Journey to Nowhere

Because of the notice put up by the Commissioner’s Office of China’s Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong on April 13 about restricting visa applications to those residing or working in the city only, some of you may be hesitant to come to Hong Kong for a China visa.

But I am glad to report that I have made a phone call to the visa hotline of the China Travel Service (CTS) agent in HK (tel: 852-2315 7188). The staff who answered the phone confirms that you do not need to be working or residing in Hong Kong to apply for a China visa. But in applying for a tourist visa, you need to show your onward flight ticket.

It is obvious that to get a China visa prior to or during the Olympics in Beijing, is getting complicated. There was absolutely no need to show an onward flight ticket to get a tourist China visa before.

Also, please take note that you can get a China visa on the same day in Hong Kong ONLY IF you go to the CTS branch in Tsim Sha Tsui (1/F Alpha House, 27-33 Nathan Road, Tsimshatsu, Kowloon, open 9am-7pm weekdays, 9am-5pm Saturday). The CTS staff told me that you have to hand in your visa application before 9:15am and you can get your visa by 6:45pm on the same day.

Visa fee depends on what passport you are holding. Say, if you are from the UK, the rush service (on the same day) through CTS would mean a fee of HKD1000, and normal service (about 3 days) about HK500.

CTS branches process tourist and business visas only. If you want to apply for a work visa, you must go to the  Commissioner’s Office of the China Foreign Ministry in HK.

Although I posted it here that it is easy to get a China visa in Macau, but I do think that Hong Kong may be a better option. The reason is that, there are about 40 branches of CTS across Hong Kong. Those in or near the tourist areas, such as SheungWan, Central, Wanchai, Mongkok, TsimShaTsui, will accept China visa applications. On the other hand, there is only one CTS in Macau that accepts China visa applications. A long queue may be expected.

Related:
Get a China visa in Macau

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 17th, 2008 at 1:54 pm and is filed under China Visa. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.