WHY YOU WAN COME CHINA?

I am going to China next week and need to go through the rigmarole of applying to visa – they don’t make it very easy. I have asked the admin at work to sort it out for me, and she and gives me all sorts of contradicting information before telling me, a week later, that in fact I need to go to the Chinese visa office in person anyway. Grr – I have wasted a week trying to get this sorted only to find, like most things, it’s easier just to do it yourself.

So I am. Like most things, there’s a rather bureaucratic process for applying for a China visa

...made more complicated by the fact I am applying from a non-residential country. 

... ...made more complicated by the fact I am applying from a non-residential country AND the fact the information on the website has been translated badly from Chinese to English. 

Apparently (I have to read this a few times)  if you are applying for a visa from a country that you are non-resident in (i.e. me in Malaysia), I need to fill in application Form B, so I get a Form B only to find that none of the sections are applicable to me. They are all for people applying for visa from the US. Fucking ridiculous, and now I realise that my very good planner friend was right, and that I should have applied ages ago as things like filling in the wrong forms will just complicate things.

Anyway – I have all my forms (Form A – 4 pages, blank Form B) filled out, including the details of my last years travelling, my family, my job, my health insurance, my inside leg measurement etc, complete with my travel documents, hotel voucher, photos and head to the visa office at 0830 and wait until it opens at 0900, along with dozens of other people. When the office gates slowly open, everyone rushes to the receptionist who, rather deftly and amazingly, scans your application form and tells you what’s missing.

Apparently I need a photocopy of my passport and Malaysian visa (no mention of this anywhere on the website, by the way, so I just think he’s making it up as I had everything else there). So, I go to the photocopy room and get the rest of the necessary documentation and join the back of the queue again. This time everything’s OK so I get a ticket to join another queue to see the visa officer.

Right, so he checks the form and I am talking about the multi entry requirement that I want and he stops me mid sentence and said “went haven’t decided to let you in yet, you will need to have an interview”.

Oh, great. I have got passed stage 2 of the process, and now need to come back at 2pm for an interview. How annoying as it’s now only 9 in the morning…

I return back to the office to the interview room and get in line along with everyone else that was given the same 2pm slot for an interview. Interview?? I beg to differ… it was more a case of queuing up for about an hour for a 5 second blast of this severe Chinese official shouting “WHY YOU WAN COME CHINA?” (to which I politely reply “to visit your country”) before she stamps my application form with a tick and tells me to come back at 3pm to join another queue to collect the passport.

What a rubbish waste of a day, but at least I got the visa sorted – next stop 北京!