China relaxes its visa-free transit policy for 54 countries – Is India on the list?

China has relaxed its visa-free transit policy, allowing foreign travelers from 54 countries to stay for up to 240 hours or or 10 days. Earlier, the visa-free transit policy was between 72-144 hours. This change aims to attract more visitors as China reopens its borders after three years of COVID-19 isolation.

The measure, which is effective immediately, was announced by the National Immigration Administration (NIA) on its official Wechat account.

People from 54 countries including Russia, Brazil, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, “who transit from China to a third country (region), can enter China without a visa from any of the 60 open ports in 24 provinces and stay in the specified area for no more than 240 hours,” it said.

Since reopening its borders in 2023 after three years of COVID-19 isolation, China has removed visa requirements to boost tourism to its economy, the world’s second largest. In November, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced that the visa-free policy now applies to 38 countries.

Is India on the list of 54 countries?

As per Chinesse Visa Application, foreign nationals from 54 countries are currently eligible for the 72/144-hour transit visa-free policies which are effective at 31 ports in 23 cities of 18 provinces in China.

These countries include Albania, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, Montenegro, the Netherlands, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, the Republic of Korea, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

However, India in not named on the list.

Passengers from these countries holding valid international travel documents and interline tickets with confirmed dates and seats, who are going to transit to third countries (or regions) via China within specific time frames, can apply for visa-free transit at the entry/exit border inspection authorities in the designated visa-free transit city ports.

Foreigners made 8.2 million inbound trips to China, up 48.8% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2024. More than half of these were facilitated by the visa-free policy, up 78.6 percent year-on-year, the NIA said in October.