Visas are needed for most non-Chinese nationals to enter China (exceptions are passport holders from Singapore, Brunei, and Japan). Application should be made to the Chinese Embassy/Consulate in your country of residence. It is strongly recommended that you start the visa application process no later than four weeks before your departure. There are two types of visas available for attending the conference.

• Tourist Visa (L Visa)
• Business Visa (F Visa)

The application process for Tourist Visa is usually simpler than Business Visa. For most countries, a Tourist Visa does not require an official invitation letter. However, you should check with the Chinese Embassy/Consulate in your country of residency to determine the local rules that apply for your visa application. You may need to show evidence of booking for your roundtrip flights and hotel.

Invitation Letter

Business Visa must require an official invitation letter. We will send you a scanned copy of the invitation letter electronically once it becomes available. Upon request, we will mail the original to you.

To request an invitation letter, you need to first register and pay for the conference.

To obtain an invitation letter for visa application, all participants have to provide the following documents and send them to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by July 1, 2015.

1. Scanned copy of the first page of the passport with personal information and photo.
2. Filled out form "Information for visa application to SoCC 2015,Beijing, China".

Please note that we need to send all requests to the foreign affairs office of Tsinghua University for approval and it takes some time for them to process it. Only after it has been approved we can send the invitation letter to you. This will probably happen around the end of July and will still leave enough time for you to get your visa before the conference.

Additional Information:

• Visa application procedure and form download in the U.S.
• List of Chinese Embassies and Consulates around the world
• Some Useful Guidelines from travelChinaguide.com

Most China Embassies/Consulates will work with professional visa services.
If you are looking for such visa services in US, the popular choices are China Visa Service Center, VisaRite and Atlas Services .

Plan ahead - apply for you visa early.
Depending on your country and citizenship, visa processing may take several weeks. If you need a visa, register for the conference as early as possible and pay your conference fees along with your registration so we can send you the invitation letter. We will not accept any visa delays or denied visa as an excuse for no-shows!