So I and father in law (Mr Bashir) planned in November 2017 to visit China (Beijing) for a week in January 2018. We did some research on how to obtain visas.
I hold a Pakistani passport along with a UK Residence Permit and Mr Bashir a British Passport. We contacted VisaHQ a travel agent in London renowned for arranging visas.
Mr Bashir receives his 2 year Multiple entry tourist visa within 2 working days whereas I am advised to apply from my country of origin due to holding a Pakistani passport as 99% visas by Pakistani Nationals are refused irrespective of how long they have been resident in the UK some even for as long as 20 years.
So we decided to travel to Pakistan and apply from Islamabad ( a big mistake as it turned out). We allowed 3 weeks for this process and booked our tickets and hotel in China with a stopover in Pakistan.
Having looked up on the webpage for Chinese visa from Pakistan (http://pk.chineseembassy.org/eng/lsfw/va/t815152.html) I could figure out that the requirements were different for applying from Pakistan as compared to applying from the UK
1. A local police character certificate attested by ministry of foreign affairs Islamabad.
2. Invitation from China (Bull....) How?
3. Join a tour group of five people through a qualified travel Agent.
I tried contacting China embassy on phone numbers posted on website( all numbers including landline and mobile) several times on different days and times but all were unattended so decided to email Chinese embassy but emails were returned as undeliverable every time.
I decided to complete the process as far I could by applying for police character certificate which arrived in a week after running around.
I rang several travel agents including Omar travels but was advised it won't be possible as the next tourist period was in April.
One agent advised one month time period to arrange invitation from china and a cost of 1 lakh 30 thousand rupees (laughing now). I told him I had no plans of giving the Chinese authorities a Slip as I only planned to visit for a week and was already resident in UK for almost 15 years.
We traveled to Islamabad to have my police character certificate attested from ministry of foreign affairs which took a whole day due to submission and then collection of certificate after couple of hours and then there was no time left to submit application at Chinese embassy.
So we decided to stay overnight in a hotel in Islamabad and restart the process in the morning.
Next day, took a taxi to Chinese embassy but were turned away from the door as a "shuttle slip" is mandatory for entrance to all embassies. Executive Slip costs 1000 PKR per person while economy costs 500 PKR per person. Contract awarded to the crooks (Shuja Motors) to milk people's hard earned money.
We asked the lady at the counter why we had to pay 1000 each even though we weren't going to use the shuttle. She replied if you just need the slip, use economy . What a joke!
A glaring proof of our government's corruption, awarding contract to their own person based in Gujranwala. I would love to know a bit more about the tender process for obtaining such privilege. We are equally at fault by not objecting and simply handing out our money to allow this day light robbery.
Mr Bashir doesn't have an NIC card as he always obtains Pakistani Visa so he wasn't issued a shuttle slip which meant he wasn't allowed at the gates and had to wait outside the embassy on the main road. Piss take!
So I went in on my own almost fully prepared except invitation, feeling guilty about my father in law even though he is a die hard fan of PML N, LOL!
First desk where staff check your documents to make sure they are in order. Sorry! We can't accept applications without invitation from China. I told him the purpose of the visit to China is "Tourism" and category applied is "L" as mentioned on embassy website. It does not mention invitation anywhere instead advised to go through a qualified travel agent. I am traveling with my father in law as we planned it together, its not possible to join a group of tourists away from our own plan plus no agency is arranging tours until April. What am I to do?
The response was Tourist visa category from Pakistan was suspended 10 months ago and now category "M" business visas are being issued a plenty.
