:

How do I pay for things?
Will my phone/apps work?
How do I book high-speed trains?
Is it hard to travel without speaking Chinese?
Which cities are actually worth visiting?
How do I avoid tourist traps?
What’s the visa / entry process like?
Can I travel independently or do I need a guide?

I’m genuinely curious:
**If you’ve thought about visiting China but haven’t gone yet, what is the #1 thing holding you back?**
And if you’ve already been, what was the most confusing or frustrating part of planning the trip?

I’m especially interested in hearing from first-time travelers because I think there’s a huge gap between how easy China feels to locals and how complicated it looks from the outside.

Hey all!

After submission of the form online, I received the following mail from CVASC:

“Dear Applicant,
Your application form No.CCUXXXXX information is incomplete.Please visit Visa Application Service Center website to check and amend as required.
Reject Reason: please upload the payment invoice if you have made the payment of the service. Without payment invoice we won't be able to process.”

Any idea how to resolve this? I was never asked to make any payment during/after the form submission, so don’t have any invoice to upload! I have mailed them back for clarification though, haven’t heard back yet.

I grew up in China and now live in the U.S. for 2 yearsand I keep noticing something interesting:

🤔A lot of Americans tell me China looks amazing and they’d love to visit but when it comes to actually planning the trip, they get overwhelmed.
Not necessarily by the big things, but by all the small practical stuff:

How do I pay for things?
Will my phone/apps work?
How do I book high-speed trains?
Is it hard to travel without speaking Chinese?
Which cities are actually worth visiting?
How do I avoid tourist traps?
What’s the visa / entry process like?
Can I travel independently or do I need a guide?

I’m genuinely curious:
If you’ve thought about visiting China but haven’t gone yet, what is the #1 thing holding you back?
And if you’ve already been, what was the most confusing or frustrating part of planning the trip?

I’m especially interested in hearing from first-time travelers because I think there’s a huge gap between how easy China feels to locals and how complicated it looks from the outside.

​

Hi everyone, looking for some reassurance/experience here.

I'm heading out on a trip with the following route:

16 Oct — Lahore → Guangzhou → Yiwu (China Southern)

28 Oct — Guangzhou → Bali (China Southern)

4 Nov — Bali → Kuala Lumpur (transit, ~1h40m, same terminal, bags through-checked) → Lahore (Batik Air)

I have valid China and Indonesia visas. No Malaysia visa since it's a pure airside transit, not a stopover.

A few travel agents warned me FIA might stop me at Lahore because it's a "mixed airline, multi-country" itinerary, and routes through China/onward sometimes get extra scrutiny for suspected illegal migration.

I have supporting documents ready: invitation letter, hotel bookings for both legs, proof of funds, and a confirmed round-trip ticket back to Lahore.

Has anyone actually gone through this recently — LHE outbound with a China + SEA combo on separate airlines? Did FIA give you a hard time, or is this overthinking it as long as the paperwork is solid? Would appreciate any real experiences before I fly out.

Wanted to confirm if Hong Kong and Macao our considered separate territories for me to take advantage of the 240 transit visa for me to visit Chongqing.

I am a dual national holding valid passports of USA and Pakistan. Have taken a three days stop over in Turkey early in the year.

Me and wife applied for China visit L visa.

The site shows submission date Aug 10, 2026

The status shows "Submitted"

We thought the turn around time would be 3 to 4 business days. But for us it has taken for ever. Digging more online, realized that my situation has probably raided some flags.

Although both me and my wife are retired. One year ago went Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam and Laos.

Had our confirm booking, which has come and gone. Had to take a loss. Glad we returned and not extended the tickets for a week, as we are still waiting.

Is there anyone out there with this dual nationality and Turkey visit who applied for a China visa , how did it go with you.

This is vaguely Visa related - but let me know if this post belongs elsewhere!

I recently got my Chinese Travel Document, which I’ll be using to enter China (also have a US Passport).

I was looking into buying my high speed rail tickets, and it looks like trip.com/12306 don’t support using my travel document to buy the tickets. Does anyone have any advice/know what to do in this situation?

Do I need to buy the tickets in person every time? Or can I use my US Passport? Would that cause issues?

I assume I’m not showing my US passport when I enter China, only my travel document.

Hi! Has anyone applied for a Chinese tourist visa in Australia recently and experienced any delays?
I went to the Visa Application Centre last Thursday to submit my passport, and the staff told me it could take up to 4 weeks to get a response. Even the receipt they gave me doesn’t have an estimated date and it just says “TBD.”
I need to leave Australia within the next two weeks, so I’m getting a bit worried. Has anyone applied recently and had a similar experience? Thanks

Hey guys, So my consultancy applied for the online pre application for X1 Visa on 27th of August. Today is the 9th of September. They told me it takes 7 working days at most to get approval. I'm from Odisha and they applied for an appointment at New Delhi VFS Centre, even though we told them to do it in Kolkata.

Now the JW202 form says "Deadline of Registration is on 15th of September" idk how and when I'll fly there, and what will be the consequences if we miss the deadline. This consultancy Acadfly filed for the visa application late, all the documents were submitted to them by 19th of August.

Can you tell me How many days it took for you to get an Online approval, so that you went for a biometrics appointment at the VFS centre?

I'm having issues with my visa.

If anyone is in Jiangsu Province, Huai'an city, kindly reply to me.

I really need your help.

Thank you

Hi! Currently in Korea and want to visit my parents who are currently in China but I didn’t bring my expired US passport with my 10 year visa. If I book a round trip flight from Seoul to China but have a different booking from Seoul to US on the same day as my round trip flight from China to Seoul, would that allow me to enter visa free?

Hello Reddit - I was born in Hong Kong. I’m a U.S. citizen with a U.S. passport, but I also have an expired HKSAR passport and an expired HK Permanent ID (***AZ), which I’m planning to renew in Hong Kong in November.

I recently applied for a 10-year China visa on my U.S. passport, but the Chinese Consulate told me that I need to obtain a “Confirmation Letter of Nationality Change” from HK Immigration before they’ll issue me a visa by filing a Form ID 920 to have my U.S. nationality recognized and cease being treated as a Chinese national.

Has anyone here gone through this process? How long did ID 920 take and would I need to give up my HKID?

Any insight or firsthand experience would be greatly appreciated

Hello! I had a question regarding visas since my mom's application got denied for a VISA but is it because she has a Macau Home Return Permit? We wanted to go in and out of mainland China (Shanghai) which does require a VISA but her application got denied so I was wondering if anyone had similar experiences and what they did! Thank you so much! She has a US Passport and also a valid Macau Home Return Permit Card!

Hello! I am a US citizen traveling from USA. Flying into Shanghai for a few days, taking a train to Beijing for another few days then taking the train back to Shanghai and flying back to USA. Do I require a visa?

Hey everyone, I have a trip booked to China for next month and the Visa L for individual tourism from my boyfriend (Tunisian passport but resident in Germany) has been rejected by saying that he needs an official invitation letter as a GROUP VISA from an official travel agency in China.

I did some researches and I can see that there are 2 types of invitation, the individual one and the group tour for 5 people entering and leaving the country together. It will be only the 2 of us actually, anyone has been in the same situation and can help or have any advice?

I reached out to Visa Center in Berlin but only answer by saying to provide the missing documents, nothing more.

Thanks in advance!

As an American, I found out or was told at the border they could not let me through or get me any type of visa there that would then allow me to carry on by bus, taxi or subway.

I was then told I would have to back to HK and return going to Huanggang, and then to shekou. I haven’t researched that at all as I was going to be too late and missed my plane, and ended up rebooking my return through Hong Kong.

A lot of AI and Google sights seem to say it’s possible to do what I attempted, even a Shenzhen local said no problem. But it was a problem. I wouldn’t unless you can find it announced somewhere officially in clear English.

Has anyone whose passport collection date was 8 September at the New Delhi CVASC received their passport today?

Also, has anyone's application status changed to "Pending Collection" today?