visa nightmare.

[Avril]

Hi cruisers, Well there we were looking forward to our newly booked world cruise when the postman started dropping visa info through the door. We are up to 3 at the moment. The Aussie one was easy peasy but the Chinese one is a nightmare form and the Indian not too bad. I do not intend to post our passports anywhere at the moment with the post situation so it is a matter of going to the embassies myself and wait. We also need a second mortgage for all the fees. What a nightmare to have to go through in this day and age of internet technology. You can download the forms but not simply do the Chinese and Indian online as they want photographs. HELP!!!!

[penny3333]

Hi Avril, not sure how we can help you. What is it you want us to do?

[jack2007]

Hi Avril, I have been to china ( not on a cruise ) and also had to get a chinese visa.As you can see my location is in the UK and so how I got my visa may not be the same as in the USA.
First of all I went on line and got the visa forms downloaded from the chinese embassy.From what I can remember this was in english and straightforward to fill in......then I made sure that I had the number of photos asked for.Like you did not want to trust the post and do not like the idea of my valuable passport going missing....so I knew the embassy was in London but I do not live in London but I also knew that where there is an embassy there are companies that will arrange to get your visa done for you ....by sending a courier to the embassy to wait until processed or collect when complete. Hope this is clesr enough for you.

I found a company in london that actually specialised in chinese passports....(I also saw a couple that looked a bit dodgy so ask questions if you have any doubts)....but because I still was wary about using the ordinary post....decided to catch a train to London and hand them my passport....which I did and they offered a choice of returning my passport by post, special delivery ( this is a trackable postal delivery which you pay a bit more for)or courier (like ups)costing alot more. I opted for special delivery and had my passport and visa stamped inside returned very quickly. I was pleased that I used a well established travel specialist that I thought did the job better than using my travel agent.

Look Avril....it may cost a lot more but look on it this way....how often do you get the chance to visit China ? What worked for me may not suit you and I don't know how far you live away from the embassies but I'm sure that someone else on here will have the solution to your problem......Good Luck & enjoy China.

[Avril]

Thank you for your information. I am so unsure of sending anything through the post so I may as well go up myself to the embassy. There are new forms out now for China and they are two pages. I will work my way through them and hopefully fill them in properly. Australia did not even want a photo and just sent them online. I will remember your advice though and thanks a lot. I have the forms downloaded and printed so I just have to make a start.