China Entry Requirements

Entry requirements at a glance

If you are not a British citizen travelling on a British citizen passport, do not read the second column as your answer. China's waiver list runs to dozens of countries, with different rules for some. Check the National Immigration Administration or the Chinese embassy in your own country. We will not infer an answer for a passport we have not checked.

Who qualifies, and when the answer changes

Every one of these must be true. Each points to what to do if it is not.

1. Your passport is an ordinary British citizen passport. Emergency passports and travel documents are excluded. If not: Another passport.
2. You are going for business, tourism, visiting family or friends, exchange or transit. If not: Work, study or journalism.
3. You will stay 30 days or fewer, counted from the day after you arrive. If not: Staying longer than 30 days.
4. You arrive by midnight Beijing time on 31 December 2026. If not: Arriving in 2027.
5. Your passport is valid for at least your whole stay. Meet the stricter UK advice too, as below.
6. The officer at the border agrees. Visa-free is not a right of entry. If you have been refused before: Past refusals, overstays or convictions.

On the passport, the two governments say different things. China asks only for a passport valid for your whole stay. The UK government advises 6 months and 2 blank pages, which is also China's own rule for a visa. Airlines check documents before you board and may apply the stricter standard.

If the waiver does not cover you: applying for a visa

A British citizen outside the waiver applies through a Chinese Visa Application Service Centre, not the Embassy itself. The Embassy's steps are:

1. Fill in the application form online on the visa centre's website and wait for it to be approved.
2. Gather the documents: a passport with 6 months' validity and blank visa pages, one recent colour photo on a light background, and what your visa type needs, such as bookings or an invitation.
3. Go to the visa centre in person with your passport and documents, and give your fingerprints.
4. Pay and collect. The visa fee plus a service fee, more for express; see the fee schedule. The Embassy's guidance, written in 2020, gives collection from the fourth working day. Allow much longer.

Staying longer than 30 days

If you know before you go, apply for a visa: for tourism, the L visa, by the steps above. The Embassy's reduced visa fees run to 31 December 2026. Already in China and need longer? Apply for a stay permit at the local public security exit-entry office before your 30 days run out. The office decides, so treat it as a fallback, not a plan.

Arriving in 2027

The waiver covers arrivals up to 24:00 Beijing time on 31 December 2026. Two things are not yet published: whether it will be extended, and whether someone who enters in late December may stay the full 30 days into January. Until China says, plan to leave by 31 December or hold a visa. Watch the Embassy's visa notices from November.

Until China says, plan to leave by 31 December or hold a visa.

Work, study or journalism

The waiver does not cover working, studying or reporting, however short the trip. Each has its own visa: Z for work, X for study and J for journalists. Start from the Embassy's visa guidance.

Another passport

Eligibility follows the passport, not where you live. A British National (Overseas), British Overseas Territories or British subject passport is not a British citizen passport, and this answer does not transfer to it. Dual nationals should check the passport they will travel on. An Irish passport has its own entry on China's lists. For any of these, check the NIA or the Embassy. Children on their own British citizen passport qualify on the same terms as adults. We found no separate Chinese border rule for a child travelling with one parent, but a signed consent letter is a sensible precaution.

If you were born in Hong Kong, check before you rely on the waiver. China may treat you as a Chinese national even on a British citizen passport. Before the waiver, British citizens in that position could not get a visa and had to use a Mainland Travel Permit, applied for in person in Hong Kong. We have found no official statement on whether the 2026 waiver covers you, so ask the Embassy in good time.

Passing through to another country

British travellers can also use 240-hour visa-free transit: up to 10 days in China on the way to a third country or region. It needs a confirmed onward ticket, entry at a designated port, and a stay inside the permitted areas of 24 provinces, between which you may travel. While the 30-day waiver runs, few British visitors need it; from 2027 it may matter again. Two details are not settled on the official pages we could read: whether Hong Kong or Macau counts as the "third region", and the current list of ports, which keeps growing. Check the NIA's transit page for your route before you book.

Crossing from Hong Kong or Macau

Hong Kong and Macau run their own borders, so going from either into the mainland is a full international entry: arrival card, immigration and customs. The 30-day waiver applies at any land, sea or air port open to foreigners, so the road and rail crossings are covered.

Eligibility follows the passport, not where you live.

Past refusals, overstays or convictions

A previous refusal of entry, an earlier overstay in China, a deportation or a criminal record can change how you are treated, and Chinese law allows entry to be refused on these grounds. Nobody outside the authorities, us included, can predict how your case will be decided. If any of it applies to you, contact the Embassy before you book. Please do not share the details with us.

What to do before you travel

1. Fix the facts. Which passport, why you are going, for how long, how you arrive, and every airport on the way.
2. Check them against the official sources: the Embassy's waiver notice and the NIA. A sponsored search result is someone selling a service you do not need.
3. Check the passport. In date for your whole stay, undamaged and in the name you booked under. Aim for 6 months' validity and 2 blank pages.
4. If your trip does not qualify, apply for the visa now, following the steps above.
5. If you hold a visa, check it: the dates, the number of entries, and that it sits in the passport you are travelling on.
6. Gather your proof of the trip: a return or onward ticket and where you are staying for the first nights. Staying with friends or family? Have their address and phone number to hand.
7. Fill in the arrival card online through the NIA's own service, the NIA 12367 app, or the WeChat or Alipay mini-programs. It is free. Fake sites charge for it; the NIA has warned about them. Recheck the rules shortly before you fly.

On arrival

At immigration you show your passport and the arrival card, filed online or on paper. Your fingerprints and photograph are taken, and the officer may ask about your plans. Your temperature may be checked, and the UK government notes that tests are possible.

Customs has two channels. Use the red "goods to declare" channel if you carry RMB 20,000 or more in cash, foreign currency worth USD 5,000 or more, or goods to be left in China worth RMB 2,000 or more. Fresh fruit, some vegetables, live animals and animal products are restricted. If you have a fever, cough, vomiting or diarrhoea, tell customs. If you have been in a country with yellow fever risk, carry your certificate.

Before you land, set up the payment apps and connectivity that make China work day to day. Our China travel survival guide covers both.

If something goes wrong

You are refused boarding. Ask the airline which rule it is applying, then check it against the Embassy's notice. The airline decides whether it carries you; it does not decide Chinese immigration law. The usual problem is passport validity, which is why the stricter standard is worth meeting.

Your visa application is refused or contains a mistake. Follow the visa centre's instructions for correcting or reapplying. Never change an answer to make an application succeed.

Your passport is lost, damaged or replaced. Before you travel, a visa-free trip simply uses the new passport. A visa stays in the old one; ask the visa centre what to do. If it happens in China, contact the British Embassy or a consulate for a replacement, and the local exit-entry office about your entry record before you leave.

Your route changes. A new stop in Hong Kong, Macau or a third country is a new border. Recheck before you accept the change.

Your 30 days are running out. Leave on time, or apply for a stay permit at the local exit-entry office before the last day. Do not overstay.

Where the official sources do not answer your case (visa fees, current processing times, stays running into 2027), the answer is the Embassy, not a forum, a visa agent or us.