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Just to give a little update on this topic: Last week Thursday I applied for the so called Exit & Entry permit that allows my boys to leave China and travel to EU/Germany using their German passport. The application was actually simple and I was able to do the entire task my own as the father, my wife (and mother, who is working in the US) was not required to be present, only her ID-card. All required documents were presented to the officer, including a filled out application form for each of my son, as well the flight booking (e-ticket) with their western/Pinyin names as stated in the German passport. Tomorrow, June 25th, I can pick up these travel documents, the processing time is only about 3-5 business days, at least here in southern Guangdong. That document is valid for one exit and entry. Last week Wednesday, I applied for ESTA using the German passport and the was approved within one hour after submission. So also this topic is resolved and let us continue our journey to the US from Germany. So, this said, everything is resolved and we're all set for our EU/US trip. When it comes to the next trip to the US, in that case most likely from China directly, I may have a chance using neighboring Hong Kong as an intermediate hop into the US. However, this is a different story and I will come back to report on this as well. Thanks to the forum and your responses which really shed some light on the topic. Y'all replies were much appreciated help!

@Operator Thanks for reaching out, it is never too late. Even though, I promised to report back to this thread whenever I have news. As for your post, this is exactly the way I'm going and what you're writing about is the so called Exit & Entry permit (出入境通行证), actually a little blue booklet, similar to a passport. For our summer travel plans (CN -> DE -> US -> CN) with my two boys and their German/EU passport this seems to be the only reasonable way to go. I also talked to another friend of mine in Sichuan, he did the same and it worked. All I need to watch out for is, that the Chinese government is not getting the silly idea to cancel the boys Hukou (household registry) cause they both would lose all the benefits a Chinese citizen enjoys (school, insurance, social, etc. ). I read that a Hukou cancellation has happened to some people in the same situation, however, this is not a national policy, it's rather a local decision. I will figure this out by next week and apply for the Exit & Entry permit. Afaik it gonna take approx. 5 days processing time. As I see, this topic is of some interest. I will promise to keep this updated until all questions/issues are resolved on our side. Only this makes it a complete solution, maybe of help to others.

What's good @Pleasework89. Thanks for your response and also that website hint. I also have a long term friend who works as an officer in the Chinese immigrations, awaiting his response. I hope he will have a few good points. Yes, feel free to send me a message and contact me directly. I just checked my forum inbox, but there's no message of yours. Perhaps it's the fact that I just signed up and haven't enough reputation to do so. I will check that. I will surely, whatsoever, report back my findings on this topic and the further development. It might be of help to others in the future.

I agree with you, we're on the same line. Normally I would expect something like that to work - perhaps it is working like that. I just never did it before, I do not know anybody with a similar passport situation doing a direct trip from CN to the US. Like stated above, I am going to use the exit/entry permit and in this case traveling to the EU should be possible with no hassle. Future trips (without EU in between) I will have to figure out using their German passports and ESTA approval. I already dropped that B-Visa idea. See earlier posts with @Boiler. I've submitted the DS-160 applications, got a CEAC confirmation, but I haven't paid them nor booked an interview appointment and will not follow up. I will most definitely go the ESTA way. I don't want to risk a potential B-Visa refusal, followed by an ESTA refusal (cause the visa was refused).

Exactly. An option would be to first travel to a country having mutual visa exemption agreements with China. However, question remains, if I (non-Chinese) would need a visa for such country. LOL. I know some Germans, that have traveled to some other Asian country prior Germany/EU to just prevent to give knowledge about the German passport/reason to leave China. On the other side I also heard success stories about the exit/entry permit, and this is what I am going to try - at least for this planned CN-EU-US-CN summer trip.

That is the weird exit/entry handling of the Chinese authorities that also includes not recognizing multi-national Chinese citizens. It is what it is. For China, my children are Chinese only, for the remaining (western) world, my children are bi-national. It is the first time I am doing such a trip CN-> EU -> US -> CN with my kids and additionally I most likely have to apply for an exit/entry permit for them. This trip in particular may be a bit more easy, cause we first travel to Germany. My kids are German nationals, so they do not get a Schengen visa. Same goes the other way around, for China, no Chinese visa, cause they are also Chinese nationals. Whatssoever, they need to use their German passport to travel to the EU, no matter what. On the other hand, if we have a direct trip to the US, I have no idea, what kind of rocks the authorities may throw into our way. This is something to find out when that time comes, and it surely will come any time soon, after this summer. Being Chinese-multi-national ain't a cake-walk, regardless of all pros being in such a position. This is what I also hear from other foreign fellows living/working in China, bi-national families, be it US, EU or whatever constellation. My apologies I can not give more detailed information at this point. If this topic is of interest in this forum, I am happy to report back. I am not the only parent with multi-national Chinese born children.

Yeah, you're right. Exactly my concerns. And leaving out/skipping the answer in the DS-160 form, having another citizenship (with an VWP-eligible passport) would surely result into perjury. Ain't gonna work that way. So for now I am skipping the B-Visa application completely and my kids gonna travel with ESTA to the USA, that is a clean and fresh start. For the future I will see what I can do, there's also some development going on with my wife and her work position in the US. Thanks @Boiler for your input and that little push into the correct track, exactly what I was expecting asking my question in this forum! Much appreciated!

OK, thanks. So for the upcoming trip I will do the ESTA way with their German passports. The reason why I am applying for an B1/2 is a bit complicated to explain. Let's give it a try ... If my kids leave China, they have to show their Chinese passport being Chinese nationals. They cannot use their German passport, cause they do not have a Chinese visa (like I do). If I travel with them to the EU/Schengen countries, they can prove that they are eligible to do so, cause they hold the German passport. However, another time, if we travel directly to the U.S. from China they may have to show a U.S. visa in their Chinese passport. Furthermore, we are going to leave China mainland via transit to Hong Kong airport (just 10 miles from us), hence you need to prove that you can leave China mainland without getting stranded in the no-where. Cause also Chinese mainland-nationals cannot just go to Hong Kong, they need a permit to do so. By the way, I could imagine that the US consulate could well refuse them B1/2 cause they may say, why grant a visa if they can use their German passport and use VWP. I certainly stated that they have another nationality. This is a question in the DS-160 form. But this would be a matter to explain in the interview. And as a side note: When my children turn 18 they have to decide what passport they wanna keep. China doesn't (officially) recognize multiple nationalities . But that gonna a question in 8+ years, maybe that question wont be relevant anymore. Hope this helps to clarify the our current situation.

Hello forum experts, I have a rather technical question and seek for some confirmation for my thoughts below. I've contacted the U.S. consulate in Guangzhou as well as Berlin, but not sure if they really gonna respond to my question. I am a German citizen living in Guangdong/China based on a family-reunion residence permit. I have 2 children, ages 8 and 10 born in China and holding the Chinese passport, as well as the German passport (due to my German citizenship as their father). We plan to travel to the US by the end of July for about 4-5 weeks to meet old friends of mine and also to show my children part of the country. A couple of days ago I submitted for my children (on behalf of their Chinese citizenship and passport) the DS-160 application with the Guangzhou U.S. consulate, received the CEAC confirmation and will pay and book an appointment in the upcoming days. However, I didn't realize the long waiting time for the interview appointment in Guangzhou, which is 113 days - most likely to happen in September. By that time we would have already returned back to China. . Our travel plan would include Germany as the first stop, from there, we would travel to the US and finally return back to China. Once we returned back to China in late August, I would continue to apply for their B1/B2 visa for their Chinese passports at the given interview appointment as initially intended. So my actual, rather technical question is, if it is possible for my children for our planned summer trip to the US to use their German passports with a prior clearance using ESTA to apply for a US entry while I've already triggered the process to apply for a B1/B2 visa for their Chinese passports? I do not want to bring up some kind of confusion after all. So, is the above way working and legit without further issues or a negative impact on their future B1/B2 visa approval? Any hints and thoughts are greatly appreciated! Thanks for spending your time on my issue 🙂