Boarding Shanghai 144 hour visa exemption question

[SusiejaneUK]

We are from the UK and boarding the Constellation in Shanghai.  We are flying in and arriving on the morning of the Cruise departing so therefore can apply for the 144 hour on line visa exemption.  We wonder if anyone can advise what you put for "Vessel Number" on the departing information and also is the "destination" the first port of call (in our case Hong Kong), the last port of call (in our case Singapore) or ultimately our home, ie the UK.   Any help would be appreciated, thanks CC.

Edited January 20, 2019 by SusiejaneUK
Spelling mistake

[chrisgoates]

We are literally in the same boat, UK passport holders and residents leaving Shanghai on the Constellation. I have no experience of this procedure and I am not an expert but have read most of the tripadvisor forum posts about 144 hour TWOV including every post in the thread that is now over 1000 posts long. From my reading I understand that for an entry through Pudong on 144 hour TWOV to be valid it is the countries that you last left from and will call at before and after Shanghai. They must be non Chinese (Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan are excepted), even fuel stops count, and different. So my interpretation is that our destination is Hong Kong, and in our case we entered from UAE as we are flying Emirates via Dubai. It is important that you don’t fly in via Hong Kong as that would make Shanghai the destination rather than a transit and a visa would be required.

When I made my online application I also could not find an appropriate vessel number so entered “Celebrity Const” as the number of characters were limited. I got an application number but I don’t know if that meant my application is accepted. Time will tell. It was reassuring that Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan appeared as separate countries on the drop down list for destinations.

Unfortunately I haven’t yet seen a post from anyone in our situation reporting on their experience, everyone just posts questions not results, or disasters when they or their airline didn’t follow the rules. I have emailed a few people who posted questions over similar trips but no one has replied with outcomes yet. My outstanding questions are over how clued up are Emirates check-in and gate staff at Manchester and Dubai, the key seems to be that they must enter Hong Kong as the destination and China as a transit in their Timatic database. Obviously you also have to comply with all the passport requirements, length of stay and hotel requirements, and carry proof of this.

Once again all the above comes from my reading and is without any expert knowledge, experience or authority.

I would be pleased to hear from anyone who thinks I have got any of this wrong asap.

 

Chris

[SusiejaneUK]

Hi Chris

 

Thanks for responding and sharing your frustration with getting clear answers rather than just seeing more questions! We have looked at every possible post that may be relevant but have not been able to get a clear answer.  We are going to start making some calls to Celebrity to seek their help and we will let you know anything that we find out. 

 

Sue

[chrisgoates]

From reading other posts I don't think Celebrity will be able to help much (unless they have a vessel departure number) as how people get into China to board the ship is not really their concern, I read somewhere in their pre boarding advice that we have to have appropriate Chinese exit documentation at the port, in other words that we entered legally. I'm not too worried about the Chinese as we qualify by their rules which I'm sure they know well.

I had an on line chat with an Emirates advisor this morning but only got information that we must carry the correct documentation that will be checked at check in, they did not offer any pre-flight approval which is what I was after as we only have a short time between flights at Dubai. Who are you flying into China with and from where? Both Emirates and BA have links on their websites to IATA Timatic database that they use for screening but you must enter China as a transit and Hong Kong as the destination to get the TWOV information. Obviously we need to have the cruise booking to prove to them and Chinese immigration that we are transiting and not visiting, we also have a two night hotel booking in Shanghai. As you are only arriving on the day of sailing a visa seems even less of a good buy, for us it would be an expensive faff as we don't live near a consulate and we have probably run out of time to get one now.

 

Chris

[SusiejaneUK]

Hi Chris

 

We are flying with BA from Heathrow. We have filled in the 144 hour exemption application giving Celebrity Const as the vessel (as you have) and Hong Kong as the destination.  I think you are right that they are not too bothered as long as we can show we are in transit and have evidence to prove our departure.  Fingers crossed all goes well for you and perhaps we can meet up for a drink when on board. Thanks for your help with this - it was much appreciated.

 

Sue

[sippican]

Most  passengers on our sailing would probably qualify for the 144 hour exemption (we personally do not as we have pre-cruise plans in China). However, Celebrity has made it very clear in their communications that they are requiring a visa for all on the sailing. I am curious as to how they might deal wih those who choose to take the exemption. 

[Wanderingsascent]

We arrived on 5th Jan 2019 from the UK

At the departure airport we showed our cruise itinerary and hotel booking.

On arrival in Shanghai go to the fingerprint machine for aliens.

Follow the signs for  144 twov, you may need to ask. As we walked through we turned right after fingerprinting.

Fill in an immigration card, they were on the right as you walked to the immigration desk. (The yellow card given out on the plane is for aliens who have a visa.

Queue in line for officer to inspect documents. This can take just over an hour as in our case or over three hours in other cases. They take another fingerprint.

Have a wonderful cruise.

 

 

[chrisgoates]

Huge thanks to Wanderingsascent for posting this. It's very reassuring.

I wonder if we can skip the first fingerprint machine, probably not worth the risk as from your description the queue is waiting for inspection, not first fingerprinting.

Did you see any signs of machines to get the immigration card printed out as I am the owner of a QR scan which I think holds access to my uploaded details. How are the officials on mistakes on the filled in immigration card? I only ask because in the old days of USA visa waiver cards at JFK airport immigration I often had trouble getting the information on the correct line and once got sent to the back of the queue for making a mistake.

 

Chris

 

[Betty in Cozumel]

On 1/20/2019 at 4:45 AM, SusiejaneUK said:

We wonder if anyone can advise what you put for "Vessel Number" on the departing information

 

We are sailing HAL Westerdam in March and HAL gave me a vessel number ( 9226891).   That is what I entered when registering online for the 144 hr TWOV.

 

I think if you have registered online then you can go to a kiosk to print out your card using the QR code.  I'm not sure mine will work okay as HAL changed our first port from South Korea to Japan so it may be rejected and I'll have to fill it out all again by hand.  😞 

Edited January 23, 2019 by Betty in Cozumel

[Miaminice]

On 1/20/2019 at 10:45 AM, SusiejaneUK said:

We are from the UK and boarding the Constellation in Shanghai.  We are flying in and arriving on the morning of the Cruise departing so therefore can apply for the 144 hour on line visa exemption.  We wonder if anyone can advise what you put for "Vessel Number" on the departing information and also is the "destination" the first port of call (in our case Hong Kong), the last port of call (in our case Singapore) or ultimately our home, ie the UK.   Any help would be appreciated, thanks CC.

 

You can find more info within this thread:

 

[SusiejaneUK]

On 1/22/2019 at 9:57 AM, Wanderingsascent said:

We arrived on 5th Jan 2019 from the UK

At the departure airport we showed our cruise itinerary and hotel booking.

On arrival in Shanghai go to the fingerprint machine for aliens.

Follow the signs for  144 twov, you may need to ask. As we walked through we turned right after fingerprinting.

Fill in an immigration card, they were on the right as you walked to the immigration desk. (The yellow card given out on the plane is for aliens who have a visa.

Queue in line for officer to inspect documents. This can take just over an hour as in our case or over three hours in other cases. They take another fingerprint.

Have a wonderful cruise.

 

 

Thank you so much for posting this guidance.  Extremely helpful and thank you too for your good wishes 🙂

[Wanderingsascent]

21 hours ago, chrisgoates said:

Huge thanks to Wanderingsascent for posting this. It's very reassuring.

I wonder if we can skip the first fingerprint machine, probably not worth the risk as from your description the queue is waiting for inspection, not first fingerprinting.

Did you see any signs of machines to get the immigration card printed out as I am the owner of a QR scan which I think holds access to my uploaded details. How are the officials on mistakes on the filled in immigration card? I only ask because in the old days of USA visa waiver cards at JFK airport immigration I often had trouble getting the information on the correct line and once got sent to the back of the queue for making a mistake.

 

Chris

 

There isn't a queue for the first machine, self service. If you make a mistake on the form  you have to go to the back of the queue! There is no sense of urgency with the officials, just one was on duty when we arrived.

[Wanderingsascent]

Just a word of caution if you arrive by ship. Sapphire Princess was delayed arriving in Shanghai due to fog, this meant people missed their flight home. As a result they had no confirmed onward travel and thus were not allowed to disembark, they had to stay on the ship until the next port of call. All this meant huge delays for our embarkation, we spent six hours in the hangar waiting and some spent longer.

[sippican]

4 hours ago, Wanderingsascent said:

Just a word of caution if you arrive by ship. Sapphire Princess was delayed arriving in Shanghai due to fog, this meant people missed their flight home. As a result they had no confirmed onward travel and thus were not allowed to disembark, they had to stay on the ship until the next port of call. All this meant huge delays for our embarkation, we spent six hours in the hangar waiting and some spent longer.

 

Was that because they had the exemption, or did it apply to anyone with a tourist visa?

[Wanderingsascent]

Just now, sippican said:

 

Was that because they had the exemption, or did it apply to anyone with a tourist visa?

I  believe they were travelling twov but because of the missed flight they didn't have forward travel. Thus they didn't qualify twov,  they carried on until Japan.

We were on Princess.

[sippican]

On 1/24/2019 at 10:22 AM, Wanderingsascent said:

I  believe they were travelling twov but because of the missed flight they didn't have forward travel. Thus they didn't qualify twov,  they carried on until Japan.

We were on Princess.

 

Thanks!