Emergency humanitarian visa type
I’m helping my folks with (attempting) to get an emergency humanitarian visa because one of my uncles has ended up in the ICU. Going through the embassy site and this detailed google doc, I’ve already gathered the main requirements and sent them to the right email address, including proof of kinship, hospital certificate, IDs of both parties.
The problem seems to be the response I’ve gotten makes no indication of the emergency visa situation since it seems to be a form letter about additional documents for a standard Q1/2 visa. One of the additional documents is an online form where the visa types are listed like on the embassy website, except I still don’t see an emergency humanitarian option, unless it’s supposed to be “Other”. Is there a special visa type I need to be using for the email title and requesting on the form? I had the email subject as “Last name, first name - State - Emergency humanitarian visa” per embassy instructions, but I don’t know if they’re expecting some different kind of visa type name.
Posted Oct 25, 2022, 7:19 PM UTC
Yes it’s a Q1/2, the document is talking about earlier in Covid when there weren’t family visas given, therefore you needed a lot of exceptions.
You can just go through the standard Q1/2 now if your Uncle is Chinese (slightly different process if he’s a foreigner)
You will still need to quarantine for 10 days upon reaching the mainland so it doesn’t really change anything and will just confuse the embassy if you start asking for ‘emergency’ visas at this point when you can simply apply for a regular visa
Ah, I see, the confusing part is that the embassy site still has a mention of emergency visa: "For application of emergency humanitarian visa not specified in the above form, such as attending a funeral of an immediate family member or visiting an immediate family member in critical condition". Is it still about a month for the usual Q1/2 processing? Or was that also an earlier in Covid situation?
It should be pretty fast if you tell them about the condition of your uncle, ie it'll be expedited for humanitarian reasons but it'll still be a Q1/Q2, there is no letter for humanitarian.
I’ve been following through with this thanks to your information but the embassy keeps asking for a letter. We’ve emphasized twice that he’s in critical condition (including sending the critical illness hospital notice) and in no condition to sign for anything, but the embassy staff are either overlooking or ignoring this, because they continue to request we provide a letter. Is there a certain term or phrase I need to drop in the email for them to make this exemption?
Do you have any other family in China who could provide you the invitation letter? Does your uncle have a POA?