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Comment by decimalenough | Hacker News Reader

From the article:

> The loss of visa-free access to Brazil in April due to a lack of reciprocity, and the US being left out of China’s rapidly expanding visa-free list, marked the start of its downward slide. This was followed by adjustments from Papua New Guinea and Myanmar, which further eroded the US score while boosting other passports. Most recently, Somalia’s launch of a new eVisa system and Vietnam’s decision to exclude the US from its latest visa-free additions delivered the final blow, pushing it out of the Top 10.

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>US being left out of China’s rapidly expanding visa-free list

Really? My visa is probably expired now but I remember my Chinese visa being sort of a headache to deal with 10 years back from the US. Certainly a couple different visas to there weren't "visa-free."

Most Western countries (except the US, as noted) now have legit visa free access to China. No e-visa, no ESTA, no advance notice, no nothing, just rock up and get stamped in.

https://www.visaforchina.cn/DEL3_EN/tongzhigonggao/327343163...

And to be clear, this is not the previous restricted "X hours transit, don't leave the city" thing, but a full blown 30 day entry permit valid for the entire country (minus Tibet), any port of entry, any port of departure.

Yes, this is a massive departure from their previous policy, but yes, it's real. Having also gone through the regular China visa process multiple times in the past, I could hardly believe it myself when I used it earlier this year.

Fair enough. I haven't been to China in a while and probably won't so hadn't looked into the current procedures in quite a while.

Concur your response; you can get a 48hr transit visa on demand in China. The requirement is that you leave via the same port of entry.

>Most Western countries (except the US, as noted)

Whoa, Canada and the UK aren't western now? When did that happen?

I don't think "except" overrides "most" there. I'd probably have written it as "excepting" but it seems oddly pedantic to pick up on.

Ugh, Canada used to have this kind of visa free travel (at least for British people) and it was really jarring to me. I spent the whole flight worrying that I would be denied entry upon landing, but nope: no worries.

Until I tried to travel back a few years later and they didn't let me board the plane because they had changed to an e-visa scheme called eTA.

My own fault for not checking, but, in fairness, I didn't expect the agreements between Canada and the UK to have materially changed.

What part are you disagreeing with? It says the US is being left out of China's expanding visa-free program, not that 10 years ago the USA was on the visa-free list for China

The US was not on a visa-free list for China 10 years ago the last time I applied (at least for a business event). But maybe it isn't on some expanding visa-free list which is something I really haven't paid attention to.

No one said it was on that list.

I and a couple of friends of mine have been to China since they introduced visa-free access for my country (low on various "passport power" lists), and it's been an absolutely painless experience. No advance notice, no ETA (like e.g. South Korea does), just buy the tickets and go. The officers at the airport were very nice too.

If anything, dealing with WeChat and AliPay is much more of a headache.

Most countries eligible for the South Korean ETA are currently also exempt at least until the end of 2025; I think chances are good the exception will be extended. I travelled visa-free to both China and South Korea last year and the experience was quite similar.

> but I remember my Chinese visa being sort of a headache to deal with 10 years back from the US

I got one recently and it's not bad, except that it needs to be done in-person at an embassy based on the state you live in, so there's a 90% chance you'll have to trust a third party business next door to the embassy to walk your documents over and mail them back to you after. I would much rather be visa-free though, it was expensive and time consuming for no real reason.

We’re not being added to it and other countries are.

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