Usually I am the one with the suspect travel documents. My old passport still had my married name on it so I would travel under that alias and not my current legal/maiden name*. When I need an entry visa, I prefer to apply in Chicago beforehand so I'm confident I have all my travel documents in order and have time to fix any speedbumps that might appear. So for the China portion of our next trip, we were a on our guard that we may run into an issue with F's visa. F was born in Taiwan, moved to the US as a child, was naturalized, and is now a US citizen with a US passport. You'd think this would be enough, but little did we realize what we were about to get into.
The first issue to arise was Danielle's passport. When she bought her plane ticket, her passport was about to expire so she applied for a renewal and expedited the process. She had a new passport in her hands in two weeks. Excellent. Then she mailed it via USPS to Carrie in Chicago (certified, signature required) at her office because Carrie was going to take care of her and Danielle's Chinese visas at the local consulate. This is where it went off the rails. The downtown Chicago post office lost Danielle's passport package. Someone signed for it at the post office, but they couldn't locate the package. We were 6 weeks from departure. Danielle was distraught and Carrie was on a mission. She opened a case file at the USPS. She called daily. The office manager at her agency said sometimes it takes a few days for packages to go from the local post office to the office buildings... sit tight, it'll come.
It didn't. Carrie stepped up the pressure. I don't know how the post office did it, but they found Danielle's passport a week later. When they realized it contained time-sensitive, legal, and highly personal information, they increased their search. Carrie was then able to get their visas.
Lesson learned: Send via FedEx or UPS.
While this was going on, I was responsible for getting my and F's visas. When I arrived at the consulate, they accepted my paperwork. They handed F's back to me. No dice. Since she was born in Taiwan, they considered her a Chinese national so we had to change her application to read original nationality as "China" and not "Taiwan". "Taiwan is not a country. China is." Duly noted. And since she was a former Chinese national, they wanted a copy of her original Chinese passport and birth certificate. F said that she nor her parents have these anymore. And a birth certificate was back in Taiwan.
Crap.
Could F get into China??
Carrie and I were making a brief road trip to Cedar Point, so in the car we mapped out backup plans to how we could get F into China if she couldn't get an official visa. 72 hour visa waiver? Change flights? We had a decision tree. We had a backup plan. I filled F in when we returned and told her we'd start with the paperwork and tackle the hard part first: priority was getting that official entry visa!!
I combed TripAdvisor and other travel sites for others in the same position: US citizens born in Taiwan. Over and over I read that it couldn't be done, they couldn't get a visa. I wasn't giving up. There HAD to be a away. The mission for an entry visa was becoming a full-time job. F wasn't the only person the planet in this position. I happened upon a post by a woman who said her husband had the same predicament and was able to get a visa using alternate paperwork, expediting the application, and applying in person.
F and I got together, we combed through her documentation. She had a copy of an endorsement stamp from her mother's Chinese/Taiwanese passport from when F was a baby, with F's Chinese birth name. Not the entire passport or the data page, but just the stamped endorsement page. She had her certificate of citizenship, and the legal paperwork for her name change. The name on her endorsement match the name on her citizenship certificate which matched the name on her name change document which matched the name on her passport. We were going to try this again.
As a precaution, we threw money at the problem to expedite the process. We had enough time, but we wanted to give this priority in the consulate's eyes, plus it was a sign that we meant business. Additionally, I made 6 more versions of her visa application, noting her original nationality as China and not Taiwan, and adjusting other little details. If they said an application was incorrect, we had 5 more versions of it in our back pocket signed and ready to put on the table. This time, F joined me at the consulate. A sympathetic face may help.
The same gentleman that granted me my visa was at the window again when F and I stepped up days later. I explained that we were on the same itinerary and they had given me my visa, and I couldn't go alone (white lie). We walked him through the chain of F's paperwork, from Taiwan to the US, and through her name changes. He asked her to pronounce her Chinese name so he could write it in Chinese characters on the application. She was a baby when she left Taiwan so she never learned to write in Chinese. Good thing she came along because I had no idea how to repeat her name properly. We told him we were expediting as well, he stamped the application, handed us a receipt and told us to come back in 2 days.
One step closer! I returned on Monday to pick up the passport and pay for it. I nearly fell on the floor with relief. My dad was in town visiting and I brought him with, finally jumping and cheering with joy on the sidewalk when we stepped outside. F was able to join us in China!!
And, well, if you read the Mongolia and Beijing entries, you'll see she made it. :) I didn't want to write about this escapade until we had returned safely and uneventfully from China. You never know who is monitoring the interwebs so we were playing it safe in case we were stopped/detained in China. In, out, done.
Lessons learned: When it comes to visas, especially for notoriously strict governments, give yourself PLENTY of time. Visit the consulate in person, if possible. Have backup plans. And don't give up.
* Regarding my own passport issues, my book was full upon returning from China. Thailand is the next stop in a few months and it wouldn't fit any more stamps. It was high time to get a new passport and change to my REAL name in the process. I applied in late September and had it back in a couple weeks. Well, the book as come back, now I'm waiting for them to return my old passport and supporting ORIGINAL documentation. I requested a double book of 52 pages instead of 26, which is no extra charge. You've all been warned, help me fill in this new book!
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