China Visa Rules And Policy (Year 2008-2012) in Shanghai, China

VisaInChina starts this China visa news center since year 2008. Check the rules changing every year by clicking following links.

Year 2019-Now Year 2013-2018 Year 2008-2012

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1st Nov 2012, The shanghai labor bureau stop providing the Expedited Service. It means it takes more time to apply the employment license or employment permit.

10th Oct 2012, If the company register in Puxi, and foreign employee want to go to Hongkong to apply Z visa! We still can help you arrange it! but the company need to provide more document and cost more time(2 more weeks). Email us to get more information.

10th Sept 2012, we was informed by Puxi foreign affair office(who taking charge of foreign affairs for company register in Puxi) "if the applicant haven't HongKong residence permit, they will not issue Z visa notice for HK anymore, the applicant must go back to their home country to apply the Z visa". Until now, Pudong foreign affair office(who taking charge of foreign affairs for company register in Pudong) didn't have that restriction yet. Anyway, we will keep you informed!

1st Sept 2012, we get more and more phone call asking the same question: "I submitted for my working visa application, but was denied, can you help?" The answer is "NO".
But after we know more details about their background, we found out over 70% cases were messed up by themselves or an inexperienced HR assistant. So come to us before you submit your application, you need an expert to look over your paperwork and judge your situation. You only have one chance, don't waste it.

20th Aug 2012, when you transfer the working visa (residence permit) from company A to company B, the immigration officer will request you to provide them a copy of the "Release Letter". If they find out your release date from company A and the working visa application date from company B has a big gap (more than a month), then they might reject your application.

15th Aug 2012, If you use hotel registration form to apply the 1 month tourist visa extension, you need to make sure on the registration form "Date of leaving" must be at least 2 weeks after; If you use hotel registration form to apply the 12 month working residence permit, you need to make sure on the registration form "Date of leaving" must be at least 1 month after.

5th July 2012, The driving license test has some slightly changes as following:
1. When you finish 1 question, the computer will give you the answer(is correct or wrong) immediately. So it means if you makes 11 wrong, the computer will stop your test immediately and inform your failed.
2. You will know which question you made wrong, before you never have chance to know it.

5th July 2012, It takes 4 working days to apply Z visa in HK (before was 24 hrs) for following countries: France, Austria, Belgium, Czech, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, German, Greece, Iceland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland.

11th May 2012, If your last visa was issued inside China(visa extension), please check the "Issue Date", If the "Issue Date" and your former visa "Valid until" date has a gap more than 5 days, then the visa reject rate will increased a lot in Hongkong visa office(The commissioner's Office of China Foreign Ministry in Hongkong SAR). They might only issue you a 14 days visa.

16th April 2012, If you obtain a "Alien Employment Permit"(working permit), you must apply your working residence permit immediately within 10 days, some expat didn't apply the working residence permit in time because they consider they still have a family visa (or an M visa) valid for a long time. But finally, they get punishment or penalty from the immigration office.

22nd Feb 2012, If you want to apply Chinese driver license, you must have a foreign country driver license, the International driver license is not available to transfer to Chinese driver license anymore.

In Jan 2012, we have 2 holidays: 1st-3rd Jan (New Year Holiday) and 22nd-28th Jan (Chinese Spring Festival). The government visa office was closed during that time. Please notice that and arrange your visa in time. Happy New Year!

26th Dec 2011, China drafts law to curb illegal entry, employment of foreigners. Read this Article >>

1st Nov 2011, 6 month Multi-entry continuous stay M visa issued in HK comes back again! Simple paperwork, quick processing time. Check more details >>

8th Oct 2011, HK can issue 3 month continuous stay L visa. Friendly notice: there was 2 visa offices in HK, one is the old Chinese Embassy in HK Harbor Road, Wanchai. This visa office is much strict for the China visa application, always gives out 10-15 days short term visa. Another visa office was on the border of HK and Shenzhen luohu, this office can issue 3 month visa now. So if you failed to get a visa in HK wanchai office, then you still can try the another office.

6th Sept 2011, The Interim Measures for Participation in Social Insurances of Foreigners Employed in China have been deliberated and passed at the 67th Administrative Meeting of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and approved by the State Council. These Measures are hereby promulgated and shall come into force as of October 15, 2011. Download the new law >>

1st Sept 2011, China visa government fee was slightly changed for all nationality, Check the new government fee chart here >>.

20th Aug 2011, If your company employee quit or stop working, we suggest to cancel their working permit (alien employment permit) immediately, it's our S6 service. The reason why you need to do so is because if you didn't cancel the resigned staff's alien employment permit, it will effect the new employee's working visa application.

1st July 2011, we got a lot of inquiries about "if expats hold a working visa in shanghai, do they need to pay the China social insurance(welfare) in shanghai?" The answer from the government is here (No.14 in the article). We translated for you, the answer is "No, expats are not forced to pay the China social insurance. but if they want to join the China social insurance, they can."

1st Jun 2011, When you apply the L visa extension in shanghai, if you have too many L or M visas before in your passport, the Entry and Exit Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security might refuse your application or give you extension less than 30 days (F.E 10-20 days only).

1st May 2011, The Labour Bureau of foreign affairs in shanghai update policy for working permit processing, Now it's bad chance to get approved if a local small Chinese company (investment capital less than 100,000RMB) hire foreign expat.

6th April 2011, Now for all nationalities, if you want to apply the working Z visa in Hongkong, you need to submit a copy of your health certificate. So please do the health checkup and get the certificate before you going to Hongkong. In shanghai, you can do the health checkup at No.15 Jin Bang rd. (near Ha Mi rd.). The clinic reservation telephone number is 021-62688851.

11th March 2011, A huge earthquake hit Japan. More and more Japanese born in China choose to come back to China to avoid disaster. For Japan passport holder, you can enter China within 15 days visa free. If you want to stay longer, we can extend your 15 days visa free twice and each time 1 month (our L0 service). If your immediate Chinese family member (parents, wife, husband, brother or sister etc.) are shanghaiese or work in shanghai, you can also apply a 3, 6 or 12 month dependent visa. Please call us (Tel:51699039 or 63075776) to check more details. HOLD ON, JAPAN!

1st Feb 2011, if you have a Multi-entry visa request you to leave China every 30,60 or 90 days, normlly, you can cross the border to HK to activate it. But it's a bit expensive. Now, you can fly to Xia Men and take a ferry (30 min) to Jin Men island (which is belongs to Taiwan), it also count as entry&exit China. But the plane ticket is much more cheap then fly to HK. (Notice: Please make sure you can enter Taiwan without visa, then you can use this tips. See which nationality can enter Taiwan visa free)

[ News ] Pay a course for Chinese language study (flexible study schedule) and get the 6 month multi-entry student X visa is available now, especially for the expat who really want to learn Chinese culture and language. To get a student X visa, you need to do a medical checkup here in China and register with a official Chinese language course. As far as we know, most of private mandarin training center can not arrange the student visa for you, but we have found 1 for you. Please check our X0 service >>

[ News ] Celebration of our company established for 9 years and also 3 new services launch
( Expat Health Insurance | Accounting Service | Payroll Service ). From 1st Dec 2010, we give a good discount to all of our China visa services (more visa services open). We hope all our customers can enjoy your life in China legally, stably and economically with our professional assistance.  More >>

1st Sept 2010, If your company investment capital is 0 (normally happen in the newly established company), the shanghai immigration office will not give you 1 year residence permit (they will give you 90 days residence permit instead) until part of your company investment capital come in.

1st Sept 2010, Due to the Asian Game will be held in Guangzhou, HongKong will only issue 30 days visa instead of the 90 days visa till the Asian Game finished.

[ News ] For French and US citizen, normally you can only get 30 days stay visa in HongKong, but if You have a official M visa notification form, then you have chance to get maximum 90 days stay M visa in HongKong. For the M visa official notification form, you can check our V0 service for more details.

23rd July 2010, This NOTICE is ONLY for FRENCH passport holder.
About Z working visa: you still can get Z visa in HongKong (this is 100% guaranteed), but just take long time than before (now it takes 4 working days).
About M business visa: You need to bring the M visa official notification form, then you still can get maximum 30-90 days stay M visa in HongKong. For the M visa official notification form, you can check our V0 service for more details.

1st July 2010, Due to the unstable and un-transparent visa policy, we decide to suspend our M visa application special services (F0-F4 services) until the visa policy become back to absolutely stable. This period will not last for a long time. Here is the plan we suggest. Check the suggestion >>

From 1st April 2010, If you hold any type of visa or residence permit which can allow stay >=90 days, then you can apply the 6 years local shanghai driver license. Check the service in detail >>

[ News ] If you married with a Chinese who are working and living here in shanghai, then 1 year Multi-entries family residence permit is available for you, Please check our new S1 and S2 service !

1st Nov 2009, If you hold 90 days stay tourist (L) visa, you can only get 1 time, 1 month extension here in shanghai, the second extension will be only 10-15 days.

1st Sept 2009, the shanghai traffic bureau use 1500 questions instead of 100 questions in the traffic rules test. That means you have to memorize 15 times questions than before, you can download the questions here: English Version ; Chinese Version ; French Version ; Russian Version ; Japanese Version ; Spanish Version .

[ News ] If you are over 60 years old, foreigner born in China, and own a house (under your name) here in shanghai, then 1 year Multi-entries L visa is available for you, Please contact us for more details!

[ News ] Hongkong now release the visa policy for Mexicans, so now Mexican can apply 90 days L visa or 30 days M visa in HK through our HK partner (Tel:00852-28909979 web: www.chinavisa.com.hk)

[ News ] Oct 2009 is our China 60 Years Liberation ceremony(very huge ceremony). The visa policy start to become tight again from now. According to that, we have already updated our services quotation and paperwork list for M visa applications.

16th Feb 2009, The Entry and Exit Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security increase the government fee of 1 month L visa extension for US passport holder. According to that, we have already updated our service quotation for US nationality.

[ News ] Celebration of our company established for 7 years and foreign clients over 22,000. From 6th Dec 2008, we provide a good discount to all of our services. In the meantime, 12 month Multi-entries M visa is re-open again. We hope with our professional assistance all clients can stay here legally, stably and economically.

31st Oct 2008, The Labour Bureau of foreign affairs in shanghai released the policy for working license and permit processing, even a very small capital company (30,000-100,000RMB capital) will have very good chance to get the working visa approved by the Government.

31st Oct 2008, Shanghai Foreign Economic Relation & Trade Commission release the Z visa invitation letter policy. During the Olympic games you can only choose your home country as the Z visa issued place. But now, you can choose any country without offering that country residential card.

21st July 2008, Shanghai Foreign Economic Relation & Trade Commission stop the M visa invitation letter application. And it will re-open at the end of Sept. Z visa invitation letter is still available, but processing time is longer than before. More details, Please check Government site HERE!

22nd April 2008, The Labour Bureau of foreign affairs in shanghai update policy for working permit processing, Now if a company investment capital less than 1 million RMB, then it takes 1-3 weeks to apply the working license (much more than before and no express service) and the result ( approve or not) can not be guarantee. (As our experience it's bad chance to get approved)

16th April 2008, The Ministry of foreign affairs in HongKong update some notice about visa processing rules, It looks like HongKong is still processing the visa but takes much longer time than before. More details, Please check Government site HERE!

7th April 2008, The Entry and Exit Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security update the visa policy one more time. According to that, now only the M visa issued from outside of China (not including Shenzhen or Zhuhai) can be extended in shanghai. All the M visa you got inside of China can not be extended any more. Now a lot of our clients ask us same question, How can we continue staying here? Check VisaInChina's visa advice for your current stay in Shanghai.

1st April 2008, The Entry and Exit Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security update the visa policy again. According to that, now the Authority will not accept of changing the visa type from L visa to M visa or M visa to L visa. Only allow L visa to L visa or M visa to M visa extension.

6th Mar 2008, due to the Olympic games, The Entry and Exit Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security tight the visa policy special for M visa applications. According to that, now the paperwork you have to prepare are more complicate than before, we have already updated our services quotation and paperwork list for M visa applications.

So if you have any problem with your China Visa or any problem related to your China visas: PLEASE CONTACT

Meshing Consultancy Services Co., Ltd.
Address: Room 410, KYMS building C2, No.101 E Shan road, Pudong, Shanghai China. [ -MAP- ]
Operation Time: Mon-Fri 9am-6pm (12:30am-1:30pm lunch) Public Holidy Check here
Tel1: 021-51699039 (You can inquire in English, Japanese or Chinese)
Tel2: 021-63075776
Emergency: 13501828752
E-mail: info@visainchina.com
Website: http://www.visainchina.com