The Visa............Extension

DON’T NOT FORGET TO EXTEND YOUR VISA!

Before you extend you visa you need to complete your Physical Exam first. Go here to for Physical Exam process. Once you claim the Health Certificate in your College Office, they will issue you an “order slip” that you need to present to visa extension assistance “office”. Your schedule activity list given by the College Office will tell you when to get your Health Certificate.

You can arrive here Beijing with any type of visa, but the most appropriate visa for students are X  (for more than six months stay) and F (less than six month stay). Both X and F are student visas. There are some students who have tourist visa though. There is no issue about what visa you have when you arrive in China. The most important thing is to EXTEND YOUR VISA! Visa X and F are single entry visas and are only valid within 30 days from the date of your arrival in China.

BLCU provides visa extension assistance through a private travel agency. However, this service is only available during the registration week up to few weeks after the start of semester. You can avail this service or you can process your visa extension by yourself. If you want to process avail their service, the visa extension assistance “office” is located at the 2^nd Floor (no room, just the open area) of the Run Run Shaw Building.

What do you need for visa extension?

Passport

Original JW201/JW202

Original Temporary Residence Form

Original Admission Notice

Original Health Certificate

1pc. ID photo in white or blue background.

RMB460 (RMB400 is the cost of the Foreign Residence Permit and RMB60 for the services of the travel agency)

Note that you need all original documents and these documents, except for the passport, will no longer be returned to you. I suggest you make copies of these documents before submitting to the travel agency. In addition, make copy of your passport’s important information because your passport will not be returned to until after 5-10 working days.

Once you have all of these documents, all you have to do is line-up, pay, and get your receipt. In your receipt will be the schedule as to when you can get your passport back. Just, go back to the “office” on the scheduled date and claim your passport with the extended visa/foreign residence permit. This visa is a multiple-entry visa and is valid on the date indicated in your visa.

After getting your passport with extended visa, go back to the College Office so they can update their records. Also inform your dorm personnel for them to update their records too.

Be mindful that every time you change any details especially residence details, you need to go the police station and update your information. You can ask your College Office for more information.

Side bar-- Why is it important to extend your visa properly?

One of my classmates failed to process his visa extension properly. When he arrived in China on September 2011, his first choice of city was not Beijing. I cannot remember which city in China, but it was Beijing. He was able to extend his visa there. But around October 2011, he decided to transfer to Beijing. He failed to change is residence address for his residence permit. Come November 2011, we was called upon by the Police Station’s Foreign Residence Department and was asked to pay a fine of RMB50,000 for failure to change his residence information. They negotiated and it was brought down to RMB15,000. The police station personnel told him his only options were to pay the fine or go back to his home country and forever be banned from entering China again. He asked for the BLCU office’s help, but they were not helpful at all. The Office just told him, “No problem. Just pay.” With further negotiation his fine was reduced to RMB5,000. 

You do not want this to happen to you so do not forget to extend your visa. :)