sorry, i know there have been a million visa questions on here but i can't quite seem to find any that address my case.
my student visa expires at the end of july. my partner has a potential job coming up and could be placed in either chengdu or beijing (or neither, in which case i stay in kunming another semester), but will not find out for sure until early august. when we find out where he's going i will register at a university in one of those cities, get my visa there etc etc. so basically my problem is that i need some sort of visa to carry me through most of august - at least until i can apply for an x visa with a different uni.
what are my options here? i spoke to my school and they said i should just go to the PSB, explain my situation, cross my fingers and hope they find it in their hearts to convert my visa to a tourist one. does this ever happen?? when would i actually need to go to do this?
also may have the option of extending my current student visa another month or whatever, coughing up the 400rmb etc.. but if we end up moving, is it possible/easy to convert a student visa from one school to another?
any advice would be greatly appreciated. would really like to avoid having to do a visa run to another country.
At the end of your current X you can get a 30 day L visa. This should tide you over. But I am not sure what the rules are for changing from an L to an X.
PSB should be able to tell you the rule for L to X.
Have a look on the PSB website (Shanghai one has English pages), also check the China Consulate Hong Kong, they may have advice on the Website. Also the HK phones do get answered and they can give advice over the phone.
Sorry I don't have an answer fo you
To get an extension of 1 month on an X-visa, you usually need an official letter from your school or university stating that you have personal business to attend and that you would required a one month extension.
The answer of the psb is that they do not transfer X-Visa to L-visa.
L visa to X visa transfer are possible if your school offers the service. In Kunming, Yunnan University offers it.
Aurora Cultural Bridge
www.kmacb.com
Anyone recently convert a student visa to a tourist visa? What did the process entail? Is an official letter from the school an absolute necessity?
I agree with AuroraCultural. I tried to convert a student visa to a tourist visa to tie me over back in late 2011 but I was refused. I therefore had to get an extension on my student visa for another 2 months (by paying my university some money though I wasn't studying at that university anymore), followed by a proper 6 month student visa extension from my new university after that. Both of these extensions were easy to get as the type of visa extended was of the same type. No problem getting a tourist visa extension either but while going from L to student visa is easy, with the right paperwork from your school/university, in the other direction it was a firm no.
