The National Immigration Administration (NIA) announced Tuesday that it has extended as of 17 December 2024 the maximum visa-free transit stay for foreign visitors passing through China to 240 hours (10 days). The current maximum transit time for those without a visa is 72 hours (3 days) for most provinces or 144 hours (6 days) for Xiamen, Qingdao, Wuhan, Chengdu and Kunming.
At the same time, the number of ports where foreigners can apply for visa-free transit has been increased from 39 to 60.
The number of countries eligible to apply for 240-hour visa-free transit stay is 54, including Russia, Brazil, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada. Travellers from those nations can stay in China for up to 240 hours while travelling from China to a third country.
The policy applies to 60 ports of entry from 24 provinces, including Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Guangdong, Guangxi, Chongqing, Sichuan and Yunnan.
Foreigners coming to China through the visa-free transit policy can travel across provinces within the 24 provinces where they are allowed to stay.
According to the latest statistics released by the NIA, in the first 11 months of this year there were 29,218,000 foreign arrivals at all ports of entry, an increase of 86.2% year-on-year.
Of those, 17.4 million foreigners entered the country through transit visa-free access, up 123.3% year-on-year. The NIA also pointed out that the 72 or 144-hour visa-free transit policy has been well received both at home and abroad, with the number of foreigners coming to China under this policy increasing by 132.9% year-on-year.
