MundoKit

China 240-hour visa-free transit checker

Enter your passport nationality, immediate route and China local times. Review the checklist, look up permitted areas and calculate the departure boundary for 240小时过境免签.

Inputs
Select the last jurisdiction before mainland China, including connections.
Select the first onward stop. Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan count as regions.
Shows its permitted scope and entry ports below. Cross-province travel is allowed within permitted areas.
YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm. Use the immigration entry date, on or after August 20, 2026; earlier policy snapshots are unsupported.
The list below combines the May 2025 consular text and November 2025 additions. The current NIA image has not been independently reconciled here.

Results

240-hour transit screening
Manual confirmation needed
Calculated expiry boundary (China local)
2026-11-25 00:00
Selected area: Shanghai
Entire municipality
Immediate route
United States → mainland China → Hong Kong
Condition checklist
ConditionResult
NationalityPass
Different preceding and onward jurisdictionsPass
Listed entry portPass
Departure before calculated expiryPass
Ordinary passport and validityPass
Confirmed onward ticketPass
Onward entry requirementsPass
Permitted purposePass
All destinations within permitted areasPass
Current port/area confirmationNeeds confirmation
Does your document bear a Chinese visa-refusal stamp?Pass
Any illegal entry, exit, residence or employment in China within the past 5 years?Pass
Are you barred from entering China under its laws or regulations?Pass
  • Leave before 2026-11-25 00:00 China local time; follow the deadline on the actual permit. Exactly at expiry is not treated as a safe departure.
  • Entry ports for Shanghai: Shanghai Hongqiao Airport; Shanghai Pudong Airport; Shanghai Port (Passenger).
  • Port and area lookup: May 2025 consular baseline plus November 2025 additions. Confirm against the current NIA table before travel; regional variants are withheld pending image-table reconciliation.
  • Unknown country names require manual route review. Check every connection; this tool does not infer jurisdictions from airport or city names.
  • Entry remains subject to immigration inspection, including admissibility and immigration history. Exit-port arrangements must be confirmed separately. Other visa exemptions may apply.

Results update as you type. The share link stores your inputs after the # in the address, which is not sent to our server, but anyone you send it to can read them.

Last checked 2026-11-14. Rules change, sometimes at short notice. We list the date we last checked each official source; confirm with the official government source before you travel, buy or file. This is general information, not legal or immigration advice.

How it works

This checker supports entry dates on or after August 20, 2026 only; it does not reconstruct earlier eligibility. Kyrgyzstan and Vietnam became eligible on that date. The five additional ports became eligible on November 5, 2025, but historical screening remains outside this snapshot.

The 240-hour framework took effect on December 17, 2024. The NIA overview dated August 20, 2026 lists 57 nationalities. The checker compares the jurisdiction immediately before mainland China with the one immediately after it. They must differ; nationality does not determine your route.

Expiry boundary = 00:00 on the day after entry + 240 hours

The NIA conditions appendix specifies the next-midnight clock and at least three months of document validity. Use an ordinary passport under the current overview. Times are entered as China local wall-clock times to the minute, with no rounding or browser-timezone conversion. Leave before the displayed boundary and follow the actual permit.

The port lookup combines the May 2025 consular list with the five ports added in November 2025. The current NIA image table could not be visually reconciled here. Confirm every entry port, exit port and destination with NIA; the checker retains a manual-confirmation result until you confirm. No provincial variant pages are published pending that reconciliation.

Worked examples

US passport: United States → Shanghai → Hong Kong

Entry on November 14, 2026 at 18:00 starts the clock on November 15 at 00:00. The expiry boundary is November 25 at 00:00. Departure on November 24 at 20:00 is within the calculated window. Hong Kong differs from the United States; port and area confirmation is still required.

A return to the same region is not third-region transit

Hong Kong → Shanghai → Hong Kong fails the route test, even with a 12-hour stay from 08:00 to 20:00 on November 14, 2026. Changing airlines does not change those jurisdictions.

Year-end arrival

Entry on December 31, 2026 at 23:50 starts the clock on January 1, 2027 at 00:00. The expiry boundary is January 11 at 00:00; a January 10 departure at 23:59 is inside the window.

Permitted-area reference

These scopes come from the May 2025 consular text. Check the current NIA table before travel. You can travel between permitted areas; selecting an entry port does not restrict you to its province.

  • Beijing: Entire municipality.
  • Tianjin: Entire municipality.
  • Hebei: Entire province.
  • Shanxi: Taiyuan and Datong only.
  • Liaoning: Entire province.
  • Heilongjiang: Harbin only.
  • Shanghai: Entire municipality.
  • Jiangsu: Entire province.
  • Zhejiang: Entire province.
  • Anhui: Entire province.
  • Fujian: Entire province.
  • Jiangxi: Nanchang and Jingdezhen only.
  • Shandong: Entire province.
  • Henan: Entire province.
  • Hubei: Entire province.
  • Hunan: Entire province.
  • Guangdong: Entire province.
  • Guangxi: Nanning, Liuzhou, Guilin, Wuzhou, Beihai, Fangchenggang, Qinzhou, Guigang, Yulin, Hezhou, Hechi and Laibin only.
  • Hainan: Entire province.
  • Chongqing: Entire municipality.
  • Sichuan: Chengdu, Zigong, Luzhou, Deyang, Suining, Neijiang, Leshan, Yibin, Yaan, Meishan and Ziyang only.
  • Guizhou: Entire province.
  • Yunnan: Kunming, Yuxi, Chuxiong, Honghe, Wenshan, Puer, Xishuangbanna, Dali and Lijiang only.
  • Shaanxi: Entire province.

Frequently asked questions

Do Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan count as third regions?
Yes. The official expatriate guide includes all three. For example, United States → mainland China → Hong Kong has different preceding and onward jurisdictions. Hong Kong → mainland China → Hong Kong does not.
Can I enter at West Kowloon by high-speed rail?
The NIA added West Kowloon Station Port of the Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong Express Rail Link on November 5, 2025. Hold the required onward booking and confirm the actual route and border arrangements.
Can I visit all of Sichuan or Yunnan?
The cited area list restricts both to named cities and prefectures. Use the area lookup; do not assume an entire province is open because its airport is listed.
Does the clock start when my flight lands?
For this scheme, the permitted period starts at 00:00 after the day of immigration entry. If landing and entry are on different dates, use the entry date and check the permit issued.
Does a passing result guarantee admission?
No. Section III of the cited consular FAQ excludes documents bearing a Chinese visa-refusal stamp, illegal entry, exit, residence or employment records in China within five years, and other legal entry bars. The checklist screens these explicitly; an unsure answer requires confirmation. Officers inspect your documents, itinerary and admissibility. Work, study and news reporting requiring prior approval need appropriate visas. Other visa exemptions may apply under their own rules.
Can I use an airport code or a multi-stop route?
Select the countries or regions for the immediately preceding and following legs. Route choices use the FCDO country list plus Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, independently of passport eligibility. Unlisted territories require manual confirmation. The checker does not parse airport codes or full itineraries. Unknown names produce a manual-review result.

Sources

Last reviewed 2026-11-14; next review due by 2026-12-14. The method is written out above so you can check our math.