Most people asking about China have read a dozen posts and still cannot say what happens first. This is the order it actually runs in. Universities differ in the detail, but not in the sequence.
The six stages
- 01Check that you qualify. Your marks, your age and your budget decide which programmes are open to you. This takes an afternoon and saves months.
- 02Choose the programme and the university. Medium of instruction, city, fees and intake date matter more than a ranking number.
- 03Prepare the documents. Nine of them, listed in the documents guide. Two of them take weeks.
- 04Apply, and wait for the university. The university issues an admission letter and a JW202 form. Only the university can issue these.
- 05Apply for the student visa. You take the admission letter and the JW202 to the Chinese embassy or its visa centre.
- 06Travel, register, settle in. Registration at the university, a medical check and a residence permit — covered here.
Who decides what
It saves a lot of worry to know which decisions are not ours and not yours.
| Decision | Made by |
|---|---|
| Whether you are admitted | The university |
| The fee, and whether a scholarship is awarded | The university, or the scholarship's funder |
| Whether the JW202 is issued | The university, through its provincial education department |
| Whether the visa is granted | The Chinese embassy or consulate |
| Which programme suits you, and whether the file is complete | Us, with you |
The two stages that decide whether you make the intake
Attestation of your certificates. It has to be done before a university will accept them, it takes time, and it cannot be hurried at the end.
The bank statement. The balance has to be in the account on the date of the statement. Arranging it in the last week is the commonest reason a file sits waiting while an intake closes.
Both are in your hands, and both are usually what separates a student who starts in September from one who starts the following March.
What "we will get back to you" means at each stage
A university can take several weeks to issue an admission letter, and longer in a busy intake. An embassy appointment depends on the queue in your city. Neither is a sign that something has gone wrong. We will tell you plainly if it has.
Start earlier than feels necessary
The single most useful thing you can do today is send us your marks and your passport details, even if you are not certain yet. We will tell you which programmes are open to you and what your documents are missing — before the intake is close enough to matter.
Still not sure how this applies to you?
Every university sets its own rules and they change between intakes. Send us your situation and we will give you the specific answer, not the general one.