[links]

Argh, it cost us a lot of trouble. We got some German and French managers flew in for meeting earlier on this week. Supposed many of them have to go to Shanghai for another meeting and now stucked in HK.

[pin]

Flood of complaints over mainland visa restrictions
Liz Heron and Zoe Mak
Apr 19, 2008


The American Chamber of Commerce has sent a dossier of complaints from businesspeople to the central government over the imposition, without notice, of new conditions for obtaining mainland visas.

The chamber received nearly 30 letters of complaint within 24 hours of launching a survey of its 1,600 members on Wednesday, and last night sent bundles of responses to the Commissioner's Office of the Foreign Ministry and the Hong Kong government. It plans to send further bundles over coming days.

A similar survey is being conducted by the British Chamber of Commerce.

AmCham president Richard Vuylsteke said the response was exceptionally rapid and strong and the main concerns were the suspension of multiple-entry visas, new requirements to provide a return travel ticket and hotel voucher before applying for a visa, and higher visa charges.

"It is incumbent on us as a chamber to provide this information as soon as possible so that they can see what impact this is having on business and Hong Kong's image as a great place to do business," he said.

"What everybody wants is to go back to what we had. But if there has to be a fallback position, that would be to carve out different categories of people who need fast-track access."

The move comes after the European Chamber of Commerce wrote to the commissioner's office on Monday calling for high-level talks about the withdrawal of both multiple-entry visas and the issuance of short-stay visas at the Shenzhen border over recent weeks.

The Commissioner's Office has said in a statement that multiple-entry visas could still be issued.

Travel agents say requirements for travellers to obtain a return ticket and hotel voucher before applying for a visa, a new two-day visa for Shenzhen with a 30-day validity period, and a new rule that nationals of 33 countries can apply for mainland visas only from their home countries - and not from Hong Kong - came into force on Tuesday.

The Hong Kong Association of Travel Agents wrote to its members yesterday with details of the 33 affected countries. The letter said the new requirements for a business visa included "an original copy of an invitation letter".

Daryl Bending, senior travel consultant with Concorde Travel, said the return ticket and hotel voucher were not required for the two-day visa but would be needed for single-entry and double-entry mainland visas used for visits to Shenzhen.

Similar requirements were imposed without notice on people applying for mainland business visas at Chinese consulates across Australia on Wednesday, according to News Limited website. Businesspeople needed to obtain a letter from an approved central government department confirming their dealings on the mainland were bona fide, it said.

Gavin McDougall, a spokesman for the Australian consulate, said: "We are not aware that that is a requirement affecting Australian businesses in Hong Kong. Our embassy in Beijing is making further inquiries."

[Boris]

Originally Posted by links

Argh, it cost us a lot of trouble. We got some German and French managers flew in for meeting earlier on this week. Supposed many of them have to go to Shanghai for another meeting and now stucked in HK.

So - the question I would ask you is -- as we have all known about the problems for a while now why did no one in the company care to inform them to get visa before they left.

Also " flew in for a meeting earlier this week " -- why haven't you got them their visa on arrival. Its a next day service if you pay for it and they are not on the " banned " list.

This problem looks entirely of the companies own making. My guess is the managers will rightly be angry at you.

[Boris]

From Pin post
Lots of the same old same old BUT two things that are a change for the worse.

1) " the new requirements for a business visa included "an original copy of an invitation letter" -- A fax on plain paper was allowed before. "

2) " Businesspeople needed to obtain a letter from an approved central government department confirming their dealings on the mainland were bona fide." ---- Jesus Christ Almighty. Read the stories about trying to get a CGD to approve a APEC submittion and you will see what I mean. ALSO -- and here is the cherry on the cake - I bet a years supply of noodles no CGD has a department to deal with this.

Looks like I have to make a call to the wifes Uncle and Cousin who are SERIOUSLY connected but what about the rest of you ?

[Goloh]

There is an article about this in today's (Saturday-Sunday, 19th April) International Herald Tribune, which is arguably less prone to censorship than the SCMP may be. It's too long for me to type here, but one paragraph sticks out: "The new rules do not apply to foreign residents of Hong Kong, according to an announcement about the changes on the Web site of the Chinese visa office. 'I can assure you that there will be no difficulty in applying for visas for all normal visiting, business, and tourist trips to China,' a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, said Thursday."

The article refers to a similar move by Greece in 2004 before the Olympics there.

Despite the optimistic tone of that paragraph cited, the rest of the article makes it look like Shenzhen day-trips and multiple-entry visas for many of us are not going to be easy until and unless there's an intervention.

The article ends with this most helpful quote from Michael Wu, chairman of the HK Association of Travel Agents: "It will be troublesome."

No kidding. It already is.

[ontheroad]

This is the IHT article (it's a Reuters dispatch):

China puts visa limits through Kong Hong - International Herald Tribune

[pyroklown]

It is obvious that they have put very little thought into these restrictions. Now you also require to have a hotel booking AND a confirmed return ticket into China. This makes no sense to me at all, what if you are staying with friends or relatives? what if you are a student with limited funds and are going to be backpacking around China? What if you don't want to spend any money on a plane ticket until AFTER you have recieved a visa to China, just in case your visa application gets rejected. What if you're taking a boat or a train or a bus into china? you won't have a plane ticket then.
What is even worse, there is no information regarding the requirements anywhere OUTSIDE of the visa office, so you only find out this information after what is usually several hours of waiting in long queues and sitting about waiting to get served at a counter.
There is only one phoneline to call for inquirys, manned by only one person. Also, there is no way of complaining. The director is usually nowhere to be found, and the consul quite often just closes his counter when there is too many people for him to deal with.
I spend a lot of time in the visa office, and I can see how shambolic the system is right now. I urge everyone to get in contact with the counsul of their respective countries, the newspaper, anything to get the complaints across and hopefully the situtation will be resolved soon.

[pyroklown]

Originally Posted by ycchai

I just came back from wanchai and I'm really pissed. Apparently the central government has limited it at the computer system and they can't do anything about it.

The previous 2 entry one (last week) lasted me until this week. This is getting ridiculous!!

They've been giving the 'technical difficulties' excuse for 3 weeks now. It is obviously BS and they couldn't be more creative and think of a better excuse. Also, it takes 4 working days to get a visa. It costs $250 extra to get it processed for the next working day, or $150 extra to have it ready in 3 days. Fair enough they're preparing for the olympic games and giving themselves more time to process visa applications, but the excuses they're giving for not allowing people to apply for multiple visas, or 1 to 3 years visas or just pathetic.

[dot.zen]

Originally Posted by MaxWonga

I am surprised that all these people who need to travel to PRC so often dont have APEC cards

To obtain an APEC Business Travel Card you must hold a passport from an APEC member country, so that excludes a huge proportion of those who reside in HK and regularly travel to the mainland. USA and UK are not APEC members.

I guess I'm lucky in holding an APEC card.
I knew nothing about this visa mess until I read it here today.
I travelled to Shenzhen on Thursday with my APEC card, it all worked.
If the PRC government stop recognising the APEC card I guess I'll just stop going there. That'll make a few people in Beijing more than a little upset.

For those who do travel to the mainland regularly and who hold a passport from an APEC member county, it is well worth while trying to get a Business Travel Card.

dot.zen

[PDLM]

Originally Posted by dot.zen

To obtain an APEC Business Travel Card you must hold a passport from an APEC member country

Not true. A Hong Kong Permanent Resident with any passport is eligible. (See The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region - Immigration Department ) Granted that still excludes the larger number of non-permanent residents.