How to Get a Shanghai Business Visa
It’s a seemingly simple process to get a business visa in Shanghai. There are just two steps (at least for US passport holders, many other nationalities should be similar):
Shanghai Business Visa Steps
- Get a tourist or business visa from outside China (if you are already in China, the easiest place may well be in Hong Kong. See a post about how to get a China visa in Hong Kong). If that’s how you got to China, great. If not, you need to leave and get a new one (I just had to leave because my employment visa expired).
- Apply for a business visa at one of the companies that handles these types of visas two weeks before your visa expires (one week before for rushed service). The typical fee for this is about 2000 RMB for a six month unlimited entry business visa. This is a whole lot easier than trying to go to immigration and doing it on your own, and somehow the requirements are a lot lower - usually just your passport and two pictures.
That’s it. It seems in Shanghai you can get a visa with no restriction beyond the length of the actual visa (business visas from Hong Kong limit your stay for each entry to 30 days, which is okay if you are living in Shenzhen or Guangzhou, but otherwise is a huge headache).
Why is Getting a Business Visa in China so Much Easier Than Getting A Short Term Residence Permit?
The process for getting a one year residence permit in Shanghai can be quite tedious. Why are the requirements for an employment visa so high? Or rather, why are the requirements for a (semi-legal) business visa so low?
Residence Permit for work (work visa) or Residence Permit for Study (study visa) can be changed to business visa without your leaving China mainland NOW (December, 2007). And if you get a tourist (L) visa and prefer to stay in China longer, you’d better NOT extend it (although it is technically can be renewed twice, with 30 days of each time). You can turn to an agent to have L directly changed to business (F) visa.As you know, the China visa policy tightens as the Olympics is approaching. There may be some changes from time to time. The information is only for your reference.
Hey Kevin - Thanks for the update. Too bad that wasn’t the case two weeks before, would’ve saved a trip to Hong Kong.
Dear sir,
this is raja, from nepal, i want to know, i was student before, i get student visa for 1 year, just now my visa finish and i take L visa from makau, so can i extend my visa for 1year? plz give me detail information
waiting for repply
raja
Hi Raja,
Unless you are a student, you won’t be able to extend your student visa. As to what kind of visa to get, I don’t know what to tell you - it is still unclear how I’m going to get a several month or six month business visa with the Olympics about to take place.