As of March, when I applied for a business visa to China, as a US citizen, applying to the San Francisco consulate, and using an agency, I was not allowed to submit an invitation letter, even though I had one in hand. What was required was a support letter from my employer, stating that they would bring me back home, and also stating the business visa being asked for. My letter asked for a multiple entry one year business visa, and I got it. That was March, this is now. On Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 11:56 AM, John C Klensin <john-ietf@xxxxxxx> wrote: > > > --On Wednesday, August 25, 2010 07:54 -0400 "Richard L. Barnes" > <rbarnes@xxxxxxx> wrote: > >> FWIW, I was required to provide such a letter for a visa to >> Saudi Arabia earlier this year. So it's not without precedent. >> >> --Richard > >> On Aug 24, 2010, at 11:59 PM, Andrew Allen wrote: > >>> Mary >>> >>> It seems you now also need a support letter from your own >>> company too. >>> >>> When I tried to get my business visa for China last year they >>> refused to process my application without such a support >>> letter. This was the first time I had been asked for such a >>> letter. > > Several countries routinely require such endorsement letters. > Some don't list them as a requirement, but the consulate has the > right to ask for any additional materials it decides it needs > before it processes an application... and some, routinely, do. > To make things even more complicated, visa agencies don't like > wasting their own time and so often impose requirements based on > what they've been asked for in the past so that they only need > to submit one package to the consulate. So, if you are not > going to hard-carry your application to the consulate and then > pick the visa up yourself (and can't find a friend), you may see > such requirements from whatever agency you hire to get the visa > processed for you. > > Nothing above applies specifically to China; the comments apply > more or less to any country that requires that visitors obtain > visas in advance of arriving especially from countries that > won't accept mailed-in applications. > > Let me give four bits of advice to anyone who has been lucky > enough to always travel on visa waiver or visa-at-entry programs > and hence hasn't been through this before: > > (1) It isn't about China. We've met in Australia and, at the > time, they required paper visas for travelers on US passports. > In the competition to have the most difficult, and probably the > most arbitrary, visa application and issuance process, the US is > probably the hands-down winner. Indeed, several countries have > apparently imposed especially difficult requirements and/or high > fees on via applicants who hold US passports in response to > their perception of how the US treats their own citizens. > > (2) Another common requirement is that you actually have > round-trip airline tickets purchased prior to making the visa > application. China doesn't appear to want that any more, but > individual consulates probably have the right to insist and some > visa agencies may do so. > > (3) If you have questions, ask the relevant consulate or, if you > plan to use a visa agency, find an experienced one and ask them. > If the visa agency won't handle an application from you without > particular documentation, your belief (or some third party's > belief) that you don't really need those documents will get you > exactly nowhere except an opportunity to have your application > delayed until after the meeting. And, if the relevant consular > official has a different opinion about what you need from > whatever you hear on this list, guess whose opinion counts. > > (4) Partially as a corollary to (2), believe what you hear > directly from the relevant country's immigration authorities or > foreign ministry. Remember that, if you take other advice and > things go wrong, you are the one who is responsible and that > some countries have a really bad attitude toward those who break > their immigration laws (again, the US may be near the top of the > list). As far as advice from others (including me) is > concerned, remember what you are paying for it. Remember too > that different countries have different category definitions. > Some consider that "tourist" extends to "short-term non-work > purposes" and others don't. Some will allow some business > visits in conjunction with a tourist visa as long as one spends > most of one's time doing tourist-things. Others believe that > even an hour of business on a trip requires a business visa no > matter how much time one spends sightseeing. And some have > special visa categories for, e.g., attending professional > meetings or conferences while others don't. You need to > understand the rules for a particular country and, as needed, > get advice from those with authority to give it. > > Finally, independent of what can be done on an "unlikely to be > caught" basis, IMO giving people advice on a public list about > how to circumvent or violate the laws of a country one intends > to visit would seem to me to be a bad idea, whether the estimate > of the odds of being cause is accurate or not. Not being an > expert on the visa and immigration laws of any country, > including my own, I have no opinion as to whether such advice > has been given in this particular thread. > > john > > > > _______________________________________________ > Ietf mailing list > Ietf@xxxxxxxx > https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf > -- Clint (JOATMON) Chaplin Principal Engineer Corporate Standardization (US) SISA _______________________________________________ Ietf mailing list Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf