Getting a China Visa in San Francisco

Hello world,

With this blog I'll try to contribute to the body of web information by addressing problems that can take a small burden of web searching to find good information for. Today it's getting a China Visa from the China consulate in San Francisco. It's been years since I did this process, so I'll be fuzzy where I have to.

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Planning on a week long trip to Beijing, I needed to add a China visa to my US passport. Web searching for China visas turned up plenty of services that will add this to your passport by mail. The risk of losing my passport in the mail creeped me out. Fortunately I'm a medium drive away from San Francisco and could take care of this in person at the China consulate in San Francisco.

China consulate in San Francisco website: http://www.chinaconsulatesf.org/eng/

To get there:
http://www.chinaconsulatesf.org/eng/about/t50487.htm
The China consulate is across the street from Japantown. From the corner of Geary and Laguna it's halfway up the block along Geary, away from the direction of Japantown. Parking is tricky: you can either circle the residential neighborhood, or you might give up and enter the costly Japantown parking structure across the street.

You can see the consulate entrance using google maps and street view:

View Larger Map

Getting forms and waiting (or, lunch in Japantown):
http://www.chinaconsulatesf.org/eng/qianzhen/zgqz/t48485.htm
If you bring your US passport and flight information with you to the consulate you can fill out a form when you get there, submit the information with $100, and return in a few days to retrieve your passport with the new visa. Like waiting at the DMV, you're assigned a number. You may pickup and fill out any of your required forms at tables against the walls, and then sit among the masses until they call your number. Visa forms that are identical to those found in the consulate are found on the consulate website: http://www.chinaconsulatesf.org/chn/qianzhen/t312955.htm

I arrived just before lunch, so I picked up my form and filled it out while getting lunch in Japantown. I returned to the seats, and waited about 15 minutes for my number to be called. After handing the window clerk my information and $100, I was instructed to come back in four days. For this task at the consulate I was in and out of San Francisco in a couple hours, lunch included.

For expedited service, an additional $30 may be added for next day service.

Returning to pickup your passport:
The next week I came in and didn't have to wait for any number to pickup my passport at a separate window. What it is: a US-passport-page sized sticker added to the back of my passport featuring identifying text and a nice illustration of the Great Wall of China. Ooooh. In and out of the consulate in 10 minutes.