Status tracker
Will China's 30-day visa-free entry be extended to 2027?
China admits 50 nationalities with no visa and no application for up to 30 days. That authorisation is a policy announcement with an end date on it, currently 31 December 2026, and it has been renewed by a fresh notice every year since 2023. This page carries the current answer, read from the notices themselves rather than from coverage of them.
Not yet announced.
The 30-day scheme is authorised to 31 December 2026, and as of 24 September 2026 no notice extending it beyond that date has been published. Every notice that has set this date was published in November.
Checked against the Ministry of Foreign Affairs consular notices and the National Immigration Administration roster on 24 September 2026.
Every announcement so far
Three notices have set this date, and reading them in order is the only evidence a traveller actually has about when the next one comes. Each row links to the notice it was read from.
| Announced | Authorised until | Days | What it did |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24 November 2023 | 30 November 2024 | 15 | The scheme begins, as a one-year trial for six countries: France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Malaysia. Notice |
| 22 November 2024 | 31 December 2025 | 30 | Extended by thirteen months, the stay doubled from 15 days to 30, and nine countries added — Japan among them. Notice |
| 3 November 2025 | 31 December 2026 | 30 | Extended by a year with no change to the terms, and Sweden added to the list. Notice |
A pattern, not a promise. All three notices were published in November. In 2024 the notice came eight days before the old authorisation ran out; in 2025 it came nearly two months ahead. Nothing on this page predicts what happens next, and anything you read that does is guessing.
Does this date affect you?
It applies to the unilateral 30-day scheme and to nothing else. These are the 50 nationalities that scheme currently covers — the same list the checker and every other page here works from:
- Andorra
- Argentina
- Australia
- Austria
- Bahrain
- Belgium
- Brazil
- Brunei
- Bulgaria
- Canada
- Chile
- Croatia
- Cyprus
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Italy
- Japan
- Kuwait
- Latvia
- Liechtenstein
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Monaco
- Montenegro
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- North Macedonia
- Norway
- Oman
- Peru
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Russia
- Saudi Arabia
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- South Korea
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- United Kingdom
- Uruguay
Two nationalities on the list have their own date
Russian passport holders are authorised to 31 December 2027, a year beyond everyone else, and Brunei’s exemption carries no announced end date at all. Neither is affected by what happens on 31 December 2026.
Routes this date does not touch
- 240-hour visa-free transit. A standing scheme with no announced end date, open to 57 nationalities at 65 ports across 24 provinces. It does not lapse with the 30-day one — how it works.
- Treaty visa exemptions. China holds mutual exemption agreements with 29 countries. These are bilateral treaties rather than policy announcements, so they carry no expiry date.
- Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan residents. You travel on a Home Return Permit or a Taiwan Compatriot Permit, not a visa. None of this applies to you.
- Anyone holding a visa. A tourist or business visa is valid for whatever is printed on it, whatever happens to the exemption.
If it is not extended, what then?
The scheme lapsing would not close the border. It would put the affected nationalities back where they were before December 2023: two routes instead of three.
The one most people would fall back on is 240-hour transit, and it is worth understanding before you need it, because it is narrower in four specific ways.
- A confirmed onward ticket to a third country or region is required. Anywhere that is not where you came from and not mainland China counts — Hong Kong and Macao both do.
- 10 days, not 30. The clock starts at 00:00 Beijing time on the day after you enter, so a late arrival gets the rest of that day for free.
- 24 provinces, not the whole country. Every city a first-time visitor is likely to want is inside them; Tibet, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia are not.
- 65 approved ports of entry rather than any port open to foreigners.
Not on the transit list either? Then it is a tourist (L) or business (M) visa from your nearest Chinese embassy or visa application centre — allow two to three weeks. Check which routes your passport has.
What if my trip runs past 31 December 2026?
We do not know, and nobody publishing a confident answer to this is working from a document.
The notices state the date the policy is authorised until. Neither they nor the consular service’s own FAQ says what happens to a stay that began before that date and continues after it. We are not going to infer it: the reasonable readings point in opposite directions, and the cost of guessing wrong is somebody standing at a border.
If your itinerary crosses 31 December 2026, ask your nearest Chinese embassy or consulate directly, and ask before booking anything you cannot change. If an official answer is published, it will appear here.
One email, the day it is decided
Get one email the day it's announced — extended or not. Nothing else unless the rules change.
Questions about the date
Has China's 30-day visa-free entry been extended to 2027?
Not as of 24 September 2026. The scheme is authorised to 31 December 2026 and no notice extending it has been published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the National Immigration Administration. It has been renewed every year since 2023, always by an announcement in November, but a track record is not a guarantee and we are not going to present it as one.
When is the announcement usually made?
In November, all three times so far — the table above lists each notice with its date. In 2024 it came eight days before the old authorisation ran out; in 2025 it came nearly two months ahead. That is the whole basis for expecting the next one in November, and it is a pattern rather than a rule.
If it is not extended, can I still visit China without a visa?
Possibly. The 10-day transit scheme covers 57 nationalities, has no announced end date and is a separate authorisation, but it requires a confirmed onward ticket to a third country or region and limits you to 24 provinces. A further 29 countries hold treaty exemptions, which never expire. If neither covers your passport, it is a tourist or business visa.
Where does the status on this page come from?
From primary sources only: the consular notices published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the roster the National Immigration Administration maintains. Every row in the table above links to the notice it came from. We do not take a date from a news summary or a visa agency, and the date we last looked is printed at the top of this page.
Does the 10-day transit scheme expire too?
No announced end date has ever been attached to it. It replaced the older 72- and 144-hour schemes in December 2024 and has been expanded since rather than renewed, so it is not waiting on an annual notice the way the 30-day exemption is.