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BERLIN (Reuters) - German companies in China complain about delays for issuing visas for their Chinese workers to travel to Germany, the German chambers of commerce in China AHK said in a letter to Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, seen by Reuters on Saturday.
"We are concerned that there are still difficulties in providing Chinese employees of German companies with visas for Germany in a timely manner," said the letter, signed by 300 companies, noting that application times were too long and the process was more complicated than before.
The Shanghai metropolitan area, where two-thirds of German companies are based, is cited as an example. The processing time for visas there is now said to be around three months and the streamlined visa procedure that used to exist has been abolished and should be reintroduced, the German companies said.
Appointments were now posted online at irregular times and allocated within a few minutes, the letter said. The provider's website was also difficult to access and frequently reports errors when making appointments.
"Success in China is crucial to the overall success of companies," the letter said, adding this applied not only to business success, but also to driving innovation.
In order to withstand the local competition, products and business models needed to be adapted to the Chinese market even more quickly. This is why an intensive exchange between the parent companies in Germany and their subsidiaries in China was needed, the letter said.
(Reporting by Andreas Rinke, writing by Maria Martinez; Editing by Alex Richardson)
