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I recently filled out a Chinese visa application form and scheduled a meeting with their consulate in Poland. A day after, while reviewing the form, I realized that I entered the wrong arrival date - it's later than the one I planned and due to external constraints, it doesn't make sense for me to reschedule my arrival. I hadn't yet bought the flight ticket, but I feel time pressure to do that before the price increases. I hadn't paid for the visa yet.

I tried to immediately contact the consulate. Their phone number redirects to an already full voice mail, so I decided to write them an e-mail in which I asked whether my application can be amended now that it's already submitted. Two days later I got a response that looks like a result of miscommunication - I was basically told that "I can choose or change departure date on my own, what is important is for the visa to be valid". It's not clear to me how to interpret this, but it sounds like the answer I received refers to buying the plane ticket as opposed to visa form, even though I explicitly mentioned that the problem is with my mistake in the application form.

I can see the following options:

  1. Do nothing and hope that this can be fixed during the in-person meeting,
  2. Cancel my meeting, re-do the application and schedule another meeting (and maybe mention in the "comments" section why I did that)
  3. Keep trying to contact them and fix the mistake

What could be the most reasonable course of action, given your experience with consulates?

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  • This is China, so I would take that with a huge grain of salt. But what they say is that you may adjust your departure day however you like, but you must ensure that the visa they'll issue is valid for that change
    – Nicolas Formichella
    Commented Mar 2, 2023 at 15:58
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    when I got a Chinese visa, it was valid from the date it was issued rather than the date of my planned arrival, so it would've been no problem to change my plans. However, I was issued a ten-year visa (as is the usual policy for Chinese visas for US citizens) so I don't know if the issuing practices are different for nationalities where that is not the case.
    – mlc
    Commented Mar 2, 2023 at 20:09

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In my case, the proper course of action was to create a new application without scheduling a new meeting, then apply it. They quickly found another error and asked me to re-apply and print somewhere in the neighborhood, which means that they're quite flexible with the scheduled hours, at least in Warsaw.

In other words, don't worry in a similar situation - it might be that you'll find a solution once you arrive.

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