Embassy reports: China visa from Tbilisi

[bwv812]

Yeah sending a passport home seems to be the only option but the UK and Australia (my passports) won't accept Chinese visa applications by citizens if they are not present in the country.

How will they know you aren't in the country? Send your passport to family/friends, and have them forward the application to the embassy.

[vinc]

Bad news... I visited the Chinese embassy in Tbilisi on Monday (12.06.2017) and was informed that still only Georgians and residents can apply for a visa here.

P.D.: if you're ever gonna give it a try again come at 9 latest. If you come later you might not be able enter before the embassy closes.

[Aasver]

Hello

After getting my temporary resident permit, I finally got my chinese visa, double entry, six months validity

for the resident permit, everything is done in the Public Hall in Tbilissi:
-I did a volunteering where they provided me a letter stating that I was working there "as a volunteer" in georgian language,
- I needed also to provide a letter from a georgian bank saying I had at least 4000 lari on it (I open a bank account at TBC bank, very easy, someone lended me the money, I got the letter and immidiately took back the money)
- Also it is needed a notarius translation of my passport (some offices are making it just in front of the public hall, across the bridge)
IMPORTANT: your name should be writed the same in georgian in all documents. I had to do the volunteering letter and the bank letter changed because of this. the notarius translation is the correct writing.
Also, they give a phone call to your "employer" during the process.

Then for the chinese visa,
- the resident permit (the acceptance letter is enough,time to make the ID card is again 10 days),
- invitation letter+passport photocopy of chinese citizen(or resident permit if he is a foreign resident in china), I asked on couchsurfing.
- If you don't have invitation letter you can provide instead hotel reservations for some nights (booking.com) together with plane tickets (an office just across the street from the chinese embassy is Tbilissi are doing plane tickets for 10 Lari), but as I understood it should be possible to say that you go overland and don't have plane tickets, with an extra documents they give you at the embassy, but I think it is much better to take the plane tickets
- passport photocopy as usual

Asking for 2 entries will make your visa valid for 6 months instead of 3, and it is the same price (90 lari)

Good luck, but again, rules are changing very often.

[6thumbs]

Our report from our visit to the Chinese embassy in Tbilisi on 10 July. Opening hours 9:30 - 11:30 Mon, Wed, Fri. It makes no sense to be there a long time before. Most people show up about quarter past nine. We have German passports.

We went there without a georgian residence permit, but with a nicely written invitation letter from a chinese step-parent. (Plus documents proving our relation and the other standard stuff like application forms)

The georgian woman behind the counter who speaks very good english was generally friendly, but seemed quite annoyed by our request, and explained us that we need the residence permit to submit an application. We insisted for a bit and showed her our invitation letter, but she wouldn't even look at it and told us that it didn't matter what kind of documents we had. People came there with all kinds of invitations, but she said it didn't make a difference. In the end she agreed to let us wait for the consul to have a look at it, though. So we sat down and after about 10 minutes another (chinese) woman (the consul?) showed up behind the counter. They talked for a bit, then the chinese woman looked at our letter and the other documents, asked some questions and then accepted our application. We got a pickup form and told to come back 4 days later on Friday.

When we went to pick up the visa it was very easy. We paid 270 lari at the machine (90 lari per visa), and got our visas, double entry, with 6months validity and the length of stay we asked for.

I don't know what convinced them in the end, probably that we kind of have family china, but maybe they also thought our baby was cute.

So I'd say for most people it's still not possible to get the visa here, rules definitelly didn't change, but we learned that it's not the people working at the counter who have the last say.

[cyberol]

We went to Chinese embassy in Tbilisi on July 7th with LOI, guarantee letter, itinerary, ... all provided and stamped by NAVO Tours in China with whom we are supposed to cross China with our own vehicle.
The robot lady behind the counter asked for a residence permit (which of course we don't have as we are world overland travelers) and would not even look at our documents! (no matter which passport)
We checked their webpage: http://ge.china-embassy.org/eng/lsyw/t1071408.htm and under 'basic documents', point 3; it says that we need a proof of legal stay or residence in order to obtain Chinese visas from their embassy.
So we sent a mail to the consul with copies of all the documents along with our Georgian entry stamps which allow us to legally stay in Georgia for up to 1 year.
Never got a reply. One of our Chinese friends called the embassy to ask if they had well received our request and they didn't care a bit.
Really disgusting people!
After been in China a dozen times for business and tourism purposes, I feel sick to waste weeks of my time to try to get a simple tourist visa when I will have to spend thousands of US$ on tax, plates, permits, guides,.. to cross this corrupted country with my own vehicle...

[georgestravelsasia]

So I went to the embassy yesterday and apparently they will not receive any applications from foreigners for an unknown duration of time due to a technical problem.

I told them I wasn't looking to apply now anyway, as I need maybe 2 months to renew my passport and apply for a Georgian Residence Permit (which is still required btw) and they said maybe by then the problem would be fixed.

As you can read from a previous post from someone who did it in June, it is only possible to apply for a visa if you have a residence permit, however it is fairly easy to get one. The Chinese embassy will not expect you to prove that you stayed in Georgia for a minimum duration of time, you can literally apply for a visa as soon as you get approval for your Georgian residency.

To get a permit see the post above, it is well explained.

Once I have done it myself I will post a report, hopefully in about 2 months time

[Emily]

As of February 2018:
Can confirm that 'tourists' (or any non-residents) still cannot apply for a Chinese visa in Tbilisi. This stands for both tourist and transit visas.

I'm going to look into getting a Georgian residence permit and applying via this route! Will take a few months so I'll update in the future. However my issue is that I plan on taking more than 90 days to get from Georgia to China...I know, slow traveller. The lady at the desk (who spoke perfect English) explained at with a single-entry tourist visa there is no way around, and you will get only 90 days from issue to enter. *However* she said that if I request a multi-entry tourist visa you get up to 1 year to enter. She did mention that it was more complicated, needed an LOI/something like this - so I'll look into the process a little more.

[snazzyjaxxy]

Hi
Just wondering if there is an update on getting a China visa in Tblisi. I have a UK passport and have just been refused a visa at the London embassy because I have applied for it ‘too early’ ( more than three months before I enter China). I can’t do much about this because I will be leaving the UK at the beginning of April to begin my overland trip. I really hope that I can try again in Tblisi or Tashkent. Any tips anyone?
Thanks.
Sarah

[kit.]

I am having the same problem about having to apply for the China visa in home country (UK) but only having three months to get there (travelling overland by bike).

Have you got anywhere with a solution snazzyjaxxy?

[Losgelöst]

Good news!
We (german couple) gave it a chance last week and it worked! We applied for a tourist visa with two entries and got 30 days twice. They mentioned the issue with us not being residents but we just told them that we as Europeans are allowed to stay in Georgia for one year so it kind of counts as a "residential" permit. And they suprisingly accepted this even though we don't have a georgian stemp in the passport we gave them. We only gave them the filled out form (just left the section with an inviter empty), one picture, our passports including copies, a quite detailed itinerary which they looked at very closely and two hostel bookings for the first two stops (printed in chinese on booking.com). We want to travel overland from Kirgistan to China and exit to Mongolia, then enter again China and exit to Vietnam and that's exactly what we told them and what we wrote in the itinerary so we didn't need any flight tickets (which they asked for at the beginning). They seemed to struggle with our appliciation and discussed it for quite some time, eventually told us that we are to early as our first entrance was planned three months ahead. We kept being friendly but insistently and explained them that it's very important for us to get the visa now so we can plan our future travel route accordingly. And they finally agreed. This was last wednesday an we could pick it up today (monday). Paid 90 GEL (cash!) per person (approx. 30€) plus 1 GEL for the payment machine which doesn't give change. You usually pay when you pick up the visa.
If you wish to get more days for the visa you should definitely write a longer itinerary (ours was 15 and 30 days). It is worth it to give some thoughts to this list (write exact days and stops and also tourist attractions you want to visit).
All in all: no flight tickets needed, no health insurance nor LOI or anything. Just the online form, picture, passport (and copy), itinerary and a couple of hostel bookings (which you can cancel afterwards of course).
It is good to arrive at the embassy early. They open at 9.30 so be there at 9 because it's busy! You have to wait outside in front of the door, right queue for applications, left one for pick ups.
Note that after you get the visa you are free to enter and exit where you want (you original itinerary is not obligatory). Visa is vaild for six months from the day of application.
We don't know if we were just extremely lucky but give it a chance anyway before applying for the georgian residence permit which, according to another traveler, will cost you another 210 GEL.
Good luck!