The National Immigration Administration has scrapped its 72 and 144-hour visa-free layover options in favour of a blanket 240 hours for eligible foreigners entering the mainland via participating ports of entry, Xinhua and CNN report. The new policy was made effective on Tuesday, the same day it was announced.
Eligible citizens from 54 countries (including Brazil, Canada, Russia, the UK and the US) can now spend up to 10 days visa-free in the mainland, so long as they are travelling to a third country or region afterwards. Macao and Hong Kong both count as third parties for this purpose.
In addition, these travellers are able to move between the 24 participating provinces – up from 19 – rather than being confined to their province of entry, as had been the case previously. Twenty-one new ports of entry have also been added to the programme.
[See more: China’s new visa-free policy draws praise from Macao’s Portuguese community]
The central authorities have been working hard to attract more foreign visitors over the past year, having expanded China’s mutual and unilateral visa-waiver policies numerous times. Each round has allowed citizens from additional countries to more easily enter the mainland. Passport holders from dozens of countries – belatedly including Portugal – can now spend up to 30 days there visa-free.
While US citizens have not been included in the visa-waiver programme to date, they can use the 240-hour transit policy to travel within the mainland without going through the process of applying for a tourist visa.
According to official statistics, almost 30 million foreigners entered the mainland between January and November, an 86.2 percent year-on-year jump. More than 17 million of them used a visa-free transit option to enter – an increase of 123.3 percent compared to the same period in 2023.
