Visa fees, processing time and payment

Chinese visa fees in the United States are unusual in one respect: an American citizen pays a single flat price whatever the number of entries, while everybody else pays by entry. The flat rate is the result of a reduction that took effect on 11 December 2023 and has been extended twice since.

How long it takes

Counting starts when the passport reaches the counter, not when you submit the form. Standard collection is the fourth business day: hand it in on a Monday and it is ready on Thursday. Express brings that to the third business day and has to be approved, not simply paid for.

Some files take longer and no pick-up date is written on the slip when that happens.

 Refusing to pay a fee affects future applications.  The offices say so in writing: an uncollected visa whose fee is unpaid is cancelled, and that cancellation follows the applicant.

Two trips, and why

The fee structure explains something that puzzles first-time applicants: why the process needs two visits when the form is online. The passport has to be physically present for the visa to be printed in it, and the fee is charged when it is handed back. Nothing is paid in advance and nothing is posted.

For most of the country that means either two long drives or one trip made by somebody else. Both submission and collection may be done by a third party with the pick-up slip, and the offices say so plainly. In a district that reaches from Delaware to El Paso, that provision is not a detail.

All the proceduresAppointments and walk-ins