YWGcruisers

This just in from the Visa dept at OC... "I hope this email finds you well and thank you for your patience with us while you await a concrete response regarding the China visa. I began working on obtaining specific details regarding the exception prior to receiving your original email and have been providing Luigi and our managers with any information received during that time. Hopefully, it has all reached you. That said, I now have detailed information to provide you and all our valued guests with regarding the China visa exemption. Most, if not all of our itineraries do qualify for the 15-day China visa exemption as I believe all begin in Shanghai; one of the visa exempt requirements. Your cruise certainly qualifies for it. All guests must enter mainland China via Shanghai and sail all the way through to the ship’s departure from China in order to complete final clearance at the last Chinese port. Another requirement in order to be visa exempt is that guests must take part in an organized shore excursion as the tour operator will be responsible for submitting necessary documents to immigration for formalities. You may book a shore excursion offered through Oceania Cruises or an independent third-party tour operator. If the latter, kindly ensure your travel advisor selects a well-established one in China able to do the same. Any guests wishing to go ashore on their own MUST secure a Chinese tourist visa on their own in advance of the cruise. I will be working on removing the China visa requirement information from the applicable itineraries in addition to removing the visa from any reservations who opted into the China visa through us."

I'm sure you are because it is my understanding that you would have to travel up to DC for your interview/fingerprinting and give up your passports for 1-4 business days depending on current processing times and how much extra you are willing to pay before you can return to pick them up. In Canada, we can give them a "prepaid Xpresspost envelope" to send everything back as their processing time is usually 3-10 business days.

Just rec'd this today from OC... "Thanks for your email. Yes, our Visa, dept. confirmed no third parties can secure a Chinese visa for any nationality requiring one. The individual must apply on their own." Still no word on whether we can take advantage of the visa exemption policy for Shanghai if we have shorex booked with OC. One small step at a time I guess!

Yep. No one is going to Russia any time soon. The same goes for Myanmar. Oceania has already adjusted those cruises for the rest of the year and told us they will likely be amending the yearend sailing on the Riviera through Asia before this fall if conditions remain the same.

Just rec'd a response from O's visa dept. via our TA..."we are currently reviewing post-Covid requirements as there is a possibility a visa for mainland China is not required." Please keep the pressure on them to adjust their policy.

Folks are probably not thinking about visas yet until closer to final payment. By the way there is no office in Florida and they closed the office in Houston so guests in the south including Texas have to go to Washington DC for the in person interview according to the official USA PRC appointment website.

email guestrelations@oceaniacruises.com. The more people that put pressure on them, the faster we will get a resolution. There is no excuse not to offer the visa exemption.

Thanks for sharing your story. I connected with another couple that had to travel from Phoenix to LA for their interview at the Chinese consulate for their cruise pre-covid. I think it might be our last opportunity to get to mainland China. So grateful that we got to visit St. Petersburg with Silversea a few years back. They also had an exemption if you participated in excursions in and around this port city. You only needed a visa if you did the trip to Moscow.

We thought of that but worst case scenario we will fly to Toronto for a couple of days and get it done. Just seems so unnecessary when the Chinese government has an exemption for cruise ship passengers in transit. Other guests on Silversea, Seabourn and HAL have been able to take advantage of the exemption in the past. Not sure why NCL has never offered it to their guests.

Please re-visit my original post. If you are not booked on a cruise with a stop in Shanghai then I'm not sure why people on here are commenting unless they have done their due diligence. I have been in touch with CIBT (as directed in our guest statement) and the Chinese consulate in Toronto and if we need a Chinese tourist visa we must show up in person. Same applies in the USA. Simple as that! We are trying to get others to complain to Oceania to change their policy and honor the exemption.

I just visited the American site and it is not saying anything different from the Canadian site. You and @AMHuntFerry are wasting our time on this post! Perhaps you should do some research and contact the Chinese consulate nearest you.

Worst case scenario, we book our excursions with a third party to provide us with the exemption papers we need to board. We would just have to get enough folks to do that, so they don't deny us boarding without Chinese visas. We are hopeful though that OC will see the possible loss of revenue and offer the exemption with their excursions.

To put things into perspective, OC has come up with the best itinerary I have ever seen on the Riviera from Dubai to Tokyo (82 days) late December to the end of March. Unfortunately, there is an overnight in Shanghai which mucks things up. Not happy about going there but it may be the last opportunity ever!

I cannot find what you are referring to. If you can't fill out an online form and submit it, I'm sure someone will take your $$$ to do it for you. Once the embassy/consulate receives your application, they will grant you an appointment where you must attend in person and hand over your passport. Once your visa has been approved, everything will be returned to you. See all the details here... https://visaguide.world/asia/china-visa/china-visa-from-usa/

You might consider checking your information sources before posting. This may have been the case years ago but not today!