2. Terms and Conditions 

Article 1 Definitions

1.1 “Embassy” refers to the Embassy of the People's Republic of China.

1.2 “Consulate General” refers to the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China. 

1.3 “Other Consular Institutions” refers to the Consulates, consular offices and related institutions of the People's Republic of China. 

1.4 “Embassies and Consulates” refers to the Embassies and/or Consulates General and/or Other Consular Institutions.

1.5 “Chinese Visa Application Service Centre” refers to the institution that provides handling services relating to applications for Chinese visas/legalisation according to the working procedures set by the Embassies and Consulates, hereinafter referred to as the “Application Centre”. 

1.6 “Clients” refers to any individual or a third party authorized by the former submitting a Chinese visa/legalisation application to the Application Centre, including individuals, travel agencies or other agencies.

1.7 “Clients' Information” refers to the data and information that Clients provide to the Application Centre in the form of paper, electronic media or any other form deemed acceptable in order for the Application Centre to provide clients with appropriate services. 

1.8 “Personal Information” refers to all the required information related to a person included in the application documents submitted by a client, including, but not limited to, the name, gender, date of birth, place of birth, marital status, citizenship, passport information, telephone number, health record, criminal record, residential address, place of employment, family members, as well as any video recording, telephone call recording, email content and other private biometric information.

1.9 “Website” refers to the website located at www.visaforchina.org where online services are provided to clients, such as information announcements, online application form completion, online appointment and visa/legalisation application status query services.

1.10 “Basic Services” refers to the services directly related to visa/legalisation applications that the Application Centre provides to clients. 

1.11 “Extended Services” refers to services provided by the Application Centre for the convenience of clients other than the Basic Services. 

1.12 “Visa/legalisation fee” refers to consular fees and charges payable to the Embassies and Consulates and accepted by the Application Centre from applicants on behalf of the Embassies and Consulates at rates prescribed by the Embassies and Consulates, including, but not limited to, the regular application fee, express application fee and urgent application fee. 

1.13 “Application Service Fee” refers to the fee charged by the Application Centre to clients for providing them with Basic Services. The fees charged for Extended Services are not included in the Application Service Fee.

1.14 “Pickup Forms” refers to the receipts issued by the Application Centre to Clients who have submitted their Chinese visa/legalisation applications to the Application Centre, which serve as the only certificates evidencing payment of the Visa/legalisation Fee and Application Service Fee as well as for collecting their passports, visas, and legalisation document from the Application Centre.

Article 2 About the Basic Services Offered by the Application Centre

2.1 To receive clients and classify their visa/legalisation application documents in accordance with the requirements of the Embassies and Consulates.

2.2 To provide clients with intermediate business services, including computer entry of basic information, and transmission of passports, visas/legalisation document and Clients' Information between Embassies and Consulates and the Application Centre.

2.3 To capture/collect fingerprints and other biometric information as well as a Visa/legalisation Fee in accordance with the commissions and requirements of the Embassies and Consulates and to deliver passports and visas/legalisation document to Clients on behalf of the Embassies and Consulates. 

2.4 To release and transmit information about Chinese visa/legalisation policy in accordance with the requirements of the Embassies and Consulates in a timely manner through website, information desk, telephone, fax or e-mail.

2.5 The Application Centre hereby states in particular that, government functions such as assessing, approving or refusing visa/legalisation applications and issuing visas/legalisation certificate, belong to the exclusive authority of the Embassies and Consulates, and the Application Centre is not legally empowered to provide any commitment, guarantee, interpretation or other legal obligations to clients in relation to that exclusive authority.

Article 3 About Use of the Visa/legalisation Application Services

3.1 Clients acknowledge and hereby confirm that the Application Centre is not involved in the visa/legalisation assessment and decision-making process. The Embassies and Consulates have the authority to decide whether a visa/legalisation certificate will be issued or not, the type of a visa/legalisation certificate  to be issued as well as the visa's validity, duration of stay and number of entries in accordance with China's relevant laws and regulations. A client is required to pay the visa/legalisation fee, application service fee, postal service fee to the Application Centre regardless of approval or disapproval of an application by the Embassies and Consulates. The application Service Fee is non-refundable.

3.2 Clients can make inquiries to the Application Centre via its website or through the telephone. Clients are required to acknowledge that the Application Centre is a non-governmental organization, and its provision of inquiry services for clients is free and based on its unilateral understanding of clients’ inquiries and the limited information known and mastered by it in order to provide assistance for its clients for their visa/legalisation applications. No matter what the circumstances are, it cannot be interpreted that the Application Centre has made any promise or assurance, nor does it bear any other legal responsibility for the answers to clients’ queries.

3.3 Clients are required to submit to the Application Centre all the relevant Clients' Information required for any visa/legalisation application, and ensure that the information provided is true, reliable and complete.  Clients acknowledge and agree that acceptance by the Application Centre of the Clients' Information provided does not mean that such Clients' Information as is provided is deemed sufficient.  The Embassies and Consulates have the right to request a client to provide additional supporting documents or request the applicant to attend an interview.

3.4 Clients shall carefully check all the information on the Pickup Form and make sure that it is correct when receiving this document issued by the Application Centre.  If any mistakes are found, clients must contact the Application Centre immediately, and the Application Centre will make necessary correction as soon as possible.

3.5 Clients must carefully check all the information on the visa/legalisation certificate issued to them and make sure that it is correct at the time when they collect their passports containing the visas/legalisation documents. If any mistakes are found, they must contact the Application Centre immediately. The Application Centre will try its best to help them with modification or re-issuance of the visa/legalisation certificate. Clients acknowledge that modifying or re-issuing a visa/legalisation certificate may involve new fees if the information on the issued visa/legalisation certificate is found incorrect due to the reasons or causes assignable to them.

3.6 To ensure service safety and service quality, a network monitoring system and telephone recording system have been installed by the Application Centre. The actions of clients at the Application Centre as well as the telephone conversation between clients and the Application Centre may be recorded and preserved, and clients hereby acknowledge and agree to this arrangement.

3.7 Unless otherwise notified by the Application Centre, clients should collect their passports and visas before the expiry of the visa.  The Application Centre accepts no obligation of taking care of any passport if clients fail to collect the documents before the expiry of the visa. After the expiry of the visa, or 365 days of the decision by the Embassies and Consulates to issue or refuse the visa application, the Application Centre has the right to deliver the relevant travel documents to the Embassies and Consulates, which will return them to the competent authority of the passport issuing country.

Article 4 About the Use and Protection of Personal Information

4.1 Clients hereby agree and confirm that their Personal Information can be collected, transmitted, stored, processed and used by the Application Centre in accordance with this article whether this information is transmitted to the Application Centre through the Internet or directly by the clients concerned or the representatives entrusted by the clients.

4.2 In order to process Clients' visa/legalisation applications, the Application Centre must collect Clients' related Personal Information from the application documents submitted by them and enter the information into the computer system.

4.3 The Application Centre may collect Clients' Personal Information through telephone, email, fax, application documents (including passports and photos), technical equipments, online application system, online appointment system, video monitoring system and other media.

4.4 Personal Information will be submitted to the Chinese Embassy or Consulate-General through the Application Centre's proprietary channel and may be transferred to and stored in countries other than the client's country of residence, such as the People's Republic of China.

 4.5 Personal Information, including video recording, telephone recording, electronic information,  etc., may be collected for later use by the Application Centre when necessary (e.g., when it is requested by the competent department of the local government or for purpose of internal supervision on service).

4.6 Physical information provided by Clients will be transferred to and stored at the Chinese Embassies or Consulates. The Application Centre will save the collected clients' information in physical or electronic form and take reasonable administrative measures in order to prevent information leakage or unauthorized use and ensure the proper use of all the information.

4.7The biometric information will be straight sent to the Chinese Embassies or Consulates after being collected. The Chinese Visa Application Service centre won’t keep those information.

4.8 The Application Centre will collect, transfer, store, process and use all the Clients' Information in accordance with local laws for the purpose of fulfilling the Application Centre's legal responsibility and obligation, including but not limited to applying for Chinese visas/legalisation.
 

4.9 The Application Centre will take every reasonable precaution to ensure the safety of the Personal Information and documents of the applicants strictly in line with relevant laws of the resident country, but is not be liable for any consequences due to events or acts beyond its reasonable control such as natural disasters (Force Majeure), unforeseen accidents and larceny, etc, which may occur when the information and documents are in transit between the Application Centre and the Embassies or Consulates. 

Article 5 About Liability

5.1 If a passport/legalisation document is lost or damaged from the custody of the Application Centre, the Application Centre will bear the reasonable cost incurred by visa/legalisation applicants for replacement of passports/legalisation document following the normal application procedures with their country’s passport authority/notary public and FCDO. The cost will be reimbursed on presentation of the copy of the receipt issued by the passport authority/notary public and FCDO. However, this agreement does not mean that the Application Centre will be held liable in any way.

5.2 Clients must make their visa applications at an appropriate time in accordance with their travel arrangement. Under no circumstances will the Application Centre be responsible or liable for any delay of travel arrangement as a result of a Client's inappropriate action in regard to the time of submitting the visa application or the visa assessment result of the Embassies and Consulates. 

5.3 If a client requests return delivery by post in regard to a processed application, the Application Centre will not be responsible or liable for any delay, delivery to a wrong address, or damage to or loss of the documents by any mail service or delivery service company or not by the Application Centre.

5.4 To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Application Centre expressly disclaims all conditions and warranties, express or implied, in connection with the visa/legalisation application services other than any conditions or warranties expressly stated in these terms. Where the law precludes such exclusion and implies certain terms, conditions and/or warranties into the terms ("Implied Terms"), the liability of the Application Centre for a breach of such Implied Terms shall be limited, at the option of the Application Centre, to any one or more of the following:

 (a) Re-supply of the relevant application services; or

 (b) Cost of the re-supply of the relevant application services; or

 (c) Any amount paid by the Client to the applicable government department or authority in respect of the relevant application services (upon being provided with proper receipt).

5.5 Clients acknowledge and agree that under no circumstances will the Application Centre be liable to them or anyone claiming through them for any indirect, incidental, special and/or consequential losses or damages of whatever nature, or for loss or profits, loss of opportunity, loss of business or goodwill or interruption of business, whether arising out of or in connection with their application and/or any of the visa/legalisation application services, and whether or not relating to any act, error, omission or negligence by the Application Centre or any officer, agent, employee and representative of the Application Centre.

5.6 All terms hereof are governed by laws of the respective state or province where the Application Centre is located. Litigation relating to visa/legalisation services will be heard by a court in the resident state or province.

Article 6 Other Terms

6.1 The Application Centre, in its sole discretion, may change, amend, cancel or withdraw any or all of the terms and conditions mentioned herein at any time without any prior notice. If a client is dissatisfied with the changes being made, the client's sole and exclusive remedy is to refuse the services which the Application Centre provides.

6.2 The client hereby agrees to accept and confirm that the applicant and / or his / her representative, prior to submitting the visa/legalisation application, has read, understood and agreed to be bound by, without limitation or qualification, all of the terms, conditions and details provided herein.

3.China Bridge Group (UK) Limited Privacy Notice

Who we are

Your information will be held by China Bridge Group (UK) Limited, which is a company incorporated in England (company number 6505224) and which has its registered office at 1 Lothbury, London EC2R 7DB. China Bridge Group (UK) Limited is part of the Bank of China Group. When we refer to 'we', 'us' and 'our' in this Privacy Notice, we mean China Bridge Group (UK) Limited. If you are an organisation (or a person or person(s) representing an organisation), references to 'you' and 'your' include the organisation, together with the people representing or connected with the organisation (such as proprietors, officers, beneficial owners, settlors and beneficiaries) where this is appropriate.

More information about the Bank of China Group can be found at www.bankofchina.com

 
Introduction

 We take your privacy seriously and this Privacy Notice tells you how we will look after your personal information.

 

We recommend you read this Privacy Notice very carefully because it contains important information about:

 

·         the personal information we collect about you and how we process it

·         who we might share your personal information with

·         your rights in relation to your personal information – for example, how to get a copy of your personal information and how to ask us to correct or remove information

Our promises to you

We promise:

      To keep your personal information safe and private.

• Not to sell your personal information.

How the law protects you

 Your privacy is also protected by UK law, which says that we are allowed to use your personal information only if we have a proper reason to do so. The law says we must be able to rely on one or more of the following reasons:

• to perform our contract with you; or
• to comply with our legal obligations; or
• when we have your consent to do so (if consent is needed); or

 

Special categories of personal data

Some categories of personal information are treated as special. These are called 'special categories of personal data'. We will only collect and use these special categories of personal data if the law allows us to do so:

 

·       information about your religious, political or philosophical beliefs

·       information about your trade union membership

·       genetic data

·       your biometric data, for the purpose of identifying you

·       information about your health

·       information about your sex life or sexual orientation

·       information about any criminal convictions or offences, or alleged criminal activity

 

If we process a special category of personal data, we will only do it if one of the following conditions is satisfied:

 

(1)        There is a substantial public interest - for example, if we use information from criminal records to prevent, detect or prosecute fraud or unlawful acts. This also applies in situations where we find out that you have a health issue and we need to use this information in order to provide you with services that are suitable to you, and to ensure that you are treated fairly and equally.

 

(2)        To protect or enforce our legal rights, or to defend claims.

 

(3)        With your explicit consent.

 

(4)        To protect your vital interests, where you are unable to give your consent – for example, if we need to give you urgent medical assistance when you are in one of our Visa Centres.

Type of Personal Information Used

 We may obtain and use different kinds of personal information about you, depending on our relationship with you. In this section, we will set out the types of information we may obtain. We have separated these into groups, and for each group we give a brief explanation of what this type of information could include.

 

Type of personal information	Description
Biographical	Your name and date of birth.
Financial	Your financial position, status and history, including details of your income and expenditure.
Contact	Your postal address, telephone number(s), email address and other contact details, including how to contact you.
Socio-Demographic	Details about your work or profession, nationality, education.
Communications	What we learn about you from letters, emails and telephone conversations between you and us.
Relationships	Your family and other relationships.
Documentary Data	Details about you that are stored in documents in different formats, or copies of them. This could include things like your passport, identity card, driver’s licence or birth certificate.
Consents	Any permissions, consents or preferences that you give us.
National Identifier	A number or code given to you by a government to identify who you are, such as an identity card.

 Where we collect personal information from

We may collect personal information from any of these sources:

 Information you give to us

 

·         When you apply for our services

·         When you talk to us on the phone or in branch (we record calls on some of our telephone lines, and we use CCTV on some of our premises to ensure the safety and security of our staff and customers)

·         In emails, letters and faxes

Information we collect when you use our products and services

This includes the amount, frequency, type, location, origin and recipients:

·         Payment

 Information from third parties

• People acting on your behalf (for example, your solicitor or accountant)
• Companies that introduce you to us
• Companies involved in processing payments
• Employers (for example, if we ask for evidence of employment and salary)
• Government and law enforcement agencies

 How we will use your personal information

 In the table below we explain the various situations in which we will use your personal information. We have separated these into groups, and for each group we give a brief explanation of:

• how we can use your personal information
• the reasons we can rely on when using your personal information
• the legitimate interests we can rely on for doing so

 

HOW WE CAN USE YOUR INFORMATION	OUR REASONS FOR DOING THIS	OUR LEGITIMATE INTERESTS IN DOING THIS
To process your visa applications to you
· To provide the services you have applied for · To process your instructions · To manage complaints and seek to resolve them · To fix mistakes	·  performing our contract ·  our legal obligations ·  your consent ·  our legitimate interests	·  protecting and enforcing our legal rights ·  obtaining your consent to do something, when we need this
To advise you as to whether a  service is suitable for you
· to advise you on the suitability of a service, where we offer an advice service	·  performing our contract ·  our legal obligations ·  your consent ·  our legitimate interests	·  protecting and enforcing our legal rights
To manage, develop and improve our business
· To run our business in an efficient and proper way, and in accordance with the laws and regulations that apply to us · To study how customers use our services · To develop new ways to meet our customers' needs and provide our  services · To improve and update our brands,  services, or develop and test new ones · To update and improve our business processes, and the way we work with other Visa Agencies who provide services to us or to our customers · To respond to changes in law or regulation	·  our legal obligations ·  your consent ·  our legitimate interests	·  developing our business and making it stronger ·  improving the efficiency of our business and reducing costs
To exercise our legal rights
· To exercise our rights under law or regulations · To exercise our rights under our contracts with you or with third parties	·  performing our contract ·  our legitimate interests	·  protecting and enforcing our legal rights

 

Who we share your personal information with

We may share your personal information with other companies within the Bank of China Group and with these organisations:

• Chinese Embassy/ Consulates General in UK
• The police and other law enforcement agencies
• Organisations that introduce you to us 
• Any person you have appointed to act as your contact with us (for example, a person acting as your representative under a power of attorney)

 Mergers and takeovers

 We may share your personal information if the structure of our company or the Bank of China Group changes in the future. We may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business, or our assets. Or we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. 

During any such process, we may share your personal information with organisations involved in the process (such as the company we are looking to sell, transfer or merge part of our business or assets with, and any funders), as well as their advisers. We will only do this if they agree to keep your personal information safe and private.

If the change to our Group happens, then other parties may use your personal information in the same way as set out in this notice.

 

Automated decision making

Automated decision making is when a decision is made about you based only on automated means, without any human involvement. Some organisations use automated decision making when deciding whether you are able to afford credit, or whether to accept your application for a product or service. We do not currently use automated decision making technology. Any decisions which we make are made by our personnel and are subject to internal reviews and approvals.

 
Sending your personal information outside of the EEA

We will transfer your personal information to locations outside of the European Economic Area ('EEA'). In particular, your personal information will be transferred to and stored by the Chinese Ministry Of Foreign Affairs, who are located in the People’s Republic of China and who provide services to us. Where we transfer your personal information to such recipients, we use specific contracts approved by the European Commission which give your personal information the same protection as it has in the EEA. 

 

When we transfer personal information outside of the EEA, we will make sure that it is protected in the same way as if it were being used in the EEA. This means that either the European Commission has decided that the country concerned has an adequate level of protection for your personal information, or that we have put in place our own measures to ensure your personal information is protected to an adequate level. These measures include ensuring that your personal information is kept safe, by carrying out strict security checks on our overseas providers, and by entering into contractual arrangements.

 

If you would like further information about the specific mechanisms we use to when transferring your personal information out of the EEA, please email your query to datapro.uk@mail.notes.bank-of-china.com or write to us at this address:  
Data Protection Officer, China Bridge Group (UK) Limited, 1 Lothbury, London, EC2R 7DB

If you choose not to give personal information

We may need to collect personal information to comply with our legal obligations, or under the terms of a contract we have with you.

 

If you choose not to give us this personal information, it may delay or prevent us from meeting our obligations. It may also mean that we cannot perform services needed to process your visa application. It could mean that we cancel a service you have with us.

 

If it is optional for you to give us certain information, we will tell you at the time we ask for that information.

How long we keep your personal information

 

We will keep your personal information for as long as you are a customer of China Bridge Group (UK) Limited (UK) Limited. After you stop being a customer, we will typically keep your personal information for up to 7 years for one of these reasons: 

·         To respond to any questions or complaints

·         To show that we treated you fairly

·         To maintain records according to rules that apply to us

 

We may keep your personal information for longer than 7 years if we cannot delete it for legal, regulatory or technical reasons. We may also keep it for research or statistical purposes. If we do, we will make sure that your privacy is protected and only use it for those purposes.

 
How to get a copy of your personal information

You can access the personal information we hold about you, along with information on how we use it and why, who we share it with and how long we keep it. You can do this by calling into your local branch, by speaking to your relationship manager, by emailing us at datapro.uk@mail.notes.bank-of-china.com or by writing to us at this address:  

Data Protection Officer, China Bridge Group (UK) Limited, 1 Lothbury, London, EC2R 7DB

 

Letting us know if your personal information is incorrect

 

You have the right to question any information we have about you that you think is wrong or incomplete. You can do this by calling into your local branch, by speaking to your relationship manager, by emailing us at datapro.uk@mail.notes.bank-of-china.com or by writing to us at this address:  

Data Protection Officer, China Bridge Group (UK) Limited, 1 Lothbury, London, EC2R 7DB

If you do, we will take all reasonable steps to check its accuracy and correct it.

 

What if you want us to stop using your personal information?

 

You have the right to object to our use of your personal information, or to ask us to delete, remove, or stop using your personal information if there is no need for us to keep it. These rights are known as the ‘right to object’ and the ‘right to erasure’, or the ‘right to be forgotten’.

 

There may be legal or other official reasons why we need to keep or use your personal information. If you think that we should not be using it, however, you should tell us.

 

We may sometimes be able to restrict the use of your personal information. This means that it can only be used for certain things, such as legal claims or to exercise legal rights. In this situation, we would not use or share your information in other ways while it is restricted.

 

You can ask us to restrict the use of your personal information if:

·         It is not accurate

·         It has been used unlawfully but you do not want us to delete it

·         It not relevant any more, but you want us to keep it for use in legal claims

·               You have already asked us to stop using your personal information but you are waiting for us to tell you if we are allowed to keep on using it

 

If you want to object to how we use your personal information, or ask us to delete it or restrict how we use it or, you can do this by emailing us at datapro.uk@mail.notes.bank-of-china.com or by writing to us at this address:  

Data Protection Officer, China Bridge Group (UK) Limited, 1 Lothbury, London, EC2R 7DB

Your right of 'data portability'

 

You can ask us to give you or a third party some of the information that we hold about you. This is called your right of 'data portability'. If you exercise this right we will provide the information in a structured, commonly used electronic form.

 

You can contact us to exercise your right of data portability by calling into your local branch, by speaking to your relationship manager, by emailing us at datapro.uk@mail.notes.bank-of-china.com or by writing to us at this address:  

Data Protection Officer, China Bridge Group (UK) Limited, 1 Lothbury, London, EC2R 7DB

How to withdraw your consent

 

If the reason we are relying on to hold and use your personal information is based on your consent, you can withdraw your consent. You can do this by calling into your local branch, by speaking to your relationship manager, by emailing us at datapro.uk@mail.notes.bank-of-china.com or by writing to us at this address:  

Data Protection Officer, China Bridge Group (UK) Limited, 1 Lothbury, London, EC2R 7DB

 

If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. If this is the case, we will tell you.

How to complain
Please let us know if you are unhappy with how we have used your personal information. You can contact us by calling into your local branch, by speaking to your relationship manager, by emailing us at datapro.uk@mail.notes.bank-of-china.com or by writing to us at this address:  

Data Protection Officer, China Bridge Group (UK) Limited, 1 Lothbury, London, EC2R 7DB

 

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. Find out on their website how to report a concern. (https://ico.org.uk/concerns/)

 

 We will not charge you where you exercise any of your rights under data protection law in most circumstances.  We may however charge a fee for responding to subject access requests which are manifestly unfounded or excessive. We will respond to your requests in accordance with our legal and regulatory obligations.

 
Changes to this Privacy Notice

 

We may change this Notice from time to time. You should check this Notice occasionally to ensure that you are aware of the most recent version that will apply each time you access the website.