Last Updated on: 3rd December 2024, 04:24 pm
On November 22nd 2024, China announced they have doubled the maximum stay duration to 30 days. The information on this page is no longer current but remains for record purposes. Check this link for the current policy.
China has expanded their visa-free entry policies from 6 to 9 countries and has now officially allowed holders of ordinary passports from Australia, New Zealand and Poland to enter China for 15 days without a visa for business, tourism, visiting family and friends or transit in a trial to run from midnight (00:00/24:00) July 1 2024 to midnight (00:00/24:00) December 31 2025 (Beijing time).
Find out more in this article.
After an amusing visit by the Chinese premier in June, Li Qiang, to Australia, it has been announced that people holding passports from Australia, New Zealand and Poland will be granted 15-day visa free entry to mainland China. This means eligible people can visit mainland China without a visa and stay for up to 15 consecutive calendar days. You can depart from any country and enter any part of mainland China.
This policy is in addition to the original 6 countries whose citizens had access to 15-day visa free visits, namely France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Malaysia, valid from December 1, 2023 to November 30, 2024.
This policy is currently a trial and are running during different dates for different countries.
Under this new trial policy, visitors from the following 9 countries can visit mainland China for 15 days without a visa for tourism, visiting family and friends, and business purposes, between the following dates:
Australia, New Zealand, Poland: midnight 00:00 July 1 2024 to midnight 00:00 December 31 2025 (Beijing time).
Malaysia, France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain: December 1, 2023 to November 30, 2024.
This is not the first visa-free policy in China. There are also time limited, visa-free transit policies that allow eligible visitors to leave the airport during an extended layover in China without needing a visa, and visa-free policies for specific cities that limit eligible visitors to the local governing area of that city.
This relatively new 15-day visa-free policy allows holders of passports from the applicable countries access to all areas of China with no limit to which port you enter from and no limit on where you depart from or any restrictions on where you can move within a geographical/municipality jurisdiction (You still need additional permission to visit Tibet and Xin Jiang) like that in the 30-day Hainan visa.
Questions you may have:
Q1. Who can take advantage of this policy?
This policy allows holders of ordinary passports from the above mentioned countries to visit China for up to 15 days without a visa.
Q2. Why is this policy beneficial? Aren’t there already several visa-free policies for China?
Yes, there are several visa-free policies for various passports from various countries, but they have different policies. Here is a quick summary:
- 30-day visa-free stay in Hainan is limited to passports from certain countries and limited to stays within Hainan island only, you cannot visit the rest of China. You also have to fly directly to Hainan and no stopovers in other parts of China is allowed.
- The 72/144 Hours visa-free transit is limited to passports from certain countries and valid only if you arrive in certain ports in China and does not apply if you enter via a non-eligible port. This allows you to exit the airport if you have a long layover and do some sightseeing but won’t allow you time to travel far.
Q3. Can I stay in mainland China for 15 days, then go to Taiwan, Hong Kong or Macau for a few days then go back to mainland China for another 15 days?
Currently, there is no restriction on the number of entries or total stays but be aware that this might change. If you want to stay longer, you should apply for a visa.
Q4. Can I extend my stay after arriving in China?
If you know you want to stay for longer than 15 days, you should apply for a visa before you arrive in China. If you are already in China and want to extend your stay, you need to go to a border control department to do the necessary process, of which the consulate pages and contacts are highly useless in providing information on. Luckily for you, I have managed to find first hand information by contacting the appropriate offices in China, and I’ll be answering all the burning questions you might have in an upcoming post. Subscribe to get notified!
Now check out how you can utilise this in my first-ever tour package to north east China!
