While Tamara and the boys all have resident permits for China through Tamara’s teaching job that allows them to stay continuously in country, Jamin is very limited in his visa options and has to make a “visa run” every 3 or 4 months. Jamin’s only option right now is to be on a multiple entry tourist visa which requires him to leave the country every 90 to 120 days. He has had his current visa since July 2012, but this visa will be expiring in September 2013.
The only way to get a new visa is to apply for one at a Chinese Embassy or Consulate outside of China. Applying for a new tourist visa cannot be done from within China. After researching about getting a new visa in places like Thailand, Taiwan and Hong Kong, we found out that the only way that Jamin can get a year long tourist visa that will allow him to stay in country for 90 days or more at at time is to apply for it in the US. While Jamin could get a tourist visa for China in Thailand or Taiwan, the visa would only be good for 6 months (rather than the 1 year visa he could get in the US) and would only allow him to stay in China for 30 days (compared to 90 days he could get in the US).
So Jamin will be arriving in Seattle on September 4th for two weeks….just long enough to apply for a new Chinese visa. Tamara and the boys will stay behind on the Tibetan Plateau since their visa situation is secure. Jamin will base himself in Seattle and Olympia and plans to have 1 group get together with friends sometime during that time in Olympia. More information about that will come in the near future.
Many other foreigners in China with a similar visa situation to Jamin’s have been easily able to get a 1 year tourist visa that allows them to stay in China for 90 days at a time. Please pray with us that Jamin will also get this visa without any issues. We praise God that only Jamin has to deal with this inconvenience as the whole family was in this situation from 2009 to 2012.
We hope you are all doing well!
Blessings!