Transit through China is 10 days without a visa and multistop is allowed

General information about the new rules of transit 240 hours through China without a visa

Since December 17, 2024, China has introduced regular exemptions for visa-free transit, which, in our opinion, are almost revolutionary for travelers, especially from Russia. Now the duration of stay without a visa has become 240 hours (previously it was 72 hours and 144 hours), the number of zones for visa-free transit has increased significantly, and the most important thing is that in these 240 hours they also included "miltistop" or "multitransit", i.e. the ability to transit through China crossing provincial borders.

That's what all this means in simple words: now Russians and citizens of many other countries can fly through China with two or more transfers in transit to another country, and at the same time stay in China without a visa for as long as 10 days! This is just a cool bonus for travelers, and a double one. Firstly, you can get acquainted with China without a visa while traveling to Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, etc., and spend as much as 20 days there (10 days each way). And secondly, thanks to this relaxation, there were more opportunities to buy cheap tickets, because up to this point it was possible to make two transfers without a visa in one direction only within 24 hours, and not all low-cost flights fell under such a tight time frame.

But there are, of course, some restrictions and rules for 10-day visa-free transit, we'll tell you more about everything.:

Who is subject to visa-free transit through China 240 hours

Requirements for visa-free transit

• You must have a confirmed and paid ticket to a third country and paid tickets for domestic flights or other means of transport.
• You must have permits to enter a third country, if they are required. We are talking, of course, about a visa to the country where you are transiting, if there is no visa-free regime.
• The validity period of your passport must be at least 3 months and at least the period specified in the requirements for entry into a third country. Ie, if you, for example, fly to Vietnam, where you need a passport valid for at least 6 months, then you will not be allowed to multi-transit through China.
• You should not have any marks in your passport prohibiting entry to China.
• You should not be on the list of banned from entering China.
• Over the past two years, you have not violated the rules of entry and stay in China.

According to the reviews and opinions of some travelers, in order to obtain visa-free transit, there must still be a hotel reservation in China for the period of stay. Perhaps there really was such a requirement before, or it did not exist officially, but we cannot confirm such requirements from our practice, and we left the airport in China in several cities for transit in 2023 and in 2024 without any problems. Nevertheless, it is still better to book a hotel for transit in advance, this can be done with payment by Russian cards on websites:

• Trip.com - the best alternative to Booking and Agoda abroad, the lowest prices and a bonus system.
• Hotellook.ru – Aviasales hotel search engine, compares prices.
• Ostrovok.ru – the old Russian system.
• Yandex.travel – Yandex travel planner with hotels, hostels, and tickets.
• Travelata is an old reliable tour search engine at tour operator prices Now there are also hotels here.
• Level.Travel is also an old reliable tour search engine, where there is a separate and hotels.

What counts as 240 hours

The countdown of the period of stay of 240 hours does not begin from the moment of boarding or crossing the border through passport control, but from 0 hours of the next day. In fact, this allows you to stay in China for even more than 10 days.

How to get visa-free transit 240 hours

To get a visa-free transit of 240 hours, you do not need to arrange anything in advance. It is necessary to fill out forms upon arrival, attach paid tickets or boarding passes along the route to them, and then go through passport (immigration) control.

And here is an important point! If you go straight to passport control, they won't let you through. You must first contact a special transit counter, which are indicated. At these counters, you will need to fill out documents for visa-free transit, and only after that you can go to passport control.

And it is also important! It is necessary to go not to customs, but to passport control. Customs is engaged in moving (more precisely, controlling the movement) of goods, goods and belongings of passengers across the border, and not checking visas and documents!!! You will get to customs control after checking your documents at passport control and after receiving your luggage.

Through which provinces, cities and airports are visa-free transit allowed for 240 hours

This is important! If you are buying a ticket, make sure that your arrival and departure airports are on this list, otherwise you will not receive visa-free transit.

Official source https://ru.nia.gov.cn