I heard a story... that they might ask you for criminal record clearance certificates from every country that you have ever lived in. Clearly an impossibility. And they would only have your current passport to guide their knowledge of which countries those may have been unless one was foolish enough to disclose more info... don't!

Fortunately my school handles this for me. You all have my sympathy. Hope it gets sorted out or becomes less complicated.

Or if the island crisis escalates maybe we're all persona non grata

I have what might be an obvious visa question, but I thought I would ask here rather than waste space with a new thread.

Right now I have a one way ticket to Kunming and plan on staying 1 - 2 years, living on either a work visa teaching English, or a student visa taking a 10 hr/week Mandarin course or something. This would sorted out after I arrive and get my bearings. I will be staying at my GF's mom's place, but without a return ticket is it going to be possible to have any kind of tourist visa issued, or do I need proof that I'm returning? If I had to buy a return ticket I would just make sure it's fully refundable...

Also, I would like to have as long as I can and multiple entries for a tourist visa so that I can travel during the first few months. If I have to buy a return ticket to Canada, is it a good idea to buy one about 5 months after I get to China and hope the visa office gives me what I want, or should I play it safer and make the return flight sooner so that I'm sure I can get in?

Any experience/opinions are appreciated.

You could book a round trip with an open return.

I'm not well versed in open return tickets... also not sure how the Chinese authorities would view that either, but not a bad idea.

Unfortunately I already have the ticket there booked (multi-stop to visit family in Vancouver and check out Beijing) and would have to pay a penalty to rebook.

When I got a tourist visa in July they flatly refused to give me anything longer than 30 days. No explanation was given, though i did ask for more than 1 entry, they gave me 2. Regarding return flight ticket. They didn't ask for it, but I was advised they might. I started the process to change to a student visa as soon as I arrived in Kunming.

Good luck!

jopasny - if you want to come here on a tourist visa, previously they would issue 3 months, but ONLY if you applied at the Chinese embassy in your home country. Maybe mPRin you applied in China/Hong Kong? Previously you could also get a double entry tourist visa as well, again only from your home country, giving you essentially 6 months on a tourist visa with the requirement that you leave and re-enter to activate your second 3 months (easily done with a flight to HK or trip to Vietnam/Laos). I believe you can also get a tourist visa renewed here once, which could essentially give you 9 months here, someone correct me if I am wrong. Proof of return ticket is sometimes required, sometimes not, if you have a big bank balance you can usually show them a bank statement with your name on it to prove you have the funds to leave.

I aren't sure if these rules apply still however as we just got a brand new set of visa regulations this year so it may help to ask the Chinese embassy in Canada to ensure this information is still correct.

If you want to work/study here, you may be able to switch to a work/study visa organised by the school you are studying/working for. Study will most likely need to be full time however, part time study I believe does not qualify you for a student visa. Some schools have been known to get around this, but its difficult to know if this is the case now. If you want to work, by the sounds of it you will need a certificate of no criminal convictions. Get this BEFORE you leave Canada and get it authorised by the Chinese embassy in Canada as a real document (usually requires issuing by your police authority, then notarised by your notary office, then stamped by the Chinese embassy). That will save you the hassle of getting it when you are in China. If you have lived in other countries (i.e. with resident visas in your current passport), you will likely need certificates from those countries too.

Yes, I got my tourist visa in China. I also had to show them a bank statement with enough funds to stay here. $100 US a day, so approx 18,000 RMB. They told me it was possible to extend my visa from within China just once. The least amount of hours you can study to get a student visa is 10 per week. Shop around for cheapest prices. Some universities it's as little as 3200 RMB for one semester tuition, some private schools are almost double that. Check the reviews section here for quality of teaching etc.

Again, thanks for the tips.

I definitely haven't been expecting anything with Chinese visas to be straightforward, so having a few contingency plans feels like a good idea. The consulate is unfortunately in Ottawa, a few hours out of the way for me. I think I might book a return from 3 months from my arrival and use the China visa center (www.visaforchina.org/MTL_EN/ - which issued me a Visa in August that I never used) to apply for it. If I can 3 months with at least a double entry, that'll be time to travel a little bit and figure things out, either for work or school. My current available funds wouldn't look great on paper, so I'm hoping the letter from my GFs mom will help.

It seems like a lot of schools that offer 10hrs/week classes will also get you a student visa, so I really hope that's true. Teaching might happen too, but I'll take your advice and get the criminal record check here first. Luckily I'm still working for a background checking company that processes 10s of thousands of checks/day in Canada alone, so that shouldn't be a problem. Upon researching, getting authenticated looks like a huge pain in the ass... oh well, that's life.

Even with all these flaming hoops of shit to jump through, I'm still pretty excited about this.

When back home, I have used an agency to get the visa, this saves taking two or three days off, travel expenses, and a lot of hassle.

@tigertiger - my experience using an agency to get a tourist visa I didn't end up using was also very easy. I might try that again, but want to see how long of a tourist visa they might be able to get me.

Also, does anyone know how it works with student visa if you miss a week of class or something? If I do a 20 week course I intend to work at it and go regularly, but if I want to travel during that time and miss some class, is it possible they'll kick me out of the class and I can lose my visa? I wouldn't want that to happen... can you even re-enter on an X-visa?