Since we booked a trip to China in May, me and my husband needed to get Chinese visas. The Chinese Consulate is in Calgary, and since we didn't have any reason to go to Calgary (twice), we went to Gold Mountain, who is authorized to accept visa applications and take them to the consulate for you. The visa costs $50, and there is another $50 fee on top of that for them to process it for you. It takes about two weeks to get the visa back. You can also pay more to get your passport and visa back quicker, but we had no need for that. The visa application form, as well as a few other forms, are available on the Gold Mountain website. I ended up having a couple of questions about it. I phoned once and emailed once and got good, quick answers both times. When we went into the office to drop off our passports and applications, the lady there checked over everything to make sure it was correct. They only take cash or cheques, and unfortunately I forgot to write a cheque that morning. While Dave ran to the ATM, the lady (I believe her name is Helen) asked me about my upcoming trip, where we were going, what we were doing there, etc., and suggested some things as well. Very cute. They'll give you a receipt with a pick up date written on it. Don't forget your receipt! Our visas were ready when we were told they would be. Even though there is an extra fee to get your Chinese visa processed here, I still give five stars because it's the only place in Edmonton you can get it done and the whole process was efficient and easy. read more

Summary: - Facilitated process quickly and delivered within their stated time line - Folks in the office were helpful and answered all my questions - $50 service fee is a bit expensive, especially if you just getting a single entry visa Detailed review: Planning a trip to China and need a visa for where I'm going. Unfortunately, the Chinese Consulate is in Calgary. This local business offers travel services to China and will also help you with the visa application process. I used their visa service which facilitated the entire process - that is, they answered all my questions, took my application (which they helped with) and passport, took them down to Calgary, and returned 2 weeks later with my Chinese visa. Not the cheapest service ($50 visa + $50 fee) but it would have cost me much more in time and money to do it myself since I had no reason to go to Calgary. read more

I will not use their service again, and I do not recommend anyone to use their service. I paid $180 for an useless document that they issued and they refused to pay me back or issue me a new document. So, I am a Chinese and I had a property in China that I would need to sell. I didn't have time to travel back so I decided to go to Gold Mountain and issued a Letter of Authorization to authorize my dad to sell the property for me. I called first and the lady called Jessica said they had this type of service. She told me to download a form from their website and send it back to her for her to review. So I did. She told me everything seemed fine and wondered whether I could go in for an appointment. So I did. I showed up on time but I had to waited for more than 20 mins. It was fine. I wasn't very happy about it but it was fine. So I met the lawyer (who is actually the owner as well), and she looked at my things briefly. And said things will be sent to Calgary and I should hear back from them soon. Soon I got my document. I paid $180 in cash and waited for 2 weeks. Got in couriered back to China for another $50. However, my dad said the document was in a wrong format and asked me whether I can issue the right one again. I was shocked! I emailed this company again right away. I didn't hear anything back. I emailed again the next day. Jessica called me. I explained to her situation that I downloaded this form from their website and filled that in but it wasn't right. She said to me "Different places in China have different requirements regarding the way that the document needs to be issued. It was your responsibility to check with your local organization. And you should know that." Wow... So okay. 1) How am I supposed to know that? Is that a common knowledge? I do not have properties ALL OVER China so I would never know different places needs different documents! 2) Apparently, you are the professional and you have the knowledge. Don't you think you should let me know? 3) You told me to download the form and fill it in for you to review and I literally followed what I was told to do. Now it's my fault? Then she said"It's definitely not possible to process a refund because we also paid to process your document. Like we sent it to Calgary for you and got it sent back, yada yada." What a great reason, right? The solution that she offered is that "Originally, we will need to charge you $180 again to process it for you again, however, we have sympathy and we can charge you just $100." What a great solution! Told the wrong information to the customer and messed up the document, just charge the customer again and fix the document! Impressive! Brilliant! That is definitely a good way to keep making money! Eventually, I got nothing back but wasted a few weeks and a few hundreds. AVOID THIS PLACE! 我永远都不会再使用他们的服务，而且我不建议任何人使用他们的服务。 因为我在国内有一套房产要出售，但近期不能回国，于是就打算到他们那里做一份房产公证，委托我爸帮我全权处理买卖房产的事情。首先我是打了电话的，在电话里面，和一位叫Jessica的确认了，他们有提供这个服务（180刀）。她让我上他们的官网，有委托书模板，把委托书打印下来，填好再给她发回去检查。于是我按照她说的，在他们官网下载了，填好了，发回去了，她也看了说没问题，于是就约了律师见面。见面的时候我准时到了，那位律师（也就是老板）迟到了20分钟，这个倒没什么，觉得只要最后能办下来，等等也无所谓。见了那位律师短短的5分钟，她看了我的证件一眼，然后我就回去等了。两周后，文件拿到了，我也花了50刀把文件邮寄回去。结果我爸拿去房产局的时候，房产局说格式是错的，用不了，让我再做一份。 我给她发邮件，首先被忽略了。第二天再发,也是那个Jessica给我回了一个电话。我把事情和她说了以后，她第一句话是这么说的"首先呢，全国那么多地方，每个地方肯定都是不一样的，这个你本来就应该知道的，而且呢，我们网站的模板仅供参考，这个肯定是你自己的责任。退款是肯定不可能的，因为你看，我们省认证做了吧，我们把资料邮寄去calgary，又邮寄回来，都要钱吧？"我一听，整个人是蒙的。1）我只有一份房产，我从来就不知道全国每个地方对委托书的要求都不一样。这个又不是什么常识。在座有多少人天生就知道"全国房产局对公证书格式要求都各不一样"这个消息？2）按照你的模版填了，填完了用不了你才说是"仅供参考"？你一开始说清楚的话，我肯定是填好了自己到当地问清楚啊。你是专业人士，你不说，觉得我"本来就要知道？"3）办的文件错了就是错了，你花了多少钱做文件和我有什么关系，这个构成因果关系吗？凭什么因为你花钱做文件了，做错了也不给我退钱？ 最后，他们提出的解决方案是，"出于同情"，可以100刀再给我做一份。注意，是"出于同情"哦！完全不是他们责任哦！你看，告诉客户错误的信息，收钱然后做错文件，然后又可以再收钱再做哦！是不是很棒？真是太感激你们了！ read more

Please ensure you start the visa application process early as it will take 10 business days. If not, you will be charged an arm and a leg for express services. Typically couriers only charge around $15 one way but this place charges you $40 one way. Also remember to type your visa application even though you have legible hand writing. They offered to type each page for $10 a page which is outrageous as anyone can type a page in a minute. They will also charge you a price to photocopy your pages so it's a good idea to bring an extra copies. This business is lucky they have a monopoly on these services because it's inconvenient to go to Calgary to process it. read more