Service guides

For a normal tourist trip to mainland China, US citizens need a visa. A qualifying trip through China to a third country or region may instead use 240-hour visa-free transit. Start with your passport and complete itinerary before buying a visa service.

US citizens can apply for a multiple-entry tourist (L) visa valid for up to 10 years under the China–US reciprocal arrangement. The consulate decides what to issue, including the length of each stay. CEV cannot guarantee a 10-year visa.

Prepare your L-visa documents in stages: online application, document uploads, then passport submission. This checklist follows the Chinese Embassy’s published guidance; check the office responsible for your US residence for case-specific instructions.

Budget for the consular fee, your selected CEV services and shipping separately. For timing, distinguish the visa office’s processing window from the full period between placing an order and getting your passport back.

Build one packet per applicant. Check the passport, residence evidence and Chinese host invitation together, then separate online uploads from the originals needed for submission.

The Embassy lists four business days for regular processing and three for approved urgent processing, counted from passport submission. Preparation, online review and shipping need their own time allowances.

For a US citizen, the published regular consular visa fee is USD 140 through December 31, 2026. Build your total by adding only the CEV services, shipping legs and optional support you select.

US citizens may apply for a business visa valid for up to ten years under the reciprocal arrangement. Validity, number of entries and the length of each stay are separate terms decided by the consular officer.

An online correction request, a pending review and a refusal are different situations. Read the official status and feedback first; a delayed update alone does not establish a refusal.

For commercial attendance, check the M-visa route or any applicable visa exemption for your passport and itinerary. Organizer registration, a fair invitation and a Chinese visa are separate steps.

Coordinate one trip plan while keeping each employee’s application, consular jurisdiction and passport handoff distinct. Start with a simple responsibility matrix and contact CEV through the existing support route.

Use the M-visa content checklist to ask your genuine Chinese trade partner for the right information. Learn from fictional fragments, then have the inviting party prepare its own letter.

A US employer can explain employment and a trip it supports. That explanation has a different author and purpose from a Chinese partner’s invitation.

Separate the letter’s content and signature from the way it is submitted. Compare the checked instructions for five US offices without assuming one office’s rule applies everywhere.

The US tourist-visa simplification does not remove family-visa invitation requirements. Start with your real purpose, the inviter’s status and the intended length of the visit.

Compare identity, dates, funding, authorship and submission instructions. Each exercise below is hypothetical, with a concrete way to check and correct the discrepancy.

Keep the employer's work-permit file separate from the visa file you submit in the US. Use the printable checklist and five-office comparison to check what goes where.

The consulate's visa-processing estimate is only one part of a work relocation. Build a budget and work backward from a provisional start date without treating a deadline as an approval promise.

Choose by what you will actually do in mainland China, then check the host, relationship and intended stay. A short assignment is not automatically a business visit, and a long-validity visa is not permission for a long stay.

Assign an owner to the China permit work, the employee's US visa file and the arrival plan. Coordinate several employees without assuming that their eligibility, deadlines or passport return dates are identical.

An organizer can coordinate separate applications without applying for an official Group L visa. Compare the evidence, travel flexibility and cost questions before choosing.

Build a clear handoff between traveler, organizer and service provider. Start with existing CEV services and confirm availability for the actual applications before collecting originals.

A school trip, exchange visit and enrolled course are not interchangeable. Ask what participants will actually do in China before assuming a tourist or student visa category.

Give each missing item an owner and each traveler a separate readiness record. Download blank CSV tools with bilingual headers and a clearly fictional worked example.

Build the applicant and inviter sides of your Q2 packet, check your consular office’s instructions and distinguish a ten-year visa request from the stay actually granted.

See how the inviter’s identity, the family relationship and the intended visit fit together. This fictional teaching example is readable text, not an official form or a ready-to-submit letter.

Organise the link between your former Chinese passport, naturalization record and current passport. Missing records and name differences need the responsible office’s instructions, not a guessed exemption.

Prepare the birth and parent-identity evidence the consulate needs, then follow its determination. This guide does not calculate a child’s nationality or select an application route for your family.

A factual guide to official travel-document procedures for families in the US. Confirm your document route with the responsible consular office, then use its current application and evidence instructions.

Separate preparation, online review, consular processing and passport return. The Embassy’s published processing reference starts with passport submission; it is not the time from starting a form to receiving a passport at home.