Does an American Citizen Need a Visa to Visit China?

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All American citizens require a valid visa if they wish to visit China and hence if you’re an American who is trying to plan a vacation to the land of the Great Wall of China, you would have to obtain your visa before travel and the Chinese authorities even anticipate that you will abide by their terms and conditions of the visa. In case you enter the country on a tourist visa, you can’t work there or even become a full-time student. If they find out that the terms on the visa are violated, you could be imprisoned or even fined.

Different kinds of Chinese visa you may get

China issues different types of visa and if you’re based in America, you can get the China visa in Los Angeles as they have their embassy in Los Angeles. The visas include F-Visa for those who are traveling for business purposes, the X visa for all sorts of students with educational purposes and the C visa for crews of international planes, trains and ships. If you are a tourist, you would just require applying for an L visa which covers all sorts of tourist-related purposes. In case you’re thinking of juggling between single-entry, double-entry and multiple-entry options, you should know how to organize and plan your journey.

Remember that the single entry visas permits you to enter China just once during the validity of the Chinese visa. As the name suggests, double entry visas allow you to enter twice within the country and if it’s a multiple entry visa, it means you can visit as often as you can. The US State Department always warns you about the fact that it is indeed tough to change the visa once you arrive in China and hence if you plan to do some kind of activity which falls outside the normal sightseeing, you can then apply for a tourist visa.

The requirements for grabbing a visa

In order to apply for a visa, you would require a copy of your visa application form, a passport which is valid with 6 months validity and your passport-size photograph which measures just 2 square inches. You will also need to pay the best possible during the application process. Remember that the Chinese visa system doesn’t accept cash or personal checks and hence you need to ensure that your payment is through MasterCard, money order or Visa.

What is the process of application?

You can apply for your Chinese visa Los Angeles from your Chinese visa office Los Angeles and there are other offices at Chicago, New York, Houston and San Francisco as well. None of them accept applications via post and hence you either have to drop it at their office or get a relative or a close friend do that on your behalf.

Therefore, if you’re wondering about visiting China, make sure you first arrange your Chinese visa after going through the above mentioned processes. Follow the rules of the visa and abide by them.

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