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I just got a Chinese visa sticker in my passport. On the page opposite of the Chinese visa, there is a sticker that reads:

Attention
An expired US passport with a valid Chinese visa is good for travelling to China provided it is used together with a new US passport bearing the same name, sex, date of birth and nationality. If any changes are made to the above mentioned information on the new passport, a new visa shall be applied.

Can I remove this sticker?

Paul
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2 Answers2

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Don't. At least not if you want to apply for another Chinese visa. I did it once, and the next time I applied for a visa, the Chinese visa authority rejected my application. The page where the visa was originally had a thin layer of glue. That alerted them, they checked, and indeed couldn't find a visa sticker for the visa they knew I had applied for. They told me they couldn't issue me a visa again until I either presented the missing visa sticker, or a new passport. I have two passports, so I gave them the other one, and got my visa.

Then in Macau, the Immigration officer saw this suspicious blank page, and again they refused to stamp me in. Suspicious, they said. So, again, being lucky to have two passports, I gave them the other one, and was let in.

After that I renewed that passport and never removed a visa sticker. Too much can go wrong.

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    He's not asking about a visa sticker. He's asking about a generic stixkwe –  Dec 12 '17 at 04:57
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    Any generic sticker may also leave sticky residue after attempting to remove it, which would definitely trigger suspicion in any immigration officer who notices. – Greg Hewgill Dec 13 '17 at 02:33
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    I am not asking about removing visa sticker, just the adjacent sticker, which is more like a sticky note, that I describe in the question. – Paul Dec 13 '17 at 05:03
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    Wait, why was "Oh, you don't like that passport, how about my other passport?" somehow less suspicious? That sounds even worse. – hazzey Jan 30 '18 at 21:06
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    @hazzey I think it depends on what the two are, like a blue american and a maroon american, I've done it with those before. – Raystafarian Mar 11 '18 at 22:29
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    @Raystafarian Why would that make any difference? Being willing to show two different passports is not suspicious, regardless of what countries they're from. But it's bizarre that an immigration official would be so suspicious of somebody that they'd refuse entry, and then completely forget that suspicion when shown a different passport. If the cops stop you for stealing some old lady's handbag, they wouldn't forget about it just because you also have some other bag that seems to be legitimately yours. – David Richerby Mar 12 '18 at 09:39
  • @DavidRicherby I'm not saying it does make you seem less suspicious, but it can resolve issues you might have AND not be suspicious – Raystafarian Mar 12 '18 at 09:41
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    @Raystafarian But how does it resolve the issue? The issue is "I believe you've tampered with your passport, which makes you untrustworthy, so I can't let you in." Why is the response to being shown the second passport not "That's very nice but I still believe you tampered with the first one, so I still don't trust you, so you still can't come in"? Just like the cops' response to the second bag would be "That's very nice, but we still believe you stole the first one, so we're still arresting you." – David Richerby Mar 12 '18 at 10:00
  • Suspicious empty page? My foreign immigration officer had the bright idea to directly stamp MY LAST PASSPORT PAGE 3 years ago. So I have now more than 40 empty pages to explain to my next officer. – usr-local-ΕΨΗΕΛΩΝ Mar 12 '18 at 16:06
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    @usr-local-ΕΨΗΕΛΩΝ: border agents can use passport pages in whatever order their little hearts desire. There's no requirement or assumption that your pages will be used in chronological order. – Martha Mar 12 '18 at 16:33
  • @DavidRicherby Oh did you think I was answering the question? I was responding to a comment. – Raystafarian Mar 12 '18 at 21:14
  • @Raystafarian I appreciate that you're responding to the comment; I'm just pointing out that your response doesn't really address the issue. – David Richerby Mar 12 '18 at 21:52
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Since I haven't gotten a good answer, and I have already been to China and back, I will share my experience for any one else with this question.

I don't know if you can remove the sticky note, but the immigration officers just stamped under it, so you should not worry about losing a page.

Paul
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