Jocelyn

Thank you Randy W! I know Susanna will be grateful for the support!

Susanna Wickes, a master’s student at Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, is seeking intercultural couples who use Mandarin and English for communication to participate in a simple online survey. It takes only about 5 minutes and is available in English and Chinese. (Note that only one person from the couple needs to do the survey.) FYI, here’s some background on the project from Susanna herself: She’s really keen to recruit more couples of Western men and Chinese women to her study, so hope some of you can get involved! FYI, you can also learn more about the study in this interview with Susanna for The Beijinger.

Does anyone have confirmation that this is true?

@warpedbored, glad you found the link interesting -- though I can understand that, like yourself, some men might enjoy the mystery of women. ;-) @Dennis143 glad you enjoyed the link!

I found an interesting website the members here might enjoy reading, called love love china. It was interesting to read the Chinese woman's perspective on dating, including how to impress her, what not to do and more. I suppose a lot of what she writes could be covered in this site, but still, it's useful to know that Chinese women are out there blogging, to help foreigners who fall in love with them.

Seconding warpedbored on the hassle of going to the consulate in person. But then there's the issue that you also have to pick it up in person after it is done (in other words, they will not send it to you by mail -- they have no such service). Things get even worse b/c of how the Chinese govt decided to set up the districting. For example, I live in Idaho now, and our consulate is in Washington DC -- I still can't understand how that makes any sense, but I've learned not to ask. So, if you don't have the consulate in town, you'll have to get yourself there, and either stay to pick it up, or get someone to do it for you.

Got this note from mychinavisa.com: Looks like, if anyone needs a visa now, you'll need to plan ahead.

He wasn't, so I can't really speak to this. But if he was, you should be able to provide some kind of evidence that explains he did so for work or some other superficial reason. You'd probably need to do a search here or ask other people b/c I don't know exactly what you'd need.

Hi cguo7, I DCF'd, and I'd add that, to prove domicile, I just showed my bank statements from an account in the US for the past year, plus plane tickets back to the US on visits home. I did include a letter about our plans once we returned, but they never asked for it, so it wasn't really an issue. I was working at a corporation in China back then, and I didn't have any "guarantee of work" back in the US. But I did show I got a salary here and bank statements from China to show I was financially able to support my husband. I guess this is probably too late, but hope it helps.

My pleasure David! BTW, I forgot to mention...I went with the regular turnaround service for mychinavisa.com -- which was really extremely fast IMHO. So, if you decide to go through them, unless you absolutely need the visa within a few days, save your money and choose the regular, 4-day turnaround. It's still fast enough for most situations. Also, I submitted a copy of my e-ticket in the package.

How difficult would it be to get a 1 year, 2 entry visa for my first tourist visa? Christopher That's not difficult at all. A one-year multiple entry visa is pretty basic, from what I understand. It's only when you're trying to get a 2-year multiple entry that things are not as guaranteed. In fact, mychinavisa.com automatically gets 1-year multiple entry visas for all US passport holders:

Great news! I got my 2-year, 90-day multiple entry visa! I promised I'd post with the details about where I got it, and what I submitted...but it's great to see that other people (mikepellicore) were successful too! After some shopping around, I decided to go with mychinavisa.com -- in Houston, Texas. Besides my passport, I enclosed a letter stating why I wanted the 2-year multiple entry 90 day visa, along with copies of my husband's passport, our marriage certificate (the little red book one from China), and copies of my previous China visas and entry/exit stamps in and out of China. It was probably overkill, given what mikepellicore described...but on the other hand, I wanted to make sure the evidence was overwhelmingly in my favor, in case there was any doubt. I was also extremely satisfied with mychinavisa.com's service. They sent me an e-mail upon receipt of my materials (April 2), and I got the visa just a half hour ago by FedEx. I was surprised by how fast the turnaround was! Maybe things are loosening up at the consulates, post-Olympics? Whatever it is, things are looking good if you want to go for a 2-year, 90-day multiple entry.

Thanks guys! Bert Jie-Lin, Craig and Mingjun, thanks for sharing the info on 2-year multiple entry. It's actually a bit confusing at times, because different sites seem to say more or less about the requirements for it. Take for example what I heard from mychinavisa.com when I asked about it: I had seen the information you mentioned, Craig and Mingjun, on the 2-year multiple entry. Thanks for reminding me of it. Bert Jie-Lin, I checked out Cibt, and here are their requirements for 2-year multiple entry: The eligibility seems to vary from provider to provider, so I'm never quite sure if I'll get it. But I figured, since my husband and I are going to be going back every year (he's doing research there in the summer), it would save money to try and go for the 2 year. At the very least, I've been the recipient of many (around seven, including 2 within the past five years) Chinese visas, and lived there for a long time, so I'm going to give it a shot. I figure if they fail, I'll just get the 1-year multiple entry instead. I'm still deciding who to go through to get my visa, but I'll let you guys know who I end up choosing, and if the 2-year application is successful (along with what I submitted to get it).

Thanks so much for the answers guys! That's great to know that if you choose an agent, you can go through the consulate they have the relationship with. Sounds like there are some great agents in the DC area too. Strange about San Fran Consulate and their unwillingness to give out anything more than 30 days...but anyhow, I will be sure to avoid it.

So, I'm getting ready to get my Chinese visa to go there this summer for a trip, and I'm wondering -- is it a problem to get a visa through a consulate that technically doesn't have jurisdiction over your state? I ask b/c, from the comments on this forum, it seems like there are some super agents who go through Houston (and I REALLY need a good agent b/c I'm trying to apply for a 2-year 90 day multiple entry), but in fact it's Washington DC's consulate that has jurisdiction over my state. Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated!