Consulate General of the People's Republic of China in New York

The door opens at 8:30 for security check and tickets. The window opens at 9:00. If you get there at 8:30 you can prob get out at 9:30. I have to say that they are pretty efficient However, the staff made up their rule per their preference. I was trying to apply the visa for my mother in law and my father in law and they required only my mom in law’s employer letter and her finger print. I never heard of that rule and her only purpose is go to my wedding in China and travel with us. The staff said she can just make up any rule if not published. Furthermore, there is not enough space for waiting line so people have to wait outdoor even in the rainy/snowy days.
1 7 years ago (08-04-2018)

Honestly, this place gets a bad rap. I read all the negative review online and totally psyched myself out. There are really two major guidelines to follow when visiting namely showing up early and having EVERYTHING with you. 1.) They start to allow people through security at 8:30. I showed up then and there was a modest line but it moved quickly as it was still early. Once past security you receive a ticket. The kiosk opened at 9 sharp and even though I was the 40/50th person in the building I didn't wait more than 20 minutes. 2.) HAVE EVERYTHING WITH YOU. Cannot stress this enough - for a tourist visa in particular you need: 1. Typed application form 2. Copy of your passport 3. Itinerary with your name on it 4. Accommodations with your name on it (or invitation) All in all not a bad experience, despite my initial misgivings every member of the staff here I encountered were courteous and helpful.
5 7 years ago (13-04-2018)

Expect to wait and make sure you have all the materials you need. I had my entire application ready and the entire process took almost two hours - most of it waiting. In addition to the visa application materials they list on the site, make sure to bring: - Photocopied picture of your passport - ‎TYPED visa application; they don't accept handwritten forms - Trip itinerary (there's a chance you might not need it though; I didn't) If you want to get there on a quieter day, the website says that Mon/Tuesday are busier and any day after 10am is super busy. When I arrived (9:20am on a Monday) there was a huge line to enter the building. The wait before I could enter the building was about 45 minutes. When you get inside you have to turn your phone off (and keep it off) and you go through a quick security check. The consulate is two stories and the windows for Visa applications are on the first floor. There's a photocopy machine and photo booth (for passports) on the second floor. It's a little crowded and chaotic, but nothing too bad When I got in the building I had to wait in line to get a ticket number. A staff person looked over my Visa application to make sure I had all of the documents I needed. The wait after I got my ticket number was about 30-40 minutes.
4 7 years ago (05-03-2018)

They need more staff there to shorten the waiting time, especially the phone call waiting time. It is terrible to hear phone ringing for hours before being pick up, and no clue of how long you still need to wait. And what is more important is that they need to learn to RESPECT THE LAW. Once they have policy in place on the website it should be respected and followed, and not to be changed frequently and the content should be explicit and make sense, a lot of times they are not followed, you have all materials in hand per their published procedure and when you are there they tell you something extra is needed or you are not qualified, also on their website you may find a lot of contradictory rules and information, e.g. the website may tell you specific service is not provided, however it also says if applicant insist it can still provide such service, and if you call/visit them they then tell you a totally different story that you need to follow a different and nonsense procedure to get such service. And even if you follow that procedure they cannot guarantee the service could be provided! Their website has two versions, English and Chinese, for English version much fewer services are provided and policies are more stable and explicit, so lucky for those who are not China citizens don't have to deal with so much hassles. Some staff are polite and provide good service but some are not. I think NYC Ambassador should pay more attention to her job about how to improve the service quality, instead of propaganda of communist party and so called great achievement, if you cannot even do a good job for your own citizens in your own institution how to convince others you have done a good job elsewhere? if you did a good job everyone would have known it, no need to worry people are blinded! It is in U.S. we don't have that much information censorship!!
1 7 years ago (08-03-2018)

UPDATE: It's been 7 months now with no reply. I just received a recorded phone message from them but unfortunately I don't speak fluent Mandarin. I was put on hold until a real person came to the phone. I said I don't speak Mandarin and was wondering if there could be a Cantonese/English speaker but they just hung up on me. What kind of work do you people do? Do you think your time is more important than everyone elses? I'm still in the process of helping my mother renew her passport. Unfortunately it has already been over 2 months and she still does not have a new passport. Renewal of a passport should not take this long. All they've said is they cannot identify my mom's identity even though they took her old passport, copies of her green card, social security card, and marriage license. The website is not clear with every single piece of detail that they require of you during this process. The teller who "helped" us made us go back and forth to the copy machines 4 separate times because she couldn't be bothered to just tell us what she wanted in one conversation. I understand that it is frustrating to deal with people all day but it is incredibly insulting to see my mom be treated like an idiot by this woman. She is old, her comprehension is slower, and all she wanted was to get through the process as painlessly as possible and without trouble to anyone else. You would think an employee would want a smooth process as well. Unfortunately neither of us speak fluent Mandarin but she persisted in speaking to us until she got too annoyed and started speaking to us in Cantonese. If you knew we were trying so hard with another language and yet you speak our language fluently, why are you trying to give us such a hard time? Also, nobody answers the phone. I've been put on hold for over an hour without an answer. This representation of the Chinese government is absolutely horrid. Why would you do this to your own people? We can't even apply for citizenship because they have my mom's original China passport.
1 8 years ago (18-01-2018)