China - Beijing TWOV Question

[gojun]

Has anyone recently traveled from Australia to Beijing/Shanghai via the 144hour TWOV? I have previously traveled to China on tourist visas but this time I am only intend on stopping by for a couple of days to do a quick family visit. I have been seeing mixed things - visaforchina states I can apply at immigration when I land in PEK and the Chinese embassy website says I need to apply at a visa centre. What is the correct process?

Would China consider HKG as an acceptable third country destination or would it be a safer to go something like this SYD > PEK > KIX > HKG > SYD?

I have tried searching this sub-forum but haven't come across any recent posts.

Thanks in advanced!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Has anyone recently traveled from Australia to Beijing/Shanghai via the 144hour TWOV? I have previously traveled to China on tourist visas but this time I am only intend on stopping by for a couple of days to do a quick family visit. I have been seeing mixed things - visaforchina states I can apply at immigration when I land in PEK and the Chinese embassy website says I need to apply at a visa centre. What is the correct process?

Would China consider HKG as an acceptable third country destination or would it be a safer to go something like this SYD > PEK > KIX > HKG > SYD?

I have tried searching this sub-forum but haven't come across any recent posts.

Thanks in advanced!

As a frequent user of the 24, 72 and 144 hour TWOV pre-covid my understanding is that the system has pretty much returned to the same as it was. Same rules.

The TWOV is something you are granted on arrival, no need to apply in advance. Outstation visa services often had the wrong information.

HKG is considered a third country for TWOV purposes.

I’m not fully across the rules as I once was, and there may be nuances post covid. Flyertalk has an active forum on this China 24, 72, and 144 hour Transit Without Visa ("TWOV") rules master thread - FlyerTalk Forums

Might be worth cross referencing there, and with TIMATIC (which you can access via several different airlines, including United)

 

[gojun]

Thanks @MEL_Traveller plenty of information on there and other people asking similar questions.

Information from TIMATIC confirms the 144 hour visa is available, yay!

Looking forward to the trip next year, was a bit worried I would've paid for hotels and then been denied entry hehe.

 

[Himeno]

Assuming the process has returned to the same as pre covid, you got the TWOV application upon landing. Some ports required you to go to a booth and fill in the paperwork before immigration, others did the required paperwork at immigration.

Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan count as 3rd countries for the TWOV.

It might help to take a copy of the TWOV rules for the airline. One time when I used it (4 times, twice each for PEK and PVG), BA got confused at the check in counter, got it approved, then someone flagged it while I was sitting in the LHR T5 lounge and it had to get sorted out again at the gate as the system came as do not board when the boarding pass was scanned.

 

[elanshin]

Hey anyone here know if this would be a valid transit visa

SYD > PVG 3days
SHA > HND 3 days
HND > PVG 4 days
SHA> WUH > SYD

The bit that im not sure about is that last flight out as technically im leaving the shanghai area but it's part of a transfer flight.

 

[moa999]

Believe the 72/144-hr versions are strict on the areas (including any transits), only the 24-hr version enables transit thru China

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hey anyone here know if this would be a valid transit visa

SYD > PVG 3days
SHA > HND 3 days
HND > PVG 4 days
SHA> WUH > SYD

The bit that im not sure about is that last flight out as technically im leaving the shanghai area but it's part of a transfer flight.

I believe the technical stop in WUH will invalidate any TWOV longer than 24 hours. The 24 hours being the time you first arrive in china to the time you leave.

 

[tassie6]

Hey All,

The FT thread is the best resource, and I posted the below there, but will put it here aswell for anyone that comes across it, for the TWOV process.

‘
I arrived in China yesterday, some feedback on the TWOV 144hr process:

• Our route was in from South Korea, stay 5 nights in China, leaving to Singapore/Australia. Australian citizens.
• Asiana Airlines checkin desk at Seoul was fine, she had to make a phone call (don’t speak Korean so don’t know what she was saying), it took about 15mins but just wanted to see our ongoing itinerary.
• In Beijing, PEK, took a minute of asking to find the right desk, had to walk past immigration then kind of back out towards other gates and do a hard U-Turn to find it. Would depend which gate you arrived at. We arrived at E11 so was on the opposite side of terminal to the desk. If you arrived at about E27/E29 or at least on that side of the terminal you would be right near it I think and much easier to find.
• Two people in front of us but only took 10mins, filled in the form and showed him ongoing tickets and hotel accommodation. He double checked our incoming boarding passes to see where we had come in from.
• He did seem a little offput that we were going to Shijiazhuang (still in Hebei, so allowed) for first two nights, so showed him second hotel reservation in Beijing for last three nights and that sorted it out. He did reiterate don’t go to Shanghai, Guangzhou etc. Asked how we were getting to Shijiazhuang and we just said on the train.
• Then to normal immigration line, they actually asked for ongoing ticket again there which we didn’t expect, but easy to supply. Then straight on through.

Hoping that helps anyone planning a trip!
‘