Thursday, February 25, 2010

Applying for Chinese Visa in Tokyo

Today is the first day of the ICU Spring holiday, so I got up at 9am to go to Roppongi to apply for my Chinese tourist visa at the Chinese Embassy for my holiday.

There are lots of different types of visa for China, but I needed an L-visa, which is a tourist visa. Not all countries need a visa just to visit, for example Japanese citizens don't need one, but British people do. I was worried about whether I would be able to get a Chinese visa as I was living in Japan, but there was no problem.

To apply for an L-visa, you need:

- a valid passport, valid for six months after the date of application
- completed Application Form with recent passport-style photograph attached (Page One, Page Two, or you can fill it in at the Embassy)
- photocopy of your passport main page and alien registration card (can do it at the Embassy)
- proof of booked return flights
- hotel reservation (although I didn't need one)

The Chinese Embassy in Tokyo Consular Section (which handles visa applications) is very inconveniently open only from 9am until 12 noon. Luckily I only live about an hour away from Roppongi so I didn't have to get up too early.

I had copied a map onto paper from a website, but it turned out that the roadside maps were much more helpful, because the map's scale was a bit strange. It looked much closer to Roppongi station than it actually was!

Because I had a bit of difficulty finding the place (I overshot the turning at one point and had to backtrack) I took some photos that will hopefully help anyone going there!

This is the route I took, I marked the roads with red, and the Embassy is the red circle in the bottom left hand corner.



And here's a plain version of the map.


Coming from Roppongi station (there are only subway lines) you either take Exit 1a from the Hibiya line (日比谷線, Hibiya-sen) or Exit 3 from the Toei Oedo line (都営大江戸線, Toei Ooedo-sen). Both exits come out on the same main road, but the Oedo line one is slightly further away from the Embassy.

From either exit, you turn left along the main road with the elevated highway in the centre of it. You follow that road past the Roppongi Hills shopping centre, with its huge glass building. You need to turn left onto TV Asahi Road (TV朝日通り, TV Asahi doori), which is about seven minutes walk from the station. It's a very unimpressive road, which is why I missed it, I didn't think such a normal looking road could have such a grand name, and there were no roadsigns, as is often the case on smaller roads in Japan.

But this is what the road looks like at the turning from the main road. The construction work on the left won't be there forever though, so it might look drastically different in a few weeks!


You follow this road for the rest of the way (it's easy once you're on it). You can see the Roppongi Hills tower for most of the way, but you're heading away from it.


Along the wall there are nice bamboo trees, although this photo was taken looking back towards the main road, so they're actually on the left hand side heading towards the Embassy.


You pass the Grand Hyatt Tokyo on the left, which has this nice water feature outside.


After those landmarks, just keep following the road south.



And after around ten minutes, give or take a few minutes depending on your walking speed, you'll see this building, which houses the Consular Section.


It's opposite this bright green sauna, which you definitely won't miss! Even though I nearly missed the Embassy, because there's just a small sign outside the front door proclaiming what the building is.


I was really worried I'd be late and have to do the whole journey again the next day. But I arrived at 11.40, with 20 minutes to spare.

I had my bag checked and went through a metal detector at the front door, and then was left to my own devices. There were windows along the wall on the first floor (that's Japanese first floor, British ground floor) so I went up to one and said I wanted to apply for an L-visa. I wasn't sure if I should use Japanese or English, because I don't speak any Chinese! But I used English, and the woman directed me to the third floor (again, Japanese third floor). I took the stairs, and entered a hot, crowded and slightly chaotic room.

It was 17C outside, and yet they still had the heating on. Obviously going by the mentality of: "It's February, therefore we need the heating on."

I had no idea what I was meant to do. There was a crowd of people to my left, who seemed to be lining up and waiting for a small window. Then there was this waiting area to the right. That seemed more like what I wanted, but I couldn't find a ticket machine to get a number for it.


I asked a Japanese woman who was waiting (she was holding her passport so I knew she was Japanese) where I could get a ticket, and she told me I had to wait in the long queue and tell the people at the small window what I wanted, and then they would give me a ticket for the windows.

So I joined what I assumed was the back of the line, but it was very hard to tell. There were some tables for people to fill out visa application forms, but thankfully I'd printed one out from a website (here's Page One, and Page Two) and filled it in at home. Much easier!


As I was waiting, I realised that most people were photocopying the main page of their passports and alien registration cards at machines in the corner. I wasn't sure if I needed to, but I decided to do it anyway, to save lining up all over again. The woman in front of me was having a lot of trouble, but I had no difficulty. You put in a Y10 into the smaller machine to the left of the photocopier and then press 'start' (スタート, sutaato). It was very simple. After doing it I just rejoined the line.

It moved quite quickly, and I was standing behind a British guy, so I felt comforted knowing I wasn't alone in this endeavour!

When I got to the window I showed them my application form, passport and photocopy, and told them I wanted to apply for an L-visa. (This time I spoke in Japanese.) They checked the documents and said they were fine, then gave me a ticket number and asked me to take a seat and wait for the main windows.

It calmed down a lot while I was waiting, and they turned the air con on, so it was quite pleasant to sit down and watch some of the kids running round in circles. It was the most interesting thing going on in the room!

They had only one window for visa application, and then five others for other things, but I couldn't read the Chinese characters for what they were doing. I hope my limited knowledge of Japanese kanji gets me through a little bit while in China. China uses simplified characters, whereas Japan usually uses the older more traditional forms. A notable exception is 国 (country, kuni), which is the same in China and Japan, but in Taiwanese the original character, 國, is used. Much more complicated!

I had to wait for ten numbers to be called before mine but I was only waiting for about fifteen minutes.

There were no problems when I went up to the window. The website I used to check what I needed to apply for the visa said that I'd need a hotel reservation, but I'm staying with friends so I didn't have one. The woman didn't say anything about it, so hopefully there won't be a problem when I come to collect and pay for the visa.You can collect the visa 4 days after applying, or you can pay to collect it after two days, but I didn't do that.

She told me that I can pick it up on Tuesday morning with a receipt she gave me. They kept my passport so they could put the visa in it.

So I'll go back to collect the visa on Tuesday, and hopefully there won't be any problems!

15 comments:

Unknown said...

Thank you so much for this post. I read this right before I went to roppongi to apply for a Chinese Visa. This article took a ton of stress out of the endevour and you described the process perfectly down to the lady in front of me who could not work the copy machine. the construction on Arashi TV street is still going on btw.

Miles said...

Oh I'm so glad! I hoped it would help people like yourself, who just needed to make sure everything went okay, so I'm glad it helped.

Have fun in China! :)

Miles

jasonviva said...

thanks for this post! i'm going to the embassy tomorrow - hope everything goes smoothly! cheers!

Miles said...

Oh you're welcome! I hope the Embassy went well!

Miles

Edmond said...

Hello Miles,

I am going to assume that you're a British citizen, though I could be wrong... I just wanted to know what information the application form required of you for the (L) visa and the fee?

I am heading to Japan in a week or two and wanted to fly out to China for a month or two from Tokyo.

Thanks,

Ed.

Miles said...

Hey Ed!

It's not too complicated a form at all - you can have a look at it here - https://www.visaforchina.org/web/applicationdata/ApplicationApply_agreement.action?request_locale=en_US&visacenterCode=LON1.
It's mainly general personal information, and also family information, travel plans and information about your job/study etc.

And the fee for me was Y4,000, so unless it's changed it should be that :)

Hope you have a fantastic time! :D

Miles

LizaMackenzie said...

THANK YOU for taking the time to go through it allin such a detialed account so we can have a stress free(ish) time!ヾ(○⌒∇⌒○)ノ

Miles said...

You are very very welcome! I hope it helps :)

Miles

Shiruba said...

It doesn't make a lot of sense that you should need a booked flight ticket to apply for a visa, because you should really apply for (and be accepted for) the visa first.

If you book a flight, and then apply for the visa you will basically be screwed if the visa is rejected or delayed for some reason.

Since you can get a multiple-entry visa, where they don't know where you would be staying in the future or what plane flight you are taking, I assume this isn't a firm requirement.

Miles said...

Yeah I agree! I was a bit worried about booking the flight in case they rejected my visa, but I think it's quite rare to have a problem with visa applications, despite the stigma attached to the process.

I'm not sure if they would let you apply for the visa without a flight booked though. If you hear of anyone being successful please let me know though.

Miles

Unknown said...

Hi,

I'm going to be entering China overland from Hong Kong so I won't be flying. I have my flights booked in and out of Hong kong, do you have any idea if that will be OK? Also I read you need a letter of invitation, was that true in your case?

Thanks,

Neil.

Miles said...

Hi Neil,

Are you a British citizen? I don't think British nationals need a visa to visit Hong Kong, but when you go over the border you will need a visa. Depending on how long you're in Hong Kong, it might be better to get the Chinese visa before entering Hong Kong, just to have it sorted.

I haven't ever entered a country overland with a visa, so I'm sure how it works, but there will most likely be a checkpoint where you need to present your documentation.

And I didn't need a letter of invitation. I hadn't even jheard of that being a thing!

Hope that helps a bit :)

Miles

Greg said...

Hi!

thanks a lot for the info. it helped a lot!
Have succesfully applied end of June (EU Citizen). Smoothest way to get there is via Hybia Line walking through Ropping Hills and take the “West Gate”. You will exit exactly at the street where the embassy is. Application process is easy and efficient (2 days express). But you definitely need to provide your (plane) tickets in and out! (or other transport mode)

Unknown said...

This was so useful. ,and I found the place with ease. It helped that the green building is still there, and the building works has been replaced my a Mac Donald's. So once you come out of the station, turn left, continue straight for about 300 meters, then once you see a Mac Donald's on the corner, you know that that is the road you need to turn Down
Process was simples also. Dropped it of on Tuesday morning, collected it on Wednesday morning for the price of 7000 jpy.

Miles said...

Thank you for the updates, guys!

Miles