This summer we replaced our China visa application with something we built ourselves, from the ground up. The old form worked, but it had one big flaw we couldn't fix on someone else's platform: you had to answer a long questionnaire before you ever saw a price. The new one flips that around — a few quick questions, about 90 seconds, and you see your exact price and whether your timeline works. Nothing to pay until you've seen both.
Your price first, not last
Pick your service level, how fast you need it, and how long a visa you want, and the price builds on screen as you choose — a running total, updated with every selection. If you're applying as a family or group, it prices every traveler, so the number you watch grow is the number you actually pay. No surprise total on the last screen.
The three service levels are laid out side by side with exactly what each includes, so the difference between Full Service, Courier Only and Forms Only is clear before you choose, including whether the $140 consulate fee and FedEx both ways are part of the price. Courier Only is for people who have already filed on COVA themselves; if you haven't, the form points you to Full Service. See the full breakdown on our China visa cost guide.
A timeline check built on our own measured data
Tell the form when you need your passport back and it checks your date against what we actually measure from our own daily filings — the same data behind our published China visa processing time page. If a regular case is cutting it close, it says so and suggests rush. If a date genuinely doesn't work, it tells you to call us before you pay — we'd rather have that conversation than your money.
Your passport photo does the typing
Upload a photo of your passport ID page and the form reads it for you, then verifies the passport number, date of birth, and expiration against the check digits built into the passport itself. You confirm what it read instead of typing it — and anything the photo can't verify stays yours to enter by hand. Passport numbers on a government filing are exactly where a one-character typo hurts most, which is why we built verification in rather than trusting a straight read.
Checked before we file, not after the consulate opens it
COVA, the Chinese consulate's online application, takes whatever you type and says nothing until an officer reviews it days later. If something is off, it comes back marked "Rejected and to be modified" and the wait starts over. We file China visa applications every business day at all five consulates, and every reason we have seen one come back so far is now a check in the form, run before anything is filed:
Your passport page, read and verified against its own check digits
Your invitation letter, checked for your name, the city, the dates and the company stamp
Your travel history, checked the way the consulate checks it: against your stamps
The right supporting document for your visa type, asked for by name
Your address, checked against FedEx before a label exists
Your timeline, checked against what we measure from our own daily filings
One open application per person, asked early, before it locks your file
The consulate's declarations, asked the way the consulate asks them
The checks warn; they don't certify, and the consulate still makes every decision. What we've cut is the avoidable round trip. The full list of returns we've seen, with the fix for each, is in 12 reasons China visa applications get sent back.
Start on your phone, finish whenever
Every answer saves as you go. Close the tab, switch from your phone to your laptop, come back tomorrow — a secure resume link picks up right where you stopped. Uploads are camera-first, so photographing your documents from your phone is the default, not a workaround.
Shorter, because it only asks what applies to you
The questionnaire adapts to your answers. Courier Only clients, who have already filed on COVA themselves, get the short path instead of the full application interview, group questions only appear for groups, and follow-up questions only open when your answer needs them. The application itself — the consulate's own COVA form — hasn't changed, and neither have the documents you need. What changed is how much of the work lands on you.
Everything else is the same — on purpose
Same team, same process behind the scenes. Our head office is in Chicago, and we work with couriers at all five Chinese consulate cities — Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. — so whichever consulate serves your state, your passport is submitted in person there. We prepare and check the application; the new form just gets you to a clear price and a checked timeline before any of that starts.
Start your China visa application — your price is the first thing you'll see, not the last. Questions first? Call us at (708) 360-7277.
Get My Passports is a private company that provides passport and visa application assistance and courier coordination services where available. We are not affiliated with or endorsed by any government agency. Government authorities make all approval decisions and control official processing times. Our service fees are separate from government fees.
