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If you have China on your travel bingo card for 2025, I have good news for you. Effective immediately, Americans will be able to visit the country for up to 10 days without a visa.

This is a significant positive development for everything from last-minute trips to long-planned vacations, eliminating the paperwork, expense and stress of the visa application process.

Also, 52 other countries will be able to take advantage of these new relaxed visa procedures, and most of them can stay up to 30 days without needing a visa (the US is not yet eligible, however, for longer stays).

Here are some key points about China’s new visa-free policy for foreign visitors.

What was China’s previous visa policy for Americans?

Before this week, Americans were required to have a visa to enter China.

While you can apply for a multi-entry visa that is valid for 120 months, there is no guarantee that your application will be approved or that you will receive the full 10-year version, even if your visa request is approved.

TPG senior cruise writer Ashley Kosiolak applied for a China visa in the fall A recent cruise with Viking. She submitted the documents to the consulate in New York with an official fee of $140. While she was approved for a visa (which she had to pick up in person a few days later), it was only good for a single entry and allowed her to stay in the country for 30 days. However, several fellow passengers on her trip said they had applied through a service recommended by the cruise and had been approved for a 10-year visa, but at a cost of about $1,200 per person — a significant price difference that includes service fees and shipping costs. happens

Starting in the fall of 2023, China relaxed travel requirements for foreign visitors, first allowing citizens of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Norway and Malaysia to visit the country without a visa. was China Briefing. Now, the US, along with 52 other countries, can visit China without a visa for at least 10 days, and up to 30 days for some nations (although the US maximum visa-free stay is 10 days).

As of today, December 17, that requirement for a short trip has been lifted, and Americans can now stay up to 10 days (or more specifically 240 hours) while entering the country through one of 60 entry points in 24 states. This means that for the type of cruises we mentioned above, there will be no visa or costs involved in visiting the country as long as you are visiting for less than 10 days (for longer stays, you still need to get a visa. will have to. ).