Chinese Ladies and Foreign Passports

[RegnisTheGreat]

I got hit by this when I was applying for my visa to China (I got a new Canadian passport after my old one expire).

Former Chinese citizens applying for Chinese visas with a newly issued/renewed foreign passport for the first time should also provide the original Chinese passport, or photocopies of the foreign passport before renewal with all records of Chinese visas on it.

[David E]

Regnis

When I went to apply for my visa for this trip, it was with a new passport. I needed to renew it because my old one did not have 6 months left on it before expiry.

They asked to see my old passport, because the previous Chinese visas I got were fixed into it.

The girl at the Embassy says that they needed to see my old Passport to establish that:

1)  I had been to China before, therefore they would be Ok to issue me with a 12 month visa.

2) I had not committed any offences on my previous visits, because these would have been noted on my previous visas.

So , for me, I guess it was just normal procedure that the Chinese Embassy went through. It seems that this ruling also applies to any Foreign Pasport holder.

I got my 12 months visa and off we go :icon_cheesygrin::icon_cheesygrin:

DavidE

[ttwjr32]

they also are tightening up a little because of the asian games just like they
did when the olympics were here. and from what i was told they will be checking
out foriegners during and after the games for overstaying there time here. so
do carry your passport with you as a photo copy at least in GZ is not accepted
as they will fine you. just a revenue based plan i guess because they do know
many copy and leave the original in the hotel safe. fine here is 150 rmb which
isnt much but it will screw up your day for quite a few hours.

[mustfocus]

If I remember correctly, here in Canada, you have to surrender your previous passport...unless you lose it.  I wonder how that works when you want to visit China.

[RegnisTheGreat]

mustfocus: acutally you don't, they will just avoid your old passport. I have 3 of my old ones. What they do is hole punch through it so that its not valid anymore.

[mustfocus]

I only have my current passport.  My parents might have one or two of their old passports, but for the last few, we have had to surrender our old ones.  Or at least they were never returned to us.

[David5o]

mustfocus,

That's very strange!! There maybe Visa's in the old passport that are still valid. Normally they always send the old passport back with the new one for that very reason. In UK they chop a corner off the old passport.

Just think about it for a minute, .... if your Residency permit for China is in your old passport, how are you going to prove that you have residency to the authorities?? It's only the date on your passport that expires, not it's authenticity, or the legal visa's and stamps therein....

David....

[mustfocus]

Well, over the last few years there has been lots of fake passports going around...some are real passport books, just the ID pages altered in some form or another.  I understand what you're saying but no-one in my immediate family except for myself has travelled to a country where we have to get a visa permit before.