John C Klensin [mailto://john-ietf@xxxxxxx] writes: ... > Two additional observations may be useful. In the US, someone > must appear in person at the embassy or consulate -- there is no > mail-in service, at least for US citizens. In practice, that > means that if one is in a city with a consulate (or close to ^not > one), one has to use a visa service as an intermediary. Their > fees can easily exceed the visa fees themselves unless one works > for a company that has a special deal with one of them. More > important, they often require far more documentation than the > embassy nominally requires, presumably to be sure that they have > what they need if the embassy (or local consulate) starts asking > questions about the traveler. That additional documentation may > include confirmed flight or hotel reservations, letters of > endorsement or guarantee (in addition to meeting invitations, > etc.). So, especially if one cannot appear in person, one > should get started early or be prepared to pay even higher fees. I have traveled to China fairly frequently over the past few years (3GPP2 used to meet there at least once a year). I have a current double-entry visa, obtained here in Bangkok in about 48 hours (not a rush order), while the last one I got in Hong Kong in < 24 hours (rush order). However, the first & most subsequent Chinese visas I obtained were through Visa Network (http://www.visanetwork.com/index.shtml); it's been awhile but as I recall their fees were quite reasonable (far more so than the service that the company for which I worked used). They can normally do a 24 hour turnaround. For that matter, I can't think of a reason why one would want or need a multiple-entry visa for an IETF meeting (except, perhaps, if the meeting was in Shentzen & you wanted to commute from HK ;-). > > If I remember correctly from the embassy's web site, part of the > documentation requirement for a multiple-entry visa is previous > visits to China and associated visas. I.e., if you haven't had > at least a couple of single-entry visas, there is no point > thinking about a multiple-entry one. Maybe things have changed, but my first Chinese visa was a double-entry (note that "multiple" != "double"). _______________________________________________ Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf