Foreign Woman's Ordeal After Overstaying Her Visa in China

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A Russian woman on a stay visa (T) was on a bullet train traveling from Shenzhen to Guangzhou when she was told by a train inspector that her visa had problems.

The news was shocking to her and her guarantor who is a Chinese person because as far as they knew, she applied for her visa through legal channels and it should be valid for 3 months.

However, when they looked at the visa page, they found that she was given a 15 days visa.

Iuliia entered China on June 17th, so she had already overstayed her visa for 8 days when they found out in July. 

A cursory search on the internet revealed that she had two options, one was to pay a fine and see whether the immigration authorities would agree to renew her visa or give her a grace period to leave the country, and the second option was to be deported in which she will be banned from entering China for three years.

When they went to the immigration office in Guangzhou, Iuliia's visa had already expired for 10 days.

At the first immigration office, they were told that the office only handles Chinese citizens' immigration matters, for foreigners' matters they should go to another office in Jiefang South Road. 

In short, they were pointed from one office to another until they reached an entry-exit office in Baiyun.

At the Baiyun office, they were told to go to the Zhongshan City office as that is the city where Iuliia registered at the hotel for the last time before her visa expired.

However, they received good news at the Baiyun office, as the staff told them that since this is the first time it has happened, she won't be fined and the record would not interfere with her future visa applications and travels to China.

In Zhongshan's immigration office, they were told to go to the police station where Iuliia registered her stay. They went to Yong'an Police Station and the staff there told them that they will handle her case and inform them of the decision if they cooperate with them.

Both of them were interviewed by the police at the station. The guarantor emerged from the station at 8 pm, while Iuliia got out at about 12 am midnight. The good news was that she was holding the decision paper, which marked the first step they completed to solve her problem.

The next day they went to the immigration department and they were informed that even though Iuliia had overstayed for more than 10 days, she surrendered herself and she did not have any criminal record during her stay. 

Thus, her visa was extended for 10 days.

Source: 俄罗斯文龙

*The opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the author.*