Woman gets turned away after lining up from 4 am for visa to China, pays travel agent $350 to expedite process

SINGAPORE: Since China opened its doors to travellers again in March, long lines have been forming to apply for a visa at its Visa Centre in Singapore, with some applicants beginning to queue at 3 am or earlier.

One woman, who said in a TikTok video that she needed “a visa to China quite urgently”, got up at 3 o’clock and started queuing shortly after 4 am, only to be told to go home a few hours later.

@lashyoyt

hearsay people are starting to queue at 5pm for next morning’s slot👺

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Local TikTok user Ong Yi Ting documented her visit to the Visa Centre on May 4. Her preparations began the night before, as she slept at 11 pm to rest before getting up early.

She had heard of one uncle lining up at 3 am and decided to follow suit.

But by the time she got to the Visa Centre, more than 170 people were in the queue.

Nevertheless, she and a friend decided to stay and wait it out, having been told that the cutoff for visa applicants was 200.

And sure enough, at 7 am, a security staff told the 201st person and everyone after them in the line to head for home.

But at 8:54 am, Ms Ong said the cut-off was changed to 100 people, so she and her friend were among those who were not attended that day.

However, due to her urgent need for a visa, they decided to go to a tour agency, where they paid $350 for expedited services.

She said the amount was “really worth it”.

Singaporeans used to be allowed to travel to China visa-free for 15 days, but this was suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic.

On Saturday (May 6), the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Singapore addressed this in an announcement on Facebook.

“Recently, as the summer vacation approaches, the number of visa applications to China has increased significantly, accompanied by some problems in emergency visa application (walk-in) such as long queuing time, which affects the applicant’s personal experience and order on site. In order to solve this problem and respond to the needs of the public in a timely manner, starting from May 8, 2023 (Monday), the Visa Center will make the following arrangements for the handling of emergency visa applications.” /TISG

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