Entering Mainland (from TW) with Italian passport, first for work then planning to stay a few more days on vacation. Planning to then cross the border to HK and fly back to Europe from there.

What do I need to have when I first go through Mainland customs? Proof that I'm leaving for HK? Do I need to decide in advance when exactly I leave Mainland for HK?

My family is planning a trip to China for the first time since COVID - my wife, my older daughter & I all have valid 10 year visas from the Before Times.

However our family has since grown to a second daughter, who does not yet have a China visa.

I am considering just taking her on TWOV. Our itinerary would be NRT-DLC-PVG-SFO.

Has anyone tried mixing a TWOV with accompanying visa holders, especially when the TWOV is a minor?

Hi everyone, information online isn't very clear so it would be amazing to get help on this and also be pointed in the direction of an official source to confirm.

We are flying to Japan but opted for a 20 hour stopover in Beijing en route. Our plan is to leave the airport, check into an airport hotel then go into Beijing to explore. We would have the afternoon and then fly the following morning.

My understanding is we don't need to do anything at all in preparation and go to a TWOV counter for a 24 hour pass. Is there anything else we should consider to make this as seamless as possible i.e. printing our hotel confirmation, flight passes from Beijing to Japan?

Also a random question, but my friend is mixed race and has experienced discrimination before in a European airport - all Caucasian people were waved through and only my friend was stopped to have his passport checked. I'm worried that it's a gamble as to whether the officer will approve our 24 hour visit. I'm feeling really stressed about this, it would be absolutely awful if one or both of us didn't get through the checks. Any advice is really appreciated.

Hey all.

My friend and I intend to travel to China on Saturday. One UK passport holder, one Polish passport holder.

Our planned itinerary is:

• 8th Feb: Fly London -> Munich -> Beijing on Lufthansa (arrive 9th Feb)
• 11th Feb: High Speed Rail Beijing -> Xi’an
• 13th Feb: High Speed Rail Xi’an -> Chengdu
• 14th Feb: Fly Chengdu -> Taipei on Sichuan Airlines

My biggest concern is that the rail portions of the trip travel through regions that are not acceptable using TWOV, but we will not be alighting at any of those places, just passing through.

Is there any anecdotal evidence of this sort of itinerary being allowed? If there’s any risk then I’ll book a flight back out of Beijing but we would like to see some more of the country if at all possible.

Thanks in advance.

Hello, I am indian citizen. I will be joining a job in china for 2 years of contract. My spouse and child will stay in India during these 2 years. But, they would come to China for visiting for few months every year at regular interval (e.g. 1 months at every 6 months).

So, I was looking for some visa that is not residence visa but a visitor visa having multiple entry and valid for 2 years.

I believe S2 visa is for that purpose. But Google says it's valid for 90 to 180 days only. I want it to be valid for 2 years having multiple entry option. Please guide.

Ok so im a former chinese citizen(current US citizen), im trying to apply for a visa to go back to china to see family. Im going through a visa agency to get my visa done. But i wanna make sure i have all my stuff in check before i start on the process. So the problem is, i dont have my old chinese visa anymore. Its been over 7 year since i became a US citizen. And i read that former chinese nationals need to provide a copy of their old chinese visa. The closest thing i have to proove where i originally from is my US naturalization certificate. Can i apply as a tourist even tho im a former chinese citizen? Or are there specific steps i have to follow? I dont even remember how to write my name in chinese anymore. If someone here has gone through this before, please give me some guidance.

Hi everyone,
I’ll be traveling soon with a 4-hour layover at PEK (Beijing Capital International Airport), and I want to be sure I won’t run into any issues. Here are the details of my trip:

• I have a Paraguayan passport
• My airline is Air China, and I will remain in the airport for the entire layover.
• I’m departing from Taiwan and continuing to a third country.

From what I’ve read, I should qualify for the 24-hour visa-free transit, but I’d love to hear from anyone who has done a short layover at PEK recently. Were there any unexpected issues with transit passengers or Air China at PEK?

Any advice or experiences would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance 😊

I'm applying for an L Tourist visa and am Chinese Canadian (ethnically only, born in Canada holding a Canadian passport and never had Chinese passport or citizenship). My parents were originally born in HK but are now Canadian Citizens and hold Canadian passports prior to my birth.

I noticed on the visa form that there is a field for "Chinese Name (if applicable)". I do have a Chinese name and my legal middle name on my passport is an English romanization of the first two characters. However, my actual Chinese name in Chinese characters isn't "officially" recorded anywhere - for those in a similar situation, did you fill out the Chinese Name field?

I am hesitant to fill out the field as I'm not sure of the implications of including a Chinese name that isn't "official" as it may cause some unnecessary and unwanted issues, and it also seems like a field more for prior Chinese citizens/passport holders as well. But my legal middle name does have Chinese romanization in it so I'm not sure if that would raise questions during the visa application process lol.

Would love to hear input from others in a similar situation - thanks in advance!

Can anyone help clarify the questions below for the 144 hour transit visa?

1. Is it correct that seperate tickets, under seperate airline itineraries can be booked when arriving to and leaving China? This doesn't seem to be specifically clarified from what I can tell, but other folks have not had issues with this.

2. How are domestic layovers treated in this policy? For example is landing in PEK (Beijing) from Australia, and departing from PEK to PVG (Shanghai) and later to USA acceptable?

Edit: I should have clarified that PEK to USA would be single itinerary and I would not leave airport in PVG.

US Passport 3/1 ONT > TPE 3/5 TPE > PVG 3/12 PVG > TPE > ONT

For sanity check🫶🙏

View Poll

Planning to book a trip from London to Taipei via Shanghai on Air China as a multi-stop flight. I’m a British passport holder.

Itinerary would be LGW > PVG direct flight arriving on a Thursday morning and then I have a separate ticket from PVG > TPE on the Saturday morning.

A week later I’ll be flying back TPE > PVG > LGW but with a 5 hr layover and not planning to leave the airport.

Just want to check that this is all fine under the transit without visa rules - I think it is as Taiwan would be a third region so am clearly transiting through China within the now 240 hrs since the recent rule change. Presumably as I’d be flying with a Chinese airline they should be clear on the rules too, so hopefully should avoid any of the issues I’ve heard about with people being refused travel. Other than having all flights booked and clearly with onward travel to a third region, is there anything else I’d need?

And is there anything else I need to be aware of?

Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone,

I'm a US citizen with an upcoming layover at PVG Airport. Here are my flight details:

• Arrival: Saturday 16:05 (Terminal 1)
• Departure: 00:55 next day (Terminal 1)
• Total layover time: 8 hours 50 minutes

I'm confused about the visa requirements for this layover since I want to explore Pudong side/Nanjiang road side. Can anyone clarify:

If I want to leave the airport during this time, what kind of visa would I need? And where do I apply?

Thank you in advance.

I’m applying for an L visa as a canadian citizen to travel to see my boyfriend in April. I’m currently a student and i don’t work during the school year so my “income” is very low. I worked at a part time job last summer and made ~2000CAD. Most of the money that i am using for this trip is from gifts from my family. For the question on the visa about annual income, should i put this $2000, or add the gift money that i am using? I have put my occupation as student, so it will make sense for me to have a low income but will this affect the approval of my visa?

Another question, I am arriving to china in xiamen where i will be staying with my bf, so i will have an invitation letter to stay with him. However I am leaving china from shanghai, do i need to show proof of a hotel booking in shanghai?

Is this possible? Most sites say only cats or dogs but I saw one that said maybe as an agricultural import?

My best friend is going to China on the 9th of February and just invited me to the trip today (31st Jan) and I was wondering if there is a way to get my visa for the trip in time? Or is there any way to get around the visa requirement for the trip, I have a current passport right now. Any help is appreciated🙏🙏🙏

Hey, I'm applying for a work permit from the UK and need to get my 3 docs apostilled (degree, TEFL and ACRO). I understand my ACRO cert does not need to be notarised before sending it off to the gov but seeing conflicting info regarding the other 2, does anyone have any recent experience of this? Thanks!

The applicant in this case is an American national, living and traveling abroad for a few years.

Would the police certificate of no criminal record need to be from the recent/current country of residence, or from the US? Thanks.

Enter China date on my multi entry visa is Feb 25,2025 can I go Feb 21,2025 and stay full duration of my 60 days listed? Or does it expire? Thank you.

My 5-year-old son has a 10-year Q2 visa from his first passport. He will need to apply for a new passport for our trip to China this summer due to the 6 month validity rule. The State department has information on their website that makes it seem like we can just use the old visa as long as it matches his biographical data on the new passport, but I just want to confirm with someone’s who has gone through this. TIA!

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/China.html

“Your passport must have at least six months' validity remaining. If your visa is not in your valid passport, the biographical data on the valid passport and the visa must match exactly”

Last year I worked for the US government with a security clearance. I quit recently to start my grad school masters program. Will I still be able to get a visa?

I will have a transit flight from Jakarta to Fuzhou to Taipei. and will be transiting in Fuzhou, for 19 hours. Is there any free transit visa option if i am transiting in Fuzhou.

I was supposed to go tomorrow for the visa but upon checking the Wes site they are close until Feb 4. My flight is on Feb 9. Is it possible to process my visa only 3 days? Thanks

Hey everyone, my girlfriend and I (25 from Halifax, Canada) are looking to go to China in August and have some questions. She already has her 10 year visa that expires in 2028 so she’s good.

1)Since we’re from Halifax, I know my visa center is supposed to be Ottawa. However, we have family in Alberta we often visit so I was wondering if there was any work around that lets me apply to that visa center instead? We have no reason to visit Ottawa so a trip there solely for the visa would be costly and annoying.

2)If we are planning to go in August can we apply for the 10 year visa in April? I know it says you are only supposed to apply 3 months in advanced, however, I have vacation time at the end of April.

3)My brother in law has family who lives in China and said they could help us if we need. So is it worth it for them to send us an invitation letter or anything? Or is the tourist (L visa) simple enough and should we just go this route?

4)Has anyone had any experiences with China Visa courier services? I have read mixed reviews about them and many people online say you need to apply in person to get fingerprints done in order to get the visa. But if they are allowed it may be worth it instead of an unnecessary trip to Ottawa.

5)How much does the whole Visa process cost approximately?

Any advice is appreciated on this matter! Hoping an unnecessary trip to Ottawa in June I can avoid!

Hi there, I have a Canadian passport (expiry in 2028).

I plan to travel to China as a visitor VISA, I have one existing from 2018 expiring in 7 DEC 2026.
I plan to travel to China sometime in Oct 2026. Does the 6 month rule apply to my visitor visa that is expiring in Dec 2026 while I am visiting in OCT 2026?

An American procrastinator here leaving for a 3 week trip to China and Japan in 48 hrs… frantically trying to figure out the eSIM options. Everyone on Reddit and YouTube talking about it is offering a discount code so finding it hard to find unbiased information. Here are my questions and thank you to the kind souls who help me…

1. Most reliable eSIM for China and Japan? Cost is not important. Need reliability- will be some rural areas.
2. can I get one eSIM that covers both countries or do I need 2 different ones?
3. how much data do I need? Will be using the local apps a lot (WeChat, etc), nothing else too crazy in terms of data use.
4. do I need a VPN in addition to an eSIM? Would like to be able to access western apps if needed.
5. traveling with my partner… should he get a different eSIM in order to maximize coverage/increase odds of reliability
6. is it true that the unlimited data options get slower the more data you use?
7. anything else I need to be aware of that I’m not considering, loaded question, I know

If you offer me a discount code, I will ignore your recommendations. Will be in Hong Kong too briefly… ok seriously thank you so much

I know that the new 10-day visa-free transit policy requires that a US citizen needs to hold a ticket that departs to a third country. However, I haven't read anywhere that states whether a US citizen transiting from a third country to the US is allowed. In other words, coming into China from a third country, and then departing for the US. Does anyone know if this would qualify for the visa-free policy?

In this blog post, we will discover China's new 10-day visa-free transit policy that will allow you to explore 24 regions and 60 ports with extended 240-hour stays for eligible travelers from 54 countries:

https://ikkyinchina.com/2024/12/17/china-10-day-visa-free-transit/