What it was like using a private passport service to ease and speed the process of getting a visa
Editor's Note
Late last year, I scored an incredible mileage redemption on Japan Airlines for a trip to Tokyo. However, the flight dates left me with a little too much time in Japan, so I wanted to see another country in Asia while I was in the area.
Asia is huge, and most of countries that I haven't been to — like Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos — are still a long flight from Japan. So, I decided to check China off my bucket list. The problem is, you need a visa to visit, and I had heard it wasn't always easy to get one. It also requires a trip to the embassy or consulate in most cases.
That's when I happened to meet Roman Yagudaev from The Passport Experts at Fox5 News in New York City. We'd both been booked on the show "Good Night New York" to talk all things travel.
We got to talking, and he explained that his company helps travelers obtain hard-to-get visas. It arranges last-minute travel documents for companies and individuals worldwide.
I figured it would be a fun service for me to test out and share with the TPG audience. I was pretty impressed. Hopefully, my experience can help someone else get an expedited passport or visa without all the stress.
Getting a visa
While The Passport Experts help with passports, visas, apostilles (internationally recognized certificates of many types) and even citizenship documents, I only needed a visa for this journey. After a brief phone consultation, the company sent me some fairly simple requests via email.
They asked me to first take a picture against a blank white wall with my smartphone and email it to them. I didn't even have to edit it; they took care of that part on their end. I was told that different consulates can be very demanding about photo guidelines, so it's easier if they handle it.
I also needed to send several documents to The Passport Experts, including:
- My U.S. passport book
- A black and white photocopy of my Global Entry Card (front and back)
- A black and white copy of my driver's license or state ID (front and back)
- A black and white copy of a rent statement, utility bill or apartment lease to prove I live in the New York area
- The itinerary for my travel to China (for which I provided a copy of the confirmation of my mileage redemption to and from China from Tokyo)
The Passport Experts will either have you mail the documents or arrange a messenger service to pick up your passport and other documents for an additional fee.
Once I sent all that off, the company emailed me a link to the actual visa application. China requires extensive information from potential visitors, including a detailed travel history. You are basically filling out an application for the visa but not submitting it — the team at The Passport Experts goes through it with a fine-toothed comb to ensure it's perfect before submitting it electronically on your behalf.
The application is pretty exhaustive and can be confusing, so it was nice not having to guess at some of the questions.
The other incredible help was skipping the wait at the consulate. The folks at the company took care of that for me. It was also deeply reassuring to have experts dealing with all the vagaries of a foreign government on my behalf. In fact, they have an employee who specializes in Chinese visas specifically.
I would have been heartbroken to wait in line for the visa, only to be told my application was out of date. So, it was a big relief to me.
It also took a few extra days because the Chinese consulate in New York was making some changes to the requirements around the time I was requesting a visa.
That's the great thing about using specialists in situations like these: I would have had no idea the application was changing if I had been trying to do it myself online.
The Passport Experts
The Passport Experts specializes in last-minute travel docs for travelers of all kinds. The company is based in New York City and brands itself as "a luxury concierge travel document advisory and expediting firm." They've worked with some big names, like Carmelo Anthony and Suze Orman.
There are no set prices, but an expedited visa, including concierge services, would likely cost more than $1,200. The good news is that the company is offering a 15% discount to TPG readers who mention code "TPGVIP01" during the consultation.
It sounds like a lot of money, but for last-minute service and peace of mind, it's probably worth it in some situations.
The Passport Experts promises expedited passports nationwide in as few as 48 hours. That's pretty remarkable. Fortunately, most people applying for a visa have a bit more time to plan trips, though the team said they've seen plenty of last-minute requests for difficult visas and other travel documents. All in all, the whole process took me roughly two weeks.
"For over two decades, we have become a trusted resource for our clients, seamlessly delivering hundreds of thousands of rushed passports and visas for last-minute trips," Yagudaev said.
He said their service is possible because of their ability to leverage "access to ... 25 years of data from the 270,000-plus files we successfully expedited for last-minute travelers since 2001."
Bottom line
I had an amazing few days in Shanghai, and I cannot wait to go back. Now that I have a 10-year visa, I can go anytime I want.
Using a concierge passport and visa service can be expensive, but it can also save you a ton of time and stress. I found The Passport Experts to be super professional and knowledgeable when it came to getting my visa for China. They made what could have been a real challenge fairly painless. For what it's worth, I've also used another New York-based service called ItsEasy.com to expedite a passport. There are multiple companies out there that can help you if you get into a pinch, but I can definitely recommend these two.
Related reading:
- Top passport mistakes to avoid
- Everything you need to know about emergency passports
- What to do if you lose your passport while traveling internationally
- Cheap and hassle-free: What it was like getting an expedited passport via rush service, ItsEasy.com
- 5 things I learned when renewing my passport for the first time