The normal procedure to travel to China is to apply for a visa at the embassy by providing a number of documents. Depending on the type of visa desired, this can cost up to 120€ and requires a certain amount of time.
For a few years now, it has also been possible to benefit from a 144-hour (or 72-hour depending on the city) transit visa issued at the airport of arrival, provided that certain conditions are met.
The 144-hours transit visa
It is as its name indicates a visa that allows you to transit through a Chinese city for 144 hours. It is issued at the airport of arrival without having to make a prior request before traveling.
It differs from a normal visa by :
- Its conditions of obtaining (that we will detail later)
- Its validity period (144h instead of 30 days, non renewable)
- Its area of validity: only in the area of the airport where it was issued.
Who can benefit from a 144-hours transit visa in China
1°) Nationality requirements
To obtain a transit visa, you must hold a passport from one of the following countries.
European Union: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland.
Other European countries: Albania, Belarus, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Ireland, Macedonia, Monaco, Montenegro, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Serbia
America: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, United States of America
Oceania: Australia, New Zealand
Asia: Brunei, Japan, Korea, Qatar, Singapore, United Arab Emirates.
2°) Conditions related to the itinerary
This is a transit visa, which as the name suggests means that you are going from country A to country B through China. Therefore, it is not possible to use it to go back and forth between another country and China or to travel in China with it.
Examples of possible itineraries: France-China-Hong Kong, France-Hong Kong – Seoul-China-Hong Kong-France.
Examples of prohibited routes: Hong Kong-China-Hong Kong, France-Pekin-Shanghai.
For example, on a previous trip my “drop off” point in Asia was Hong Kong. Wishing to visit Shanghai, I had to go through Seoul to benefit from the transit visa because Hong Kong-Shanghai-Hong Kong is not transit (I could as well have done it on the way back as going through Seoul on the way back from Shanghai), which allowed me to go back to Hong Kong afterwards, the countries of arrival and departure not being the same.
3°) Your arrival city in China
The 144-hour transit visa is available in the following cities of arrival:
- Guangdong
- Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang
- Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei
- Liaoning
- Chengdu
- Xiamen
- Qingdao
- Wuhan
- Kunming
For other cities you can benefit from a transit visa of 72 hours only but it works the same way.
As already mentioned, you are not allowed to travel from one area to another within China.
4°) Your departure
You must have a confirmed airline ticket to leave China within 144 hours.
In other words, if you wait until you are in China from Seoul to take your return ticket to France, they will not even let you board the plane from Seoul.
How to get the visa
1°) Before your departure
Book your tickets to leave China. If your trip is a round trip from Paris to Shanghai and you want to go to Seoul, your Shanghai-Seoul trip must be booked and confirmed before departure from Paris. If you are coming from Seoul to Hong Kong, it is your Shanghai-Hong Kong that must be.
In any case you must be able to prove that you have a confirmed ticket to leave the country within 144 hours
Not all flights need to be on the same ticket or travel record. One can arrive in Beijing via Lufthansa and leave via Asiana for Seoul without the tickets having been purchased together.
Also book your hotel before you leave. No need to tell you “I’ll find one when I get there”, it won’t be possible.
Remember to leave with a printed proof of your ticket and accommodation (e-ticket, hotel confirmation), ideally in English as you are unlikely to meet an immigration officer who speaks French.
2°) At the check-in to China
Advise that you plan to apply for a transit visa once in China. If you don’t do it and if you don’t have a “normal” visa, you won’t be able to board
3°) In flight
30 minutes before arrival you will be asked to fill out an arrival card and a departure card to hand in to the immigration officers.
In general the airlines give the standard form to the passengers, it is a yellow card, but it does not work for the transit visa which requires a blue card (even if it is the same or almost the same).
If the airline is not able to give you the “right” card in flight, do not panic, you will find one at your destination airport.
From my experience, I always filled out the card at the airport because I was never provided with a visa transit card in flight.
4°) At the airport
Fingerprint collection
The first thing to do when leaving the plane is to go to the fingerprint collection kiosks. They are available in large numbers and it happens very quickly.
You insert your passport, follow the instructions on the screen, present the right fingers in the right order and the machine issues you a ticket to say that your prints are in the database. Without this ticket you will not be able to access the immigration counters.
If you have already been to China and your fingerprints are already in the database, this does not exempt you from going through the machine again. Simply insert your passport, it will recognize you and issue the ticket without taking another fingerprint.
Getting through immigration
Things are a little different depending on your arrival airport. Here are two different experiences in Shanghai and Beijing.
In Shanghai: there is a dedicated immigration area for 144h visas, that’s where I got my “blue” form. I filled it out, reported to the agent who checked my airline and hotel reservations and let me through in less than a minute.
In Beijing: there is a counter dedicated to the 144h forms before immigration. The officer will carefully check all your information before issuing you the document that will allow you to join the “normal” visa passengers in line.
The process is faster in Shanghai because the “144h” have their own dedicated queue which goes much faster than the “standard visa” queue because very few of us use it. In Beijing, you are reinjected into the normal circuit after having lost time at a specific counter, so it takes much longer.
I also found the agent in Beijing much more picky than the one in Shanghai. I don’t know if it’s a question of people or local instructions.
The airport staff is very friendly and efficient in directing you to the right counters.
While we are at it, here is the form in question.
Remember to fill out this card carefully and accurately. In Beijing the agent gave me a hard time because I didn’t write down the phone number of my hotel.
Once you have passed immigration you are a tourist (almost) like any other and only have to collect your luggage and leave the airport.
5°) During your stay
Remember to always have your passport with you. In theory this should be the case everywhere, but the informed traveler often prefers to leave his passport in the hotel safe and leave with a copy.
In China and especially in Beijing, it is better to have it with you all the time. No access to the Tian An Men Square or the Forbidden City without showing your passport for example.
6°) On return
Just hand your departure card to the immigration officer and you’re good to go. Have you misplaced your departure card? That’s not a problem. It is not stamped and not linked to your arrival card. In Beijing there are stacks of blank departure cards available before passport control for those who may have misplaced it during their stay.
Bottom line
This may seem impressive as it is, and it is a factor, if not of stress, then of worry for many passengers. From experience and having done it twice in the last 3 months, it is very easy to do as long as you have the right documents and are compliant.
It’s smooth, even smoother than in many European airports and definitely easier and faster than in most American airports.
Enjoy your trip to China!
[Update 06/01/2020]
Some of our readers have reported problems in obtaining the 144h visa due to the presence of Turkish stamps on their passport. This is confirmed by the French authorities on the France Diplomatie website. Today we do not know more about how such stamps (Morocco seems to be concerned as well) impact the visa process, nor do we know whether the refusal is systematic or not.
If you have had experiences with this please share them in the comments.
The information present in this article was accurate at the date of publication. Find out if there have been any legal changes in the meantime.
Photo : Chinese visa by Paolo Gallo via Shutterstock
