Your semester in China is right around the corner, and all you need is your China student visa! Most Chinese Consulates, including the Chicago Consulate, require students who are staying in China for over 180 to be fingerprinted when they apply for their visa. This means they have to apply in person at a Consulate, and do not have an option to apply through a third party service such as Swift Passport Services. For many students, this means that they need to leave their home state to visit a Chinese Consulate in another State.
The China Consulate is broken up into jurisdictions. When you apply for a Chinese passport, or even a Chinese visa, you need to apply in the jurisdiction where you reside.
Katie Pagan is studying in Shanghai for 6 months and was one of several students at the University of CO who needed to fly to Chicago to be fingerprinted and apply for her visa at the Chinese Consulate of Chicago. “Flying to Chicago for a day to apply for my visa was actually pretty fun, but I am a student, and I need to be saving money for my semester abroad. Getting a China visa has been a crazy expense. Even cheap tickets are over $200 and then there is $60 Uber ride to the city from O’Hare. I just don’t think students factor this expense into their study abroad planning, and they really need to consider how they will pay for it! I was really relieved when I saw Swift Passport Services on the same floor as the China Consulate. They made it so I didn’t have to come back a second time to pick up my passport and visa and saved me a ton of money!”
For those like Katie that don’t want to spend the time and money on an out of state trip to pick up their visa from the China Consulate, Swift Passport and Visa has a great option. For $65, all you have to do is walk down the hall from the Consulate in suite 500 to Swift’s office in suite 525. They will take your pick-up receipt issued by the consulate and pick up your passport as soon as it is ready and use FedEx to ship it back to you, providing updates along the way.
Questions about our service? Give us a call at 312.929.2105 or email us at china@swiftpassport.com, and ask for more information about our pick up service. No need to call ahead if you want to use our service, walk-ins are welcome! Or, simply complete the contact form below if you’re ready to use our China Pick Up Service.
