China Visa Application Service Centres (CVASC) in multiple countries reopened on 8 October after a scheduled shutdown for the combined Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays. During the 1-7 October closure, centres provided document collection only, pausing new submissions and biometric enrolments. Regular operations, including express processing and group visa acceptance, are now restored. The Lahore centre’s notice is representative: applicants can once again lodge all visa categories from 09:00 to 15:00, while premium ‘Green Channel’ services for urgent business travellers have also restarted. Centres in London, Singapore and Johannesburg issued parallel advisories pointing clients to refreshed online appointment slots. Mobility teams should confirm that appointment backlogs may push standard assessments to 7-10 working days this week. Travellers holding invitation letters or applying for the 30-day business ‘M’ visa are encouraged to pay for express handling where available. Fee schedules remain unchanged. Importantly, the National Immigration Administration has reiterated that foreigners entering visa-free still need local police registration; CVASC reopening therefore chiefly affects those requiring long-stay work, study or family reunion visas. Digital application portals operated by CVASC functioned normally during the holiday, so early online submission can shorten counter time.
