Every Entry Rule Carries an End Date — Here Is the Log

China attaches end dates to its entry rules. Forty-eight of the 50 unilateral visa-free arrangements expire on 31 December 2026, Russia’s runs to 31 December 2027, Brunei’s has no end date, and the 240-hour transit rule covers 57 countries at 65 ports. No extension had been published as of 2 November 2026.

Last verified: 2 November 2026 · Sources: National Immigration Administration (NIA), Chinese embassy visa FAQ

What actually changes on 31 December 2026?

Two things end on the same date. The first is the unilateral visa-free arrangement for 48 of the 50 countries on the list, which allows ordinary passport holders to enter for up to 30 days for tourism, business meetings, family visits, exchange visits, sports events and conferences. The second is the waiver that stopped fingerprint collection for eligible visa-free arrivals. Neither had an extension published as of 2 November 2026.

The practical effect is narrower than the headline suggests, and worse than most travellers assume. A trip that starts and ends inside 2026 is unaffected: the rule that applies is the one in force on the day you enter. A trip that begins on or after 1 January 2027 cannot lean on the arrangement until a new one is published, whatever an airline calendar or a social post says. The L visa route, the 240-hour transit rule and the separate Hainan scheme are not part of this deadline.

So the decision a 2027 traveller faces is not “is China visa-free” — it is “on what date does my entry fall, and is that date inside a published arrangement”. That is why this page is a log with dates rather than a summary. When something changes, it changes on a date, and the date is the part worth carrying into a booking.

The dated log

Every line below has a date and an official source. If you find a claim about Chinese entry rules without either, treat it as a guess — ours included, which is why the sources sit at the foot of every page on this site.

Dated changes to China’s entry rules, most recent first where dates clash.

Date	What changed	What it means for a trip
31 December 2026	The 48-country visa-free arrangement ends, and the fingerprint-collection waiver ends with it. No extension published as of 2 November 2026.	Entry dates from 1 January 2027 cannot assume visa-free status. Plan the L visa, or wait for a published extension.
20 March 2026	Online accommodation registration piloted in Hebei, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Hubei, Guangxi, Chongqing and Sichuan.	A private stay in those seven provinces no longer needs an office visit. This is registration after arrival, not an entry rule.
17 February 2026	The NIA republished the 50-country visa-free list. The count did not change; the names did not change.	Read the names, not the headline. A republication is not an expansion.
5 November 2025	240-hour transit ports rose from 60 to 65, adding Guangzhou Pazhou, Hengqin, the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge port, Zhongshan and West Kowloon high-speed rail station.	More ways in, including arrival by high-speed rail from Hong Kong. The conditions did not loosen.
31 December 2027	Russia’s visa-free arrangement runs to this date, a year beyond the other 48.	A Russian ordinary passport has a longer runway than the rest of the list.
No end date	Brunei’s arrangement carries no expiry, and the 240-hour transit rule is not tied to the December 2026 deadline.	These are the two places a 2027 plan can still stand on something published.

Why the numbers disagree: 50, 48, 57 and 65

Four numbers appear in almost every article about Chinese entry rules, and each counts something different. Reading one as another produces confident, wrong advice.

• 50 is the number of countries in the unilateral visa-free list: 35 in Europe, 7 in Asia, 6 in the Americas and 2 in Oceania, for ordinary passports, up to 30 days per visit.
• 48 is how many of those 50 arrangements end on 31 December 2026. The other two are Russia (2027) and Brunei (no end date).
• 57 is the number of countries covered by the 240-hour visa-free transit rule — a different list from the 50, with different conditions and a third-country ticket requirement.
• 65 is the number of approved ports of entry for that transit rule, not countries.

The overlap between the two lists is real but partial, which is why a headline claiming “China is visa-free for X countries” can be simultaneously accurate and useless. A passport can be on the 30-day list and not the transit list, or the other way round. The only count that matters is whether your nationality appears on the list for the rule you intend to use, on the date you enter.

The other trap is the counting of days. The 30 days begin at 00:00 on the day after entry, not on the day you land, and there is no published annual cap on entries. A plan built on four 30-day visits is a different plan from one built on a single stay, and the border is entitled to ask what you are doing on each entry.

How to check your own case for a 2027 trip

Three questions, in this order, settle almost every case.

1. Which rule is published for your passport? Check the nationality against the 50-country visa-free list and the 240-hour transit conditions. Do not check a country count; check the name.
2. On what date do you enter China? Not the date you book. Not the date your visa-free days would run out. The date of entry decides which arrangement applies, and an arrangement that ends on 31 December 2026 still covers an entry made on 30 December 2026.
3. If the entry date is in 2027, does anything published cover it? As of 2 November 2026, for 48 of the 50 countries, nothing does. The L visa is the route that does not depend on a deadline, and the application steps set out what it requires.

The entry-rule checker runs those three questions in one screen and returns the rule, the maximum stay and the onward-ticket condition for your case.

What we are watching

Four developments would change what this page says, and each is checked when this page is re-verified.

• An extension, replacement or lapse of the 48 arrangements. This is the single most consequential item for 2027 travel. Announcements, when they have come, have arrived close to the date rather than months ahead; we do not read silence as an extension.
• The fingerprint waiver. It ends on the same date and could be renewed separately, which would leave the entry rules and the arrival procedure on different timelines.
• New transit ports. The port count moved from 60 to 65 in November 2025; another addition would change which routes are possible, not who is eligible.
• Country-list changes. The February 2026 republication was not an expansion. A genuine addition or removal would be logged here with its date.

This page sits on a 30-day re-verification cycle, shorter than the 90 and 180-day cycles described in our methodology, because an expiry date this close deserves a shorter loop. When a rule changes we update the log and the date at the top; when nothing has been published, we say that too, rather than leaving the page to look current by accident.

Questions we get about the deadline

Is the 30-day visa-free rule being extended?

Nothing had been published as of 2 November 2026. The arrangements for 48 of the 50 countries end on 31 December 2026, and no replacement text has appeared on the NIA or embassy sites we check. A headline that says “China extends visa-free entry” needs a date and a source; without both, it is usually a report about the February 2026 republication.

My trip starts on 28 December 2026 and ends on 10 January 2027. Which rule applies?

The rule in force on the date you enter. If you enter on 28 December 2026 and your stay is inside 30 days, the 48-country arrangement covers that entry as published, and the fact that the arrangement ends while you are in the country does not retroactively cancel it. The risk is the return trip, not the stay: a second entry after 31 December 2026 needs a rule that still exists.

Does the 240-hour transit rule also end in December 2026?

No. The transit rule is a separate policy covering 57 countries at 65 ports, and it is not tied to the same deadline as the 48 visa-free arrangements. It does, however, carry harder conditions: a confirmed onward ticket to a third country inside the 240 hours, entry through an approved port, and a stay inside the area that port governs.