On Nov. 24, 2023, China decided to offer visa-free entry to travelers holding ordinary passports from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Malaysia from December 1, 2023, to November 30, 2024. Citizens from those countries are able to enter China without a visa and stay for no more than 15 days for business, tourism, family visits and transit purposes.
1. Countries qualified for the 24/144-hour free Transit Visa in Beijing Capital International Airport
Beijing Capital International Airport now (Nov. 17, 2023) adopts 144-hour free Transit visa to the holders of passports issued by the following 54 countries: Albania, Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Belarus, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Chile, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Macedonia, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Republic of Montenegro, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Serbia, United Arab Emirates, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States.
According to our experience, some of the countries do not belong to the 144-hours visa free countries, but if you layover within 24 hours in Beijing, you still can obtain the visa free for 24 hours. Such as: India, Philippines, Vietnam, Columbia, Ecuador, Panama, Dominican Republic, etc.
2. Restrictions of the 24/144-hour free Transit Visa
It only applies to passengers who transit through Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing. The destination and place of departure cannot be the same.(e.g Auckland – Beijing – Auckland).
3. About how to get free Transit Visa at Beijing airport
Please see details at: https://www.beijinglayovertour.com/beijing-layover-tour-tips/.
Even if you fit all the policies above, the immigration officers still have the right to object to you for some reasons (sometimes they will tell you the reason, sometimes they don’t).
If you want to be 100% sure, please apply for the visa in advance at the Chinese Embassy.
We found some reasons that cause you can not obtain the free Transit Visa.
1. The validity of your passport is less than 3 months.
2. Worked or been to Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan.
There must be more reasons but we just don’t know yet. (The latest updated on Nov. 17, 2023)
As a tour company, if we agree to arrange a tour for you that means your flight information, layover time and your nationality fit the visa free policy requirements.
But there are still some other issues that might happen that might cause you can not obtain the visa-free or can not get out of the airport.
We don’t take any responsibility if it happens. And according to our private tour refund policy, we will deduct our tour guide and driver airport transfer costs accordingly and refund the rest of the tour fee to you. (Most companies are non-refundable)
Hope for your understanding!
Now we have the best solution for all these concerns. Our company became an official partner of Beijing Capital airport. We are the one and only qualified tour company that operates tours at Beijing Capital airport. Only we can sell tours at the airport. Please see the tour options at: https://www.beijinglayovertour.com/book-a-tour-upon-your-arrival-beijing-airport/
Hello,
I am travelling on a Canadian passport but I have a Turkey stamp in my passport from 2016. I was only in Turkey for 5 days on vacation. Could I be denied a free Visa for this?
Hi Shauna,
About Turkish stamp on the passport: It is all up to the immigration officers. We had clients have Turkish stamps on the passports with no problem to get the free visa last few months.
We are 2 adults traveling from Manila to London via Air China in January 2020 and have 17 hours layover in Beijing. We have Romanian passports. Will we be eligible for 24 hour visa free option? Thank you!
Hi Daniel,
Yes, according to visa free policy, you can get the 24 hours visa free.
Hi,
We are 3 adults traveling from India to USA via Air China in February 2020 and have 9 hours layover in Beijing. We all have Indian passports. Will we be eligible for 24 hour visa free option? Also do we require to pay anything extra for this at the airport?
We need a tour that will bring us back to airport on time. Please suggest .
Thank you.
Hi Vrinda,
Thank you for contacting us!
According to our experience, you can get the 24 hours visa free without any problem. It is free of charges.
If you still worry about it, you can book a tour at our counter after you got the visa free at airport. So you do not need to worry about lose money. You can see the tour options at: https://www.beijinglayovertour.com/book-a-tour-upon-your-arrival-beijing-airport/.
About how to get the visa free and where to find our counter, please see details at: https://www.beijinglayovertour.com/how-go-get-the-visa-free-permit-at-beijing-airport/.
Hi,
We are flying to USA from Korea, with an 8 hours stop in Beijing. We are 4 passengers, holding Costa Rican passports. In addition, we have 2 different bookings with 2 different airlines: China Southern (GMP-PEK) and Air China (PEK-LAX). My question is, would this be an issue to become eligible for the 24 hours visa free transit? and must we be required to check in with Air China in Korea, before departing to PEK? Then should we inform China Southern, in Korea, that we will be requesting the 24hr TWOV upon our arrival to Beijing?
Thank you!
Hi Marco,
You can get the visa free for sure. Because according to your airlines, you would have to change terminals in Beijing.