Visa for China: the consulate has a line on the street – 07/03/2023 – Panel SA

Companies that need to send their professionals on business trips to China are concerned about the bottleneck in granting visas at the consulate in São Paulo.

Brazilians who have started the process of obtaining a visa are waiting up to two days for face-to-face assistance in the city of São Paulo. Online scheduling was suspended, with queues forming since dawn on the sidewalk of the organ, which serves 30 people a day.

This Tuesday afternoon (7) more than 50 people were waiting in line to be received on Wednesday (8). The service takes place from 9 am to 12 pm and it is not possible to contact by phone or email.

A notice at the entrance to the building states that operations should be back to normal by mid-April and asks applicants not to wait in the street. However, dozens of people wait with parasols and chairs and take turns on United States Street, in a prime area of ​​São Paulo.

Not everyone will file their visas. There are reports of vacancies being sold for up to BRL 800.

According to the immigration company Fragomen, growth in demand for Chinese consular services was expected.

Last year, the company claims that its visa demand for Asian countries increased by 197%.

For Diana Quintas, partner at Fragomen in Brazil, the trend is for the demand for Chinese visas to continue to rise.

“China was one of the last countries to reopen its borders to foreigners and is one of the main destinations for business tourism in the world today. In addition to Brazilians who need visas, the consulate also serves Chinese citizens in Brazil. And São Paulo is the place with the largest population of Chinese. At the consulate in Rio, online scheduling is working normally, but the Chinese consulates follow a jurisdictional criterion, that is, residents of São Paulo cannot go to Rio for a visa”, says Quintas .

Panel SA tried to contact the consulate, but received no response.

Joana Cunha with Paulo Ricardo Martins It is Diego Felix

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