Home Visa Waiver Program 1, 2

China Visa Waiver Program Part 2

 

 

Continue from previous page. In general, any person who is not a China citizen is required to have a valid visa in order to enter China.

As long as you have a citizenship of another country other than China, you need a visa, even if you are a native Chinese or have Chinese origin.

A visa is considered valid when it is not expired and your entries are not used up.

However, China's visa waiver program allows you save the troubles walking throught those steps. If you are under following circumstances, you can have a waiver from applying for a Chinese visa.

1. You Only Take Direct Transit in China

2. If You Visit Only the Pearl River Delta Region

3. If You Visit Hainan Province

Hainan is the southernmost and the smallest province of China with an area of 33,920 square kilometres (13,100 square miles).

Hainan once belonged to Guangdong Province. It became a seperate province from Guangdong in 1988.

See the map at left; Hainan is the island in red.

According to China's Visa Waiver Program, if Hainan is your visiting place, and if you satisfy ALL of the following conditions, you are exempted from applying for a China visa:

1. You join an international tourist group.
2. Your tourist group is organized by a registered travel agency in Hainan Province and this agency is approved by the National Tourism Administration of China.
3. You'll stay in Hainan no more than 15 days.
4. You are a citizen holding an ordinary passport issued by one of the following countries (listed alphbetically):
• Australia, Austria
• Canada
• France
• Germany
• Indonesia, Italy
• Malaysia
• Netherlands, New Zealand
• Philippines
• Russia
• South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland
• Thailand
• U.K, U.S.

4. If You Are a Citizen of Singapore, Brunei and Japan

If you are a citizen of Singapore, Brunei or Japan, you may or may not need to apply for a Chinese visa depending on what type of passport you hold.

If you satisfy the following conditions, you are exempted from applying for a China visa:

1. You are an ordinary passport holder.
2. Your visiting goal is for tourism, business, and/or seeing friends and relatives.
3. You enter China by an open port for foreign citizens.
4. You'll stay in China no more than 15 days.

If you are a citizen of Singapore, Brunei and Japan, but your situation falls into one of the below catagories, a visa is required for you to enter China:

1. You are an ordinary passport holder and wish to enter China for tourism, business, visiting friends and relatives, BUT you'll stay for more than 15 days.
2. You are an ordinary passport holder and wish to enter China for the purposes of study, work, official visit, settling down and interview.
3. You hold a diplomatic or other official passport.

5. You Have a APEC Business Travel Card

APEC stands for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, an inter-governmental grouping with no binding commitments for its participants.

There are 21 countries participating in APEC so far. It has a special place in China's Visa Waiver Program. The APEC Business Travel Card allows business travelers to be pre-cleared, facilitated short-term entries to participating member economies, enables business people to explore new business opportunities, attend meetings, and conduct trade/investment activities. It cuts through red tapes and saves valuable time.

If you hold an APEC business Travel card, you are entitled multiple entries to China and your card is valid for three years. There is also a limitation for each entry: you should remain in China for no more than 2 months.

6. You Bear an Aliens' Permanent Residence Card

If you hold an Aliens' Permanent Residence Card issued to you by China's security authority, China's Visa Waiver Programyou allows you enter or exit China repeatly without another visa during its valid period.

A China's Aliens' Permanent Residence Card is for people whose purpose(s) of entering China are to study or work or are resident foreign journalists. If this is your case, you'll need to apply for Aliens' Residence Card at a local public security authority within 30 days of your entry into China.