Nationals from 22 countries can travel to China visa-free with ordinary passport, for a 30-day stay. Picture used for illustrative purposes. Image Credit: Leon Huang/Pexels

Dubai: Time-consuming visa application process can sometimes stop you from going to a country. If you are looking for the next visa-free destination for your holiday or work, you might be interested to check out the visa exemption rules in China and find out if you are eligible for it. Here are three situations when you can travel there without a visa.

1. 30-day visit for nationals from 22 countries

According to the official ‘List of Agreements on Mutual Visa Exemption between China and Foreign Countries’, published on the China Consular Affairs website - cs.mfa.gov.cn, if you are from one of these 22 countries, you can travel to China visa-free with your ordinary passport, for a 30-day stay. You must leave China within these 30 days.

What is an ‘ordinary passport’?
An ordinary passport is a passport issued to ordinary citizens, who are going overseas for personal reasons, such as tourism, employment and education. Relative to an ordinary passport, are diplomatic passports and service passports (or official passports), which are issued to diplomats or government employees, who need to go overseas for diplomatic or governmental purposes.

1. Armenia
2. Azerbaijan (when traveling in tour groups organised by authorised travel agencies of both countries)
3. The Bahamas
4. Barbados
5. Belarus
6. Bosnia and Herzegovina
7. Ecuador
8. Fiji
9. Georgia (when traveling in tour groups organised by authorised travel agencies of both countries)
10. Grenada
11. Maldives
12. Mauritius
13. Moldova (when traveling in tour groups organised by authorised travel agencies of both countries)
14. Qatar
15. Russia (when traveling in tour groups organised by authorised travel agencies of both countries)
16. San Marino
17. Serbia
18. Seychelles
19. Suriname
20. Tonga
21. Turkmenistan (when traveling in tour groups organised by authorised travel agencies of both countries)
22. United Arab Emirates

2. Up to 144-hour visa-free transit

Alternatively, you can check to see if you are entitled for up to a 144-hour visa-free transit in China, too.

3. Other visa exemption rules for ordinary passport holders

In case you belong to any of the following groups, you can also enter China without a visa:

- Foreigners who hold valid Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) business travel card. You should use your APEC travel card, together with your passport that is linked to the card, when travel to China. While currently you can use the physical card to benefit from the visa exemption rule, from May 1, 2023, the virtual APEC business travel card will also allow you to travel to China visa-free, according to the website of the Chinese Consulate in Dubai.
- Foreigners who hold a Chinese permanent resident permit or any other valid resident permit.

Contacts

It is always advisable to consult these Chinese authorities or authorised service centre, to confirm your visa exemption status before your travel:

- 24-hour hotline of China National Immigration Administration: +86 010 12367
- If you are in Abu Dhabi, you can contact the consular department of the Chinese embassy to reconfirm your visa exemption status. Here is their contact information:
• Phone number: 02 4434276
• Email address: abu-dhabi@csm.mfa.gov.cn
- If you are in Dubai and other northern Emirates, you can contact the Chinese Visa Application Service Centre for help:
• Phone number: 04 3711711/05 89732538
• Email address: dubai@visaforchina.org