Visa & Entry

Do You Need a Visa for China? Check by Nationality

One table answers it: every nationality with a visa-free route into mainland China — 30-day entry, 240-hour transit, Hainan — plus what each result means and what to do if your country isn't listed.

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Whether you need a visa for China comes down to one thing: the passport you'll be traveling on. Look it up in the table below — it covers every nationality that currently has a visa-free route into mainland China, across the three policies you'll actually encounter: 30-day visa-free entry, 240-hour visa-free transit, and Hainan's separate island program. If your country isn't listed, plan on a visa — and either way, the sections after the table tell you what your result means and where to go next.

China visa-free options by nationality
Nationality30-day visa-free entry240-hour visa-free transitHainan 30-day
Albania✓ Visa-free (mutual agreement — check terms)✓✓
Andorra✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026——
Antigua and Barbuda✓ Visa-free (mutual agreement — check terms)——
Argentina✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Armenia✓ Visa-free (mutual agreement — check terms)——
Australia✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Austria✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Azerbaijan✓ Visa-free (mutual agreement — check terms)——
Bahamas✓ Visa-free (mutual agreement — check terms)——
Bahrain✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026——
Barbados✓ Visa-free (mutual agreement — check terms)——
Belarus✓ Visa-free (mutual agreement — check terms)✓✓
Belgium✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Bosnia and Herzegovina✓ Visa-free (mutual agreement — check terms)✓✓
Brazil✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Brunei✓ 30 days · no end date set✓✓
Bulgaria✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Canada✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Chile✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Croatia✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Cyprus✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Czechia—✓✓
Denmark✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Dominica✓ Visa-free (mutual agreement — check terms)——
Estonia✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Fiji✓ Visa-free (mutual agreement — check terms)——
Finland✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
France✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Georgia✓ Visa-free (mutual agreement — check terms)——
Germany✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Greece✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Grenada✓ Visa-free (mutual agreement — check terms)——
Hungary✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Iceland✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Indonesia—✓✓
Ireland✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Italy✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Japan✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Kazakhstan✓ Visa-free (mutual agreement — check terms)—✓
Kuwait✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026——
Kyrgyzstan—✓✓
Latvia✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Liechtenstein✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026——
Lithuania—✓✓
Luxembourg✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Malaysia✓ 30 days · mutual agreement, 90 days per 180—✓
Maldives✓ Visa-free (mutual agreement — check terms)——
Malta✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Mauritius✓ Visa-free (mutual agreement — check terms)——
Mexico—✓✓
Monaco✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Montenegro✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Netherlands✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
New Zealand✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
North Macedonia✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Norway✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Oman✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026——
Peru✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026——
Philippines——✓
Poland✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Portugal✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Qatar✓ Visa-free (mutual agreement — check terms)✓✓
Romania✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Russia✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2027✓✓
Samoa✓ Visa-free (mutual agreement — check terms)——
San Marino✓ Visa-free (mutual agreement — check terms)——
Saudi Arabia✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026——
Serbia✓ Visa-free (mutual agreement — check terms)✓✓
Seychelles✓ Visa-free (mutual agreement — check terms)——
Singapore✓ 30 days · mutual agreement✓✓
Slovakia✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Slovenia✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Solomon Islands✓ Visa-free (mutual agreement — check terms)——
South Korea✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Spain✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Suriname✓ Visa-free (mutual agreement — check terms)——
Sweden✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Switzerland✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
Thailand✓ Visa-free (mutual agreement — check terms)—✓
Tonga✓ Visa-free (mutual agreement — check terms)——
Ukraine—✓✓
United Arab Emirates✓ Visa-free (mutual agreement — check terms)✓✓
United Kingdom✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026✓✓
United States—✓✓
Uruguay✓ 30 days · until Dec 31, 2026——
Uzbekistan✓ Visa-free (mutual agreement — check terms)——
Vietnam—✓✓
24-hour direct transit (staying within the port's restricted area) is available to travelers of all nationalities. If your country is not listed, you will generally need a visa — confirm with a Chinese embassy or visa application center before booking.
Source: 中国签证申请服务中心：关于中国30天单方面免签政策常见问题的解答（2026-02-16） · Verified: 2026-08-22

One note on reading it: a "mutual agreement" result means your country has a bilateral visa-waiver treaty with China — good news, but each treaty sets its own terms for length of stay and purpose, so check the specifics of yours before assuming anything.

What your result means

30 days, visa-free — you can fly to China for tourism, business, family visits or a short exchange and stay up to 30 days with nothing to apply for beforehand. The count starts the day after you arrive, so the arrival day is effectively free. Conditions, entry tips and the fine print are in our guide to China's visa-free entry policies.

240-hour transit — not a general visa waiver, but if China is a stop on the way to a third country, you can enter without a visa and stay up to ten days. The catch: your onward ticket has to be booked before you land. Routes, ports and pitfalls: our 240-hour transit guide.

Hainan only — a regional program for the island province: enter and leave through Hainan's own ports and you can stay up to 30 days within the province, for tourism, business, family visits and most other short-stay purposes.

Nothing listed — that doesn't mean no trip; it means you arrange a visa before you travel. Tourists apply for the L visa, one of sixteen categories in China's visa system. Start with our step-by-step application guide.

How this plays out by region

North America. The two neighbors landed differently: Canada is currently on the 30-day visa-free list, while the United States is not — for US passport holders, the 240-hour transit route is usually the practical way in. Mexico is in the same position as the US.

Europe. The broadest coverage of any region: nearly all of the EU plus the UK, Switzerland and Norway hold 30-day visa-free entry, and several European countries outside that list still qualify for transit. If you hold any European passport, the table almost certainly has a row for you.

Asia-Pacific. Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand all have 30-day visa-free entry; Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand travel under mutual agreements; Indonesia and Vietnam currently have the transit route.

Latin America. Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Uruguay all hold 30-day visa-free entry — one of the regions the current policy round treats best.

Traveler checking travel requirements on a phone with a passport and notebook on the table

Lists change — recheck before you book

These policies are living documents: most entries on the 30-day list currently run to 31 December 2026, with Russia set a year longer and Brunei carrying no end date at all. Two habits keep you safe. Glance at this table again close to booking — we keep it in step with policy changes. And for anything high-stakes, confirm with the source: the National Immigration Administration's website and its 24-hour hotline +86-12367, which answers in English.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is visa-free the same as visa on arrival?

No. Visa-free means there is no visa at all: you're admitted at the border with nothing to apply for, nothing to pay, and no need to notify an embassy beforehand. Don't plan around picking up a tourist visa at a Chinese airport — if the table gives you no visa-free route, the visa gets arranged before you fly, through an application in your own country.

I have two passports — which one counts?

The one you travel on. Every policy in the table applies to the passport you present at the border, so if one of your passports has a visa-free route and the other doesn't, book the flight, board and clear immigration on the one that qualifies — and use that same passport for the whole trip, entry through exit. Mixing passports mid-trip creates exactly the kind of record mismatch border officers ask hard questions about.

Are the rules the same for Hong Kong and Macao?

No — Hong Kong and Macao run their own immigration systems with their own visa-free lists, separate from the mainland's and often more generous. The table above covers mainland China only. Keep one thing in mind: crossing from Hong Kong or Macao into the mainland is entering mainland China, so the mainland rules in this table apply at that border.

My country isn't in the table — now what?

Then the default applies: arrange a visa before you travel. For most tourists that's a routine application rather than an obstacle. And if your situation has an edge case the table can't answer — unusual travel documents, residency complications — ask the source directly: the immigration authority's 12367 hotline takes calls around the clock, with English service.

The short version

  • Find your passport in the table; it tells you which door is open.
  • Visa-free reader → the visa-free guide. Transiting on to a third country → the transit guide. Nothing listed → the application guide.
  • Policies carry end dates and the lists move — recheck close to booking.

Once you know how you're getting in, see what actually happens when you land — the arrival card, customs, getting into the city — in our guide to arriving in China.

Last updated: August 2026

Fact-checked sources

Last verified: 2026-08-22

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