China confirms visa-free travel for UK and Canadian nationals | Hacker News Reader

China confirms visa-free travel for UK and Canadian nationals

bbc.com

39 points165944709113 comments

The old policy was visa-free travel for 10 days (they called it a transit visa, but you didn't need to be transiting and didn't need to do paperwork in advance or pay).

Now it's 30 days.

Great, but it really doesn't seem like as big a change as politicians are pretending it is.

The new policy is not an updated version of China's 240-hour visa-free transit policy which is limited to a handful of ports.

https://www.china-briefing.com/news/china-visa-free-travel-p...

my prefered travel inside another country is to get a vehicle and drive around mostly lost all the time exploring places more or less ramdomly, between widely spaced set points that might change, so I would need to apply for visa, which, since they mention it as a regular thing might be approved China is big , so a loop around the country would take months even with significant road time on a daily average basis.

You would likely also need to get a Chinese driver's license.

Its pretty great imho, you can just fly to China and walk through the border. Not hotel reservations needed, no return flight needed, no bank statements, oh yeah and its free. On the other hand China is continuing to restrict work-residence permits, raising the required income and experience requirements.

Proof of onward journey is almost certainly required, even if they don't always ask for it. Your airline might require it.

Not needed.

The 10 day transit visa explicitly required proof of onward journey and it couldn't be the same place you came from. That's the kicker. The current policy allows round trip visits anywhere for 30 days.

Isn't visa free travel just going to create more problems at the border where border force has very little time and no paper work to review your case?

Pre applying is usually less stressful as you are trying to do your best to show that are ok. Just showing up is a not great for either side.

I often wonder the reasoning.

Do you mean specifically because it's China? Otherwise, no, have you not travelled anywhere that doesn't need a visa? Like (assuming from the UK) Canada, the USA, almost(?) anywhere in Europe? It's fine, there's very little 'review your case' to happen.

I have traveled to Japan without needing a visa and it was very convenient.

All you had to do was filling a form with the personal details at the arrival airport (and of course, a valid passport).

OP is probably talking about pre-entry authorisation (ESTA) which is required by the US and will soon be required in UK, Europe, Japan etc. it's not a full on visa with lots of paperwork but it does eliminate the risk of someone showing up and being denied entry.

> the USA

Only technically do you not need a VISA.

In practice you need to apply for ETSA - requiring a biometric photo and your phone number and social media details and a destination contact address.

So you don't need a VISA, but you do need to fill out the equivalent and get authorization. Flights require the ETSA (so you cannot wing it) and the airline checked properly.

Plus the ETSA App is awful (I've had better experiences from this world countries). And there's another app you should install (customs declaration?).

Do not visit the USA unless you're desperate to (my strong recommendation).

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