Chinese visa

[Rossinidancer]

I have just learnt that an entry visa to China now costs £195 .the new visa lasts two years ,Whitch is ok for people who visit regularly but not for tourists visiting for a few days .I think it's over the top and no doubt will have an impact on tourism

[uktog]

I have just learnt that an entry visa to China now costs £195 .the new visa lasts two years ,Whitch is ok for people who visit regularly but not for tourists visiting for a few days .I think it's over the top and no doubt will have an impact on tourism

 

The visa costs £151 however if you are only going for up to 72 hours you may qualify for a visa free entry.

The pricing change is a result of what the UK now charges Chinese visitors for their visas.

[Keith1010]

The visa cost is much different than it was just a couple of years ago when it was good for only one year.

 

Keith

[az_tchr]

first I think the Chinese Government really does not care much. They simply charge others what they charge Chinese.

 

Shanghai has a new 144 hour TWOV program that went into effect on 31 January. The government website has not updated in a year. It should cover cruise ship passengers, but people need to get Celebrity to know it exists.

 

http://lawandborder.com/china-72-hour-transit-visa-waiver/

 

I contacted Celebrity and they said this did not exist! A Chinese visa would be required to visit China. hope they read this and get their policy fixed!

[4774Papa]

There have been several threads on Chinese Visa on the Ports "asia" section of cc.

 

There is a new 72 hour no visa policy, but apparently it doesn't apply to cruise passengers. However, the Chinese government has been changing the policy.

 

At one time you had to get a visa every time you visited China. Of course, it depends on what country you are from.

For USA and Canadians, we get a 10 visa now. We stopped in Shanghai last Nov and did the visa.

We were told by Celebrity that if we stayed on the ship, no visa was required. However, since the policy might change, we decided not to risk it and got the visas.

 

Check out the other threads as I indicated and keep checking for any change regarding cruise passengers.

[newport dave]

first I think the Chinese Government really does not care much. They simply charge others what they charge Chinese.

 

Shanghai has a new 144 hour TWOV program that went into effect on 31 January. The government website has not updated in a year. It should cover cruise ship passengers, but people need to get Celebrity to know it exists.

 

http://lawandborder.com/china-72-hour-transit-visa-waiver/

 

I contacted Celebrity and they said this did not exist! A Chinese visa would be required to visit China. hope they read this and get their policy fixed!

 

This is only applicable if the port of call after China is a different 3rd country. In October on the Millennium, we sail from Tokyo have a couple of stops in Japan, go to Shanghai, but because our next stop is Okinawa back in Japan, we cannot use the above 144 hour TWOV. If we had gone straight to Taiwan after Shanghai then we would of been OK.

[newport dave]

I have just learnt that an entry visa to China now costs £195 .the new visa lasts two years ,Whitch is ok for people who visit regularly but not for tourists visiting for a few days .I think it's over the top and no doubt will have an impact on tourism

 

Below is a link to current Visa costs for UK.

 

http://www.visaforchina.org/MAN_EN/upload/Attach/mrbj/284838.pdf

[livingasia]

I found this today while looking for a visa for my partner who is from Lao. (Laos to many). The rules apply to most countries except Lao, so no idea why they even posted it there, but they did.

 

Basically, unless you fly in and out of the same airport within 72 hours, it is worthless. Ships do not qualify. The "Shanghai exception" has been cancelled and nullified to bring it into line with Beijing (which is pretty normal in my experience of how China operates).

 

http://la.china-embassy.org/eng/lsfw/cjwtdy/

Edited February 14, 2016 by livingasia

[The_Big_M]

I found this today while looking for a visa for my partner who is from Lao. (Laos to many). The rules apply to most countries except Lao, so no idea why they even posted it there, but they did.

 

Basically, unless you fly in and out of the same airport within 72 hours, it is worthless. Ships do not qualify. The "Shanghai exception" has been cancelled and nullified to bring it into line with Beijing (which is pretty normal in my experience of how China operates).

 

http://la.china-embassy.org/eng/lsfw/cjwtdy/

 

Those are the conditions for the previous visa exemption. You can see that from the date in the top referring to 2013.

 

This thread is referring to changes in the past month - though there isn't full confirmation of those.