China lets citizens of 50 countries visit for up to 30 days without a visa. For 48 of them, the permission ends on 31 December 2026. As of today, China has not said whether it will extend it. If you plan to visit China in early 2027, you can't yet be sure you will get in without a visa.

Who can enter visa-free until 31 December 2026

Citizens of these 48 countries can enter China without a visa for up to 30 days, but only until the end of 2026:

The United Kingdom and Canada were the most recent additions. They have been on the list since 17 February 2026.

Two countries on China's list are not affected by the 31 December date:

  • Russia: visa-free entry has already been extended to 31 December 2027. China's Foreign Ministry announced this on 20 May 2026.
  • Brunei: Chinese consulates list its visa-free entry with no end date.

What the visa-free entry allows

  • Stay: up to 30 days. The count starts at midnight after the day you arrive.
  • Purposes: business, tourism, visiting family or friends, exchanges and transit. Chinese consulates also list sports events, conferences, exhibitions and study tours.
  • Not allowed: work, study or reporting as a journalist. These still need a visa.
  • Passport: an ordinary passport, valid for at least the length of your stay.
  • Longer stays: you can't extend a visa-free stay by default. If you need more than 30 days, apply for a visa before you travel.

Will it be extended?

China has not announced a decision yet. What the record shows:

  • The policy has been extended before. In November 2025, China moved the end date from the end of 2025 to 31 December 2026. It added Sweden in the same notice.
  • The list keeps growing. The UK and Canada joined in February 2026, and Russia was extended to 2027 in May 2026.

Based on that record, an extension looks likely. But until China publishes a notice, nothing is guaranteed. We will update this article when a decision is announced.

What to do if your trip crosses into 2027

  1. If you arrive on or before 31 December 2026: you are covered at entry. If your stay would run past 31 December, ask the Chinese embassy or consulate in your country how the end date applies to you before you book.
  2. If you arrive in 2027 and don't want to wait: apply for a Chinese visa. With a visa, it doesn't matter whether the policy is extended.
  3. If you are passing through China on the way to another country: you may not need either option. See the 240-hour transit rule below.
  4. Book flexible fares for early 2027 until the extension is confirmed.

The fallback: 240-hour visa-free transit

A separate rule, the 240-hour visa-free transit policy, lets citizens of 57 countries enter China without a visa for up to 10 days. It has no end date. To use it you need:

  • an onward ticket to a third country or region, with a confirmed seat and date (a return to the country you flew in from doesn't count),
  • to enter and leave through one of the 65 designated ports, such as Beijing or Shanghai,
  • to stay inside the permitted areas of the province where you entered.

Forty of the 48 countries above are on the transit list. The eight that are not are Andorra, Liechtenstein, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Peru and Uruguay. Citizens of those eight would need a visa if the policy is not extended.

The transit list also covers passports that are not on the 30-day list:

If your country is not listed

This deadline doesn't affect you. If your country has a separate visa exemption agreement with China, that agreement still applies. Otherwise you still need a Chinese visa, as before. Your Wandava passport page shows the rule for China next to every other destination, so you can compare where you can go without an embassy visa.

Where the rules come from

The country list comes from China's National Immigration Administration, compiled from Foreign Ministry announcements as of 17 February 2026. The 31 December 2026 end date comes from the Foreign Ministry's extension notice of 10 November 2025 and the UK and Canada announcement of 15 February 2026. The Russia extension was announced at the Foreign Ministry press conference of 20 May 2026. If you see a newer official notice, email us and we will update this article and the passport data together.