Chinese Visa- Is flight out of country required?

T

TomOC

Registered User
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I am planning to travel across Russia by train to China then through Asia. I will not have train tickets booked until later for travelling into China. I plan on getting out of China only later when I figure it out, possibly bus, train or fly. Do I need exact details of getting out of the country to get a chinese visa such as a confirmed flight booking? Will I get a visa without this. thanks for your help. Tom
 
Also, If so does anyone know of the cheapest flights out of China, in order to book a flight I may not even use out of the country?
 
If you have to book a flight out of China to get a visa then don't look for the cheapest ticket you can find (which probably would still cost a good few quid as Int'l flights from China aren't cheap (even just to Hong Kong) ... Instead buy a fairly expensive ticket that you can cancel and get a full refund .. that's likely the best deal even if there's a small service fee associated with a refund .. I have done this in the past for Visa applications and it's worked fine - try Cathay Pacific's website

As regards whether you need one or not - I think the Chinese embassy in Dublin requires evidence of travel arrangements, but I'm not really sure how strict they are ... I know in the past I have exited China via the KCR train to Hong Kong with no tickets bought in advance - but it's a few years ago so I've no clue what I put on the visa form at the time (I guess I must have had a flight form HK - Europe and probably noted that, but not sure)
 

Hey great idea about the expensive flight and cancel. Was looking into it on Cathy Pacific website. I assume, this flight confirmation will only be needed to get visa and not generally at entry to country? Thanks
Thanks german.
 
Correct - you can just cancel the Shanghai-Hong Kong flight (or whatever you book) then afterwards .. no obligation to use it

You I think are supposed to list everywhere you want to travel to in China on your visa application .. so it's good to make sure you include everything up to how you'll actually leave the country as well as whatever city you book your "phantom" flight out of - though in practice I don't think they much care where you go unless you're planning on travelling to Tibet and/or Xingjiang in the far west.

They may also want a hotel booking - but again easy to just book and cancel at no charge on one of the large hotel websites.

For more up to date advice than mine have a look on the lonelyplanet forums - there'll surely be people there who have done exactly what you're interested in doing.
 
You'll also need to make sure your visa is for long enough for you to "figure it out" - often tourist visas only for a 14 day stay. if you want to stay longer you'll need to explain why but shouldnt be a problem as long as you can show its still just a holiday and you're not going to work on a tourist visa.
You will need flight bookings and a hotel reservation to apply for the visa (for the length of time you want the visa for) but as mentioned above these dont have to be already paid for at hte time of application.
Chinese embassy very busy at hte moment so recommend you leave plenty of time to get it processed, make sure your passport has more than 6 months left to run on it too.
Enjoy China!
 
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