triptastic

Hi,

I'm a UK national, have an expired L-1 visa in my passport, and an approved L-1 extension. Looks like I may be required to travel to China for business.

Does anyone have any experience doing an L-1 renewal in Beijing as a TPN?

Thanks

Vimto

US consulates give priority to residents of the country they are in who are applying for visas and in China thats a lot, so you may not be able to even get an appointment in China.
You also need to consider that you will be without your passport for a number of days while the consulate processes your visa, you will not be able to travel, you will have no proof of who you are for a few days, not the best idea in China which is so bureaucratic as and when they choose to be.
Should your application be subject to any administrative process delays you will have to remain in China (without documents), until they are able to resolve them. I personally recently visited Nassau to get my new L1 visa stamped and experienced a hick-up in that their system didnt kick out any visas 1 day, had this been a Friday then the "come back tomorrow" would have meant an extra 3 days in hotels, rearrangement of flights etc. In China from what I understand they courier the passports back to the applicants and this can take an additional few unknown days (remember when your original visa was sent back to you not knowing exactly when it would arrive) well this is the same only you are in a foreign country wanting to return 'home' to the US but not knowing exactly when.
I would suggest that your company either sends you back to the UK for renewal or you look at possibly Canada or the Bahamas who are again not obliged to offer you a timely appointment.

lifehouse51

I agree that it would be risky to renew it in Beijing. If you can renew the visa in Canada/Mexico before the business trip, those are probably safer choices. Alternatively, renewing the visa at another Asian country after your businesses are done, where government bureacracy is less of an issue may be a better choice. Singapore, Hong Kong, Seoul, Tokyo are some cities that come to my mind, and visa-free travel to those places are relatively easy to obtain for citizens of many countries.

triptastic

I went ahead and renewed in Beijing. It was a good experience all round - but required some local assistance.

- Visa appointment fee must be paid at a CITIC bank locally, so I had to get someone from my office to do this for me

- Calling the Beijing Embassy was very straight forward, English speaking, and very helpful. Appointments were available ~3 days in advance if needed.

- Interview was very straightforward. I was only questioned about why I was in Beijing with an expired L-1 visa

- Process for getting passport returned was a bit tricky. Required leaving the US Embassy with a receipt and going to a nearby China Post office. There were options to collect passport, or have it returned by mail. I chose to mail because I had many meetings. I could not have completed the mail slip without local assistance

- Estimate was 5 days for passport to be returned, actual was less than 48 hours.

- No problems re-entering the US

It was not the ideal situation, but it worked. Hopefully this is useful to someone else in a similar position.

lisa67

If you're travellimg from the US to China I'm thinking you'll need a visa to enter China and they may not do this of you can't prove that you can get back in to the US. Be prepared to show them your extension paperwork.

triptastic

Correct, a UK national requires a visa to enter China.

I provided a copy of my L-1 extension paperwork when the Chinese visa was obtained.