Ryan's China Visa part 2

Ryan's China Visa Part 1

The China visa office has ten drop-off counters and one pick-up counter, but only four of the drop-off counters were open when we were there. The pick-up counter line was very long, but moving quickly. I think you go there once your visa is ready. It shouldn’t take too long to give them your receipt and pick up your passport.

Unfortunately, we were dropping off, so we had to wait for the drop-off lines. What I liked about the setup was that no one was actually waiting in line. You take a number and wait in one of the hundreds of seats, Most of the room is just a giant floor with chairs. I would hate to stand in a line all that time, especially in Hong Kong. Chinese people are not known for their patience when standing in line. Even if there’s only one person in front of you, somebody will cut ahead of you. I can’t imagine what it would be like with hundreds of people in front of you.

We had #2806. When we got it, the current numbers were 2674 and 302. They were using two different number systems. I don’t know why. It looked like the lower numbers were only going to one counter, so the bigger numbers were moving faster. That still only gave us three counters with 132 people ahead of us. After ten minutes, they were only up to #2690. We had more than enough time to figure out that at the current rate, it would be about two hours until our turn.

Ryan wanted to leave and come back, but I knew that if we did, we would miss our turn and have to start all over. While he waited impatiently, I made a game of trying to figure out which counter would call the next number. I was right about half the time since some people were at the counter for a long time and it seemed like some were only there a few seconds. I’m not some math genius, but I had plenty of time to figure out that each counter took an average of three minutes for each person.

We finally made it up to the counter after about two hours. The clerk seemed to think that everything was in order, took our money and told us to come back Thursday to pick it up. It costs HK$1,100 if you have an American passport weather you want a single entry, multiple entry, 6 month or 1 year visa. So we checked the multiple entry, 1 year box. People from other countries pay different prices. If you’re British, it’s less than half for a single entry, but twice as much for the full year multiple.

What impressed me was how efficient everything was. Chinese bureaucracy is usually overcomplicated and illogical. Once we were at the visa office, everything was pretty simple. It takes a long time because it’s so crowded, but it’s easy if you’ve done all your homework and got everything together before you go. That’s the hard part – figuring out what you need to bring and how to fill out the forms.

Now we just have to go back on Thursday and hopefully they don’t say no. As long as we get to go in that quick pick-up line, it shouldn’t take too long. At least now we know where the front door is.