Chinese travellers in visa rush for first post-Covid overseas summer holiday
- Applicants can face months-long waits for interview slots as three years of pent-up desire for a foreign vacation is released
- Demand could persist until after the next Lunar New Year, agent says
He applied for a Schengen visa in early May, expecting it would be more than enough time to get the document that would give him access to most countries in Europe.
But the earliest appointment he could get was on August 15.
“Three months is so long to wait, but I really want to see my friends in Europe, so I’m OK with it,” Bao said.
In Beijing, Li Haitang started applying for a US visa with her partner in March, but learned she would have to wait until June to get an interview slot.
Li did not have time to wait – she paid 1,500 yuan (about US$200) to a company that helped to move her interview to April.
“My boyfriend just proposed to me. We wanted to celebrate this sweet moment in life and make a trip to the United States in the spring – the best time of year,” she said.
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Visa agents say the rush is on as travellers from the mainland look to make the most of the first summer holidays since the Chinese government lifted its zero-Covid policy and opened the border in January.
In recent weeks visa applications for the US and some European countries have surged so much that the only available appointments are months away.
For example, attempts to secure slots for visa interviews – which are mandatory for almost all Chinese visitors – via the US embassy’s website on Friday suggested that a tourist visa applicant would have to wait 128 calendar days for an appointment in Shanghai and 119 days for one in Beijing.
The shortest waiting time – 75 days – was for an appointment at the consulate in Shenyang.
Ann Gao, a visa agent based in the southwestern city of Chengdu, said there had been a “significant uptick” in applications for visas to Western countries – demand she had not seen before in her five years of working in the industry.
“If someone was planning a trip to the US this summer, they had to apply for visas at least in April. It’s too late to apply now,” Gao said, adding that the demand was expected to be high for the rest of the year.
“We might have to wait until after the Lunar New Year next year when everyone who wants to go out has made a round trip before the demand decreases,” she said.
Guangzhou-based visa agency Charles Zhang said the rush of applications was “unprecedented”.
“It’s not surprising for us to be busy in summer but nothing like this,” Zhang said.
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Under the Schengen Visa Code, applicants must be informed about decisions within 15 days, a period that can be extended to 30 days.
But some European Union countries are warning travellers of longer waiting times and reminding them not to try to buy flight tickets before securing visas.
VFS Global, a visa outsourcing and technology services specialist for governments, said on Wednesday that visa processing time through the Danish consulate in Guangzhou could be up to 30 days.
TLScontact, an outsourcing visa agency for the French embassy, also said applicants could have a “longer waiting time” because of the surge of applications brought by “the relaxation of Covid-19 travel restrictions”.
