China Expands Transit Without Visa For Americans From 3 Or 6 Days To 10 Days, Allows Intra-China Travel!

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It has long been difficult to visit China due to expensive and onerous visa requirements.

Over the years, China has expanded the ability to transit without a visa (TWOV), adding the ability to visit for 3 days and later, 6 days for select cities, when flying to China from one country and returning to a different country.

With TWOV, you can’t fly from the US to China and back to the US without a stop in a 3rd country on the outbound or return leg. Connecting in Hong Kong on, say, Cathay Pacific does count as a 3rd country, but just remember that you can’t fly both ways via Hong Kong!

Connecting in Taiwan also counts as a 3rd country.

As of today, the TWOV option has been expanded to 10 days for Americans and citizens of dozens of other countries. The first day starts at 12:01am the day after arrival, and you must depart by 11:59pm on the 10th day after arrival.

More importantly, while TWOV previously didn’t allow for intra-China travel between provinces, you can now transit between provinces and visit most major cities in China using TWOV.

While you need 6 months of passport validity to travel to China with a visa or with a visa waiver, when using TWOV, you only need passport validity for the duration of the stay in China.

Don’t expect China to allow visa-free travel for Americans anytime soon. The country insists on reciprocity and the US requires visas for Chinese citizens who want to visit the US. However, the TWOV program allows China to accept so-called transiting visitors, while still restricting visa-free travel and the ability to take nonstop flights without a visa.

Is this change an olive branch to the incoming Trump administration? Or does China just want to increase tourism, which has been down severely since COVID?

Note that The US State Department advises that Americans “Exercise increased caution when traveling to Mainland China due to arbitrary enforcement of local laws, including in relation to exit bans.”

Will you travel to China thanks to the expansion of the TWOV program?

HT: Davidmal