Applying for a New Chinese Visa in Hong Kong

We were travelling in Asia and just found out that our Chinese visas had expired a few days ago. Therefore, we needed to apply for a new one in order to continue our vacation in Mainland China. Staying at a hotel in the Central District of Hong Kong, it made our application process a little easier as we were close to the visa application centre. The official place to apply for a Chinese visa in HK is the Hong Kong China Visa Application Centre. The application process starts online, and the centre has recently moved to a new address. Currently, the visa application process is a two part online and offline procedure. After being refused re entry to China the day before, we went to the HK China Visa Centre located not too far from our hotel in the Central District of HK shorlty after 9:00 a.m.

Lots of people were already waiting at the office. There was only one staff member at the reception desk trying to field all the enquires and help visa applicants with their many questions. We were told that the procedures for the Chinese visa applications were as follows:----------------------------- 1. Apply and complete the application form online--------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Submit the completed application online ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Wait for an email from the China Visa office which we would need to bring with us to the service centre ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Present in person the original documents and wait for the new visa issued if approved.------------------- So we went back to our hotel and started the process. After a few days of running around to gather all the documents, and having our visa pictures taken at one of the photo shops at the modern and spacious Times Square Mall, we came to Step 2 of the process - all applicants to complete their applications online. I started working on our China visa applications online at around 10 pm. After almost 4 hours, I was still not finished. Not being computer savvy, I found it difficut navigating the online application as it kept reverting back to the Chinese version of the application. I had a hard time figuring out how to fill in the online form. Exhausted at around 3 a.m. I needed some well deserved rest and went to sleep. The next day, we went back to the Chinese visa application service centre and asked for help again. When it was our turn, we told the staff member that we had lots of difficulties completing the online application form the night before.

He pointed us to work on a computer set up at the other side of the room. We went to the computer station but it was just as frustrating since we were not familiar with the software and how it worked. It took us a little while to navigate our way around this application software; fortunately, there were a couple of young guys willing to lend their assistance to this senior couple. We finally figured out how to use the software and went back to our hotel to download the documents for our visa applications. We really hope that the application process would be a little smoother from this moment on! RT, Hong Kong, 520711