Getting a Chinese Visa-Perfection Required

I thought i would recount for you my experiences with getting a visa to visit China this fall. The purpose of this post is to save YOU time hopefully.

China is one of those countries which prefer that you use an agency to process your visa. For your hotel listing, make sure you include the province where the hotel is, not just the city---I left the province out for Shanghai and my application was rejected... I guess they do not know where Shanghai is located.. Also you must include a copy of each hotel reservation, BUT it cannot be in an e-mail format--it must be in non-email format.

BUT, BUT make sure that all names are listed on the reservation confirmation. In my case both my wife's name and my name must be listed on the res form. In one case we are sharing a suite in shanghai with our travelling companion, so all three of our names must appear on the res confirmation. The hotel can do this for you if you request it.

If you have been to china before, you must include a photocopy of your previous visas China Visa Fees. If this was in a cancelled passport, as was ours, you must include a copy showing the cancelled status of that passport.

DO YOU GET THE GIST THAT I FIND THIS CRAZY????

So our visa application package included the following for the 3 of us:

two copies of the 4 page visa application

1 recent passport sized picture for each of us

a copy of our cancelled passports showing the "cancelled" marks in which our previous visa was issued

a copy of our previous visa

a copy of each of our hotel reservation, in a non-email format, listing each person in each room

each of our passports with at least 6 months remaining in their life, and at least 2 full visa pages available (NY juristiction only) in original passport pages, not on add-in pages.

[Source: http://www.fodors.com/community/asia/getting-a-chinese-visa-perfection-required.cfm]

The rules are clearly spelled out on the visa instructions for you--READ THEM CAREFULLY!!!!!!