Applying for a Chinese visa at Chinese embassy in Dublin.

Paul_Carr · 06-08-2013 5:30pm #1

Hi,

I am an Irish citizen with Irish passport. I am presently in China and my present travel visa expires on the 14th of August. On July 1st, the Chinese government introduced a new law, making it more difficult to get a visa. I may have to go to Hong Kong and then send my passport back by mail to the Chinese embassy in Dublin in order to apply for a new travel visa for, say, 3 to 12 months. I was wondering if anyone knows of a good Chinese visa agency in Dublin that can handle my visa application for me? I am hopeful they can handle my application expeditiously. I have a Canadian friend who used a Canadian visa agency (website: http://islandchinavisa.com/ ) rather than directly liaising with the Chinese consulate in Vancouver. He was in Hong Kong and he wanted to get a new 6 month travel visa for China. He sent his passport using Fed Ex and the whole process between sending his passport to Canada and getting it back with new visa affixed took about 2 weeks. Perhaps, I can do something similar in Ireland. So, as I say, does anyone know a visa agency in Dublin that I can use?

Paul_Carr · 07-08-2013 9:21am

I can renew it for one month in Hong Kong for 650 HK dollars (about 65 euros). Previously, I could renew it for 4 months in total in Hong Kong for about 350 HK dollars (about 35 euros). My Canadian friend was able to get a 6 month travel visa last month by sending his passport back to a visa agency in Canada which, in turn, liaised with the Chinese consulate.

Paul_Carr · 07-08-2013 2:13pm

I think I might have found a visa agency in Dublin that will help me process my visa application for China. www.visafirst.com .

dingding · 07-08-2013 10:02pm

I used trailfinders in Dublin before for a chinese visa but it was just a straight forward visa. They were very good.

Paul_Carr · 07-08-2013 10:23pm

Thanks, dingding. I'll look into them too.

mdn · 02-11-2013 2:32pm

I wonder did you ever manage to renew your visa easily Paul. I had an unfortunate situation in March. Like you I needed a visa extension..so I did the usual visa-run. I travelled from Dalian to Shenzhen/HK. I had all the i's dotted and t's crossed. But, I was unlucky. They told me I must return and re-apply from Ireland and they would listen to no counter-argument. So, I was stuck and couldnt re-enter China as my visa expired once I had left the 'mainland'. All that was left to do was to travel home and re-apply and come back..which I did.

While your post is a little old, I just thought I's mention it in case it might assist others. Like you correctly stated, things change here all the time and its not always easy or safe to deal with agencies.

Paul_Carr · 02-11-2013 5:33pm

Nope. Nearly 2 months ago, I got back to Hong Kong. I was planning to fed ex my passport and visa application to a visa agency I had discovered in Dublin. Visa First, if you are interested. They were offering a 1 year long visa that I was interested in. Along with my passport, and visa application, I also planned to enclose an invitation letter from my landlady and flight booking details. It was all foolproof I thought but in the end I decided against applying because 1)It was too expensive. Altogether, it would have cost me 400 euros or so, between the visa agency handling fee/chinese embassy administration fee, the flight bookings, the purchase of insurance (in case my passport was lost in transit) and god knows what else and 2)If my application failed (the visa agency couldn't give me a guarantee of success), I would get no refund whatsoever. So, I have decided to stay in Hong Kong for now.

mdn · 04-11-2013 12:07pm

Thanks Paul for your kind reply. Best wishes. Martin

Applying for a Chinese visa at Chinese embassy in Dublin.

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