Thomas: Do you know how long it takes in average for the chinese government to approve a Z visa? I checked the internet and found answers ranging from 10 days to 2 month. Any ideas?

B: Approval times vary from office to office. It also depends upon time of year (holiday times take longer), work load (offices with lots of applications take longer) and general scheduling. Smaller offices in remote areas may take longer as the applications have to make their way through the local office to the city office to the provincial office.

In other words, the 10-day to two-month range is about right. Once your application is in process (via your employer), ask them how long they expect the approval process to take.

Good luck.

Thomas: Just got the approval. After 3 weeks