Overstaying F-visa by one day on Shenzhen/HK border..

[godin87]

Dear folks,

I just realize that I will enter HK from Shenzhen by overstaying my Chinese visa by 1 day. Since I came to Mainand on the 2.8 and will exit China/back in HK on 2.9. So its 31 days instead of 30.

1) Does anyone know if this is a serious offence? Will it have consequences of getting a new visa for mainland?

another option is this:
2) My Chinese visa is in my old passport which is almost fully stamped but still valid. My entry stamp to Mainland is in my new passport.
Does anyone know, if on Shenzhen/HK border I just show the old passport without an entry stamp (but fully stamped with lots of old entry/exit, entry/exit, some of which are not clear) Is that a better idea?
What I am thinking, is just to say: When I entered China, the officer forgot to give me entry stamp...

Many thanks in advance,
Mike

[PDLM]

"Forgot to give you an entry stamp" is simply implausible.

Can't you just ask for an extension of one day while in China - it probably wouldn't be expensive (although it might be slow)?

By the way, I'm curious how you managed to get a new passport without the old one being cancelled - few countries allow that unless you have a good reason such as the Arab/Israel problem.

[Konijntje]

Rule of thumb: Never lie to an immigration officer. They would have run your passport through a magnetic strip which means your entry date would show up on their records and then they look for the matching stamp on the passport.
Your options are now to:
1) Check if you can extend the visa before it runs out
2) Leave and re-enter.
I have heard of some people being blacklisted for a certain amount of time from countries for violating immigration laws. So if you intend to visit China again, you're better off getting an extension, or leaving on day 30.

[Konijntje]

By the way, I'm curious how you managed to get a new passport without the old one being cancelled - few countries allow that unless you have a good reason such as the Arab/Israel problem.

Or if you still have a valid visa in the old passport...so they let you keep the old one until the visa (and passport) expires...

[er2]

Or if you still have a valid visa in the old passport...so they let you keep the old one until the visa (and passport) expires...

Indeed. Got to keep mine too, with one page but six years of validity left. Given how they fill the pages with the student visa stamps here, I might end up with quite a collection of passports in a few years

[jgl]

Dear folks,

I just realize that I will enter HK from Shenzhen by overstaying my Chinese visa by 1 day. Since I came to Mainand on the 2.8 and will exit China/back in HK on 2.9. So its 31 days instead of 30.

1) Does anyone know if this is a serious offence? Will it have consequences of getting a new visa for mainland?

another option is this:
2) My Chinese visa is in my old passport which is almost fully stamped but still valid. My entry stamp to Mainland is in my new passport.
Does anyone know, if on Shenzhen/HK border I just show the old passport without an entry stamp (but fully stamped with lots of old entry/exit, entry/exit, some of which are not clear) Is that a better idea?
What I am thinking, is just to say: When I entered China, the officer forgot to give me entry stamp...

Many thanks in advance,
Mike

Option 1: Basically a bloody stupid idea. You should never mess about or try to bend the rules with immigration people. They will give you a really hard time for it and may put you on a blacklist that will affect you for years to come. (This happened to a friend who managed to screw up and accidentally stayed in Australia one day too long.)

Option 2: No comment- it was just too weirdly written for me to make sense of right now.

[PDLM]

Or if you still have a valid visa in the old passport...so they let you keep the old one until the visa (and passport) expires...

I guess different countries do it differently. I still have all my old passports, but they are cancelled (meaning a big cancelled stamp for UK passports, and holes punched in the cover for Philippines passports). The corner is normally cut off, but they leave pages which still have valid visas intact so that they can still be used.

[bookblogger]

You can usually get visas extended while you're in China. From memory, I think the police handle it.

[hktraveller]

In China there are rules as everywhere. the big differnce is on how they handle it when you break them. Overstaying for one day should not be a problem. The most that should happen is that they charge you 500 RMB. Tell them that you are very sorry, but you overlooked that August has 31 days. That is a little lie they have to believe, and most of the time foreigners will be let go without too much hazzle.

It might cost you some extra time tough, since most likely they will call a supervisor and take you to an interview room.

The 'no entry stamp' doesn't work. They aren't stupid. If you have a multiple entrry visa, you could tell them the entry stamp is on a seperate paper (Issued in Zhuai) that you lost. But they will know your date of entry anyway. Big brother knows everything.

[hongkong7]

As above the immigration officer doesnt need your chop to know how many days you have overstayed its right there on the screen i front of him.

If you decide to overstay you will have to pay a fine /fill in some papers and they will let you through on the spot

They will have a permanent electronic record of you overstaying your visa-do you really want that ?it is going to be a major hassle the rest of your life if you ever travel back to China