Hi guys!

I know I'm certainly not the first one asking for the most recent visa information but I still hope you are willing to advice me.

I'm planning to do my thesisreseach in China, which would take two months. No problem so far but I was just asked by a foreign correspondent of a big media agency to do an internship there. That would take 3 months. The thing is, with all the changes for journalists since a certain person took power in 2012, the media agency doesn't want me to do my research and my internship on the same visa. This means I will need two visas, but I'm not sure which ones to get and where and so on...

Option A:
Getting a businessvisa back in my home country with help from the media company for 3 months and after finishing my internship doing a visarun to get a tourist visa for 60 or 90 days.

Option B:
Getting a 90 day tourist visa in my home country and after that doing a visarun to get a visa a tourist visa for 60 or 90 days months.

Which would be the most option do you think. And where should I go to get my second visa? Hongkong of Laos (Vientiane?)?. Do those places even hand out 90-days visas anymore?

I really hope you advice me on this one :)

Option C
Have the media company get your visa, then devote any and all spare free time to gathering the data or interviews you need for your thesis. There is no guarantee you'll get another China visa after being a journalist. There's also no guarantee the news company won't have your visa held hostage.

cpj.org/blog/FCCC-survey-email.pdf

All this should point to option B; however, being caught working for a news outlet on a tourist visa falls in the nightmare category.

Your home country is the best chance at a 90 day visa. HK, Changmai, and Vientiane still seem visa friendly.

@OP
Gut reaction here. As you have already noted, journalism is a very sensitive area of work. I would be inclined to keep the two areas of activity separate.

You are really asking the uninformed on here. You could try contacting the Foreign Correspondents Club of China www.fccchina.org/. They would be able to give much better advice, and may even have come across this situation before.

if it was me, I'd probably go for A, I've never done a visa run but I hear its more difficult to get it done quickly these days. If you don't mind spending a couple of weeks in HK or wherever, then B might work. Also, I think A seems more plausible/honest; business visa for the internship, tourist for after. Research for your thesis is your own business, I guess you won't attending classes so a student visa is unnecessary.

Mention the word 'journalist' in any of your interaction and that will be a BIG RED FLAG to any official. Some people feel that 'journalist' is a code word for 'spy'. Proceed with caution!

perhaps not a red flag in the minds of a chinese official... given that red is their national colour and a lucky colour... what colour would the imaginary flag be? Yellow? Blue? Green? Turquoise?

what brings you to china?

let's just say i'm an international man of mystery.

Hk is not visa friendly if you have been in china previously in the same year.

this does not include work and student visas they will give you those if you have the proper documents. regardless of he time you have spent in china.

no comment on Journalism visas I have no information on that

@Haali
Definitely NOT yellow since in China yellow is porn.

yellow is av, blue is pervert