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Tibet is a part of China. Therefore, the primary document you will need for travelling to Tibet is the Chinese Visa. There are different scenarios in getting the Visa, base on your travel plans to Tibet. We will discuss all in the following.
There are two ways to apply for a Chinese Visa.
A) One is to get the Visa before applying for the Tibet travel permit.
B) The other is to apply for it after the Tibet permit.
If you are coming to Tibet from Mainland China, please follow A. If you are travelling to Tibet from Nepal, you will have to follow B.
Please see the difference between the two in the following.
A) Apply for the Visa Before applying for Tibet permit
Most travellers would prefer to get a visa in this way. It is more convenient and more comfortable to apply for the Visa this way.
But in this scenario, you will have to keep one thing in your mind. Do not mention Tibet as your travel destination in China. If you do, you will be asked to apply for a Chinese Visa only after getting the Tibet Travel permit.
It is not illegal to travel to the destinations that do not mention the Visa application. Your Visa will not specify any limited destination you can visit.
Applying for a visa after getting the Tibet permit has lots of inconvenience and risk of not getting the Visa. Read more in its section in the following.
Document required for Applying for Chinese Visa
While applying for the Chinese Visa, you will also have to submit the following documents:
- Your two-way flight booking confirmation.
- Your hotel booking confirmation. But don’t show booking confirmation of any hotels in Tibet.
- You itinerary in China
- A letter from your workplace
- If possible, a visa invitation from a travel agency in mainland
a) Your two-way flight booking confirmation.
You will have to submit proof of flight to and from China. This can occur between any international destination to Chinese city like Chengdu, (but not Lhasa).
Usually, we suggest travellers book their two-way tickets from any popular flight ticketing website with free cancellation within 24 hours. Here you can create a booking, print out the confirmation, and finally cancel the flight ticket immediately.
b) Your hotel booking confirmations
Usually, you would not have to submit your hotel booking confirmation for less than five nights. Please do not provide any booking confirmation from any hotels in Tibet. Otherwise, your Visa will be as to resubmit.
As same as above, create a booking on a hotel site and cancel it afterwards. We want to recommend trying it on trip.com.
c) Your itinerary in China
Most Tibet travel agency can help create an excellent china tour itinerary. You can contact us for it. If you are creating one on your own, please do not include Tibet in it. If you book your tour with us, we can help you with receiving a one-China tour itinerary from one of our partner agencies in another city in China.
d) A letter from your workplace
It is often asked by American travellers, and it’s getting more popular with other regions of the world. This letter should be addressed to the Government of China.
The main content of this letter should be as follow
- It should state your name, passport number, Include your family members too.
- It has to tell you to work for this company. And you are travelling to China for tourism purposes only.
- Lastly, the letter has to be on the official letterhead and stamped with the company’s official stamp.
e) If possible get the Visa Invitation from any travel agency in China
It is also good to have an extra bit of paper when applying for the Visa. So we would suggest getting an additional visa invitation from your travel agency in China.
If you travel to Tibet with us, we can help arrange a visa invitation from our partners.
Applying for the Chinese Visa
It is often recommended to use a visa service company in your region to apply for the Chinese. The success rate in securing a Visa in Higher if using such a company. You can also try to apply it on your own.
Here is some reason it is recommended to follow A.
We have been following A for all our clients coming to Tibet from China. With over 20+ years of experience. We have a 100% success rate in getting the Chinese Visa in following A.
If you book your tour with us, we will send you a step by step guide in getting the Visa and help you secure the documents to submit along with your Visa application.
B) Apply for the Visa after applying for the Tibet permit
Another way to get the Chinese Visa is to get the Visa only after applying for the Tibet permit.
This could happen in the following two scenarios.
1) If Mentioned Tibet on travel destination on Visa Application.
As mention above, if you state Tibet as your travel destination in China. You will be asked to resubmit the Visa Application after completing the Tibet permit.
So we will have to make your Tibet travel permit. When it is completed, we will have to ask the Tibet tourism bureau to help send you a visa invitation to the Chinese embassy in your country.
We will send you a copy of your visa invitation to submit to the embassy.
2) If you are coming to Tibet from Nepal
If you are visiting Tibet from Nepal, then it is compulsory to get a Chinese Group Visa from the Chinese Embassy in Nepal.
We will have started making your Tibet travel permit well ahead of your arrival in Nepal. When the permit is nearly at its completion, we will have to ask the Tibet tourism bureau to help send your visa invitation to the embassy in Kathmandu.
In Kathmandu, we will arrange a Visa Agent to meet you at the hotel to help submit your Visa application. The embassy doesn’t accept Visa application from an individual applicant. So we will send the visa application only to authorized agents in Kathmandu.
It will take to three business days to get the Visa. You can plan to fly or travel to Tibet on the fourth day.
If you have any valid Chinese Visa on your passport, By default, it will get cancelled.
Here are some shortcomings in B, getting a visa after applying for a Tibet travel permit.
- Tibet Travel Permit will only be available two weeks before your arrival time in Tibet. So, it is not a very good option to choose given that you would already book the flight ticket and other documents will be ready without a confirm visa at the last minute.
- Also, in this case, When the Tibet permit is complete, we will have to ask the Tibet tourism Bureau to help send a visa invitation to the Chinese Embassy in your country.
- The embassy will only issue a visa to this invitation unless there is a minimum of four people in the Visa invitation list.
- This invitation will be addressed to the Chinese Embassy in your country, not the consulate. In such a case, you will most likely have to go to the capital city of the country of residence to apply for it.
- Visa issued is on a piece of paper. So, the traveller listed on this Visa enter and Leave china together from the same point at the same time. There is no way to extend the Visa in China.
For the above reason, we ask all the travellers not to mention Tibet as your travel destination in China.
Other Chinese Visas
If you already have other Visas to China. You can use the current Visa. Yet you will need to provide an additional letter to your Tibet travel agency while applying for the Tibet Travel Permit.
The following are the additional supporting letter you will have to submit.
- Student Visa: In addition to your passport and Chinese Visa copy. You will have to submit your student ID card. If you don’t have an ID, you can submit a letter from your school stating your enrolment in the institution. This letter should be printed and stamped on official letterhead.
- Work Visa: If you have a work visa, you will have to submit a letter from your workplace. It should be on company letterhead and stamped. Along with your work permit.
- For other types of Visa. Please contact us for better consulting.
Conclusion:
By the versatile nature of Chinese Visa and Tibet travel permit. I understand it is a bit confusing to get all the information about Visa on one post.
Yet here we did our best to put all the odds together and tried to make it simple. Please let me know if you have any question about getting the Chinese Visa for visiting Tibet.
You can read more Tibet travel guide from this link or visit our travel agency website: https://itibettravel.com
