 In the past, "consulate shopping" was not an uncommon practice for both visitor and permanent resident visas.For example, a Russian citizen would choose to apply for a visitor visa to the US at a US consulate somewhere in Eastern Europe, rather than one in Russia, based on the belief that, due to different office cultures of the consular staff, the likelihood of rejection would be lower, say, in Budapest than in Moscow.Similarly, a person planning a trip to mainland China may plan on obtaining his or her visitor's visa in a visa office in Hong Kong, immediately before entering the mainland, instead of doing it in advance in their own home country.