Today my school told me I might have a problem getting a new student visa. Apparently one of the officials whose signature I need is out of town on business, and unless some exception is made I will need to leave the country on the 15th when my visa expires.

Since my visa is expiring, I would need to get a new visa, probably tourist visa, and convert it to a student visa once I return to Kunming.

What are my options? I would prefer to travel to Laos and get the tourist visa there. Is that possible? Or is my only choice to go to Hong Kong?

Don't want to be a downer, but I heard they were tightening up the visa regulations. If you got your visa before last September or so, things have changed since then, you'll want to brush up on your info. I heard that converting your visa from tourist to something else is not as convenient. Does anyone else know about this?

What school are u in? Cos this is terribly slipshod management!

Yes, name and shame the school!

I had a friend come here in January on a Z visa and changed it to a student visa. Also another friend came here in September and changed a tourist visa to a student visa. Shouldn't be a problem.

Fortunately I don't need to leave. If I had to it would have been my fault, due to applying only one week in advance instead of two as the school specified.

Another, good choice is Chiangmai, which has a Chinese consulate and is closer than either Hong Kong or Vientiane.

Certain visa classes cannot convert anymore, usually meaning you cannot convert "up" the hierarchy from say a Tourist to a Working visa, but the opposite is simpler to do as it is considered a lower-class visa. Note: not all the consulates apply the rules equally. HK is generally more stringent than some of the others, but on the flipside they are more professional and knowledgeable.

I got an F visa last April, expiring soon; seems it should now be an M visa. Can I still get one in Hong Kong or am I supposed to fly back to my home country?

Last time I asked a visa agent in HK and they said multientry biz visas were getting extremely difficult to get as those are the ones most people were working illegally on... but that was in Sept. Not sure the current situation

It don't think HK will offer you a one year multiple entry. That will require a home country consulate. Best HK will offer is most likley a tourist dual entry 90day per stay, with fastest processing being next day, thus requiring one night in HK.