Lived in China for 3 years, but there is still so much we haven’t seen! So we were planning a tourism trip around some famous spots, but our Residence Permits expired in early July, leaving us no time.
We ended up booking a last minute trip to Seoul, South Korea (beautiful city and country! Definitely recommend a visit.) in order to leave before our visas ran out and needed to get new tourist visas to go do our travel plans. But I had a pain in the neck time figuring out if I could actually GET a Chinese visa in Seoul.
A couple websites told me that only certain embassies offered it. Other sites said I had to have an ARC (Korean Alien Resident Card). Since those cards are only give to foreign residents, that was kind of a blow for me. (THIS IS ACTUALLY NOT TRUE — SEE BELOW). I did learn from a few people that having a Chinese visa in the past could help.
I decided to run with it and here is the step-by-step process I used for getting a Chinese Tourist Visa (L Visa) in Seoul!
VISA APPLICATION CENTER WEBSITE
Contact Information:
Call: 1670-1888
Fax: 02-6260-8855
E-mail: seoulsquarecenter@visaforchina.org
SPECIAL NOTES:
1) Many “copies” are needed in this process (passport copies, visa copies, etc). Black & White were acceptable. My hotel didn’t have a printer, so I went to a local Kinkos in Seoul. Just google “Kinkos in Seoul” to find the addresses. They are open 24 hours and weren’t a bad price. The copies were EXCELLENT quality paper–perfect for me. Continue reading