If I obtain a Chinese tourist visa does its validity always start immediately, or can I get one that begins at a certain date in the future?

Upvote:4

Every Chinese visa I had did not contain the "valid from" date at all. It only contained "issue date" and "enter before" (i.e. expiration date). Assuming the visa sticker is the same for all countries, I don't see how this could be implemented in practice.

And at least for US citizens the visa application form does not allow you to specify the date you want your visa to be valid from. Since there is no interview (you just pass the paperwork to a clerk who checks it for validity), there doesn't even seem to be a way to communicate this information.

Thus in my opinion this is not possible at least for US citizens. However US citizens can obtain 10-year Chinese visas, so this is not really a concern.

Upvote:6

As mentioned by George Y., there's (technically) no "valid from" date. I had a look at my last visa (I have dozens of them), and there are actually two dates in a row:

ENTER BEFORE: 12AUG2018
ISSUE DATE: 12FEB2018

Real dates from my last visa. This was a six-month visa. As you can see, the expiry date (ENTER BEFORE) is exactly 6 months (and one day) after the ISSUE DATE, which makes the latter the date from which the visa is valid: as soon as the visa is produced, its validity starts.

As I said in a comment above, I was told several times by the travel agency I use for Chinese visas that the first date of travel you fill in on the form is to make sure there's enough time to get the visa (ie if you want to leave in 2 days, there might be a problem, as the processing time for French passports is 5 working days). And it is definitely not for later departures. "You want later, come later lah" I was told every time...

So all in all, I would say that if you want a visa with a later start date, you'll have to do it later. One solution came to me (as I might use it myself: I can get a one-year visa in France, but not in HK...). If your country allows two passports, leave one with family/friends, along with photo, form, etc. Have them apply for you (either directly or via a travel agency) in due time, and courier the passport to wherever you are.

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