Thanks for your post, jeniusjen! It seems like your post is about a TWOV (Transit Without Visa) Program. This is one of the most frequently asked questions. Please take a look at the following quick references: (1) Wikipedia has great and thorough article on the 240 Hour Transit Program (2) /u/DoubleNo2902 did a great job of providing a guide for the 144 HR TWOV HND > CAN > HKG with a ton of useful information.
While HK-Shanghai-US qualifies for the TWOV at Chinese custom, be prepared to explain/convince your airline/boarding agent to let you board. They might see your trip as US-Shanghai-US, which does not qualify for TWOV.
Depends on on the airline. They should know but there's been cases of airlines staff not knowing about twov and refusing boarding. Chinese Airlines should know. If you wanna be sure you could email the airline and confirm and bring that email printed.
Sorry, let me clarify. If you just do a layover at HK for less than 24 hours, some airlines will not treat that as a stop. Then they will see your trip as US-Shanghai-US, therefore concluding you are not qualified for TWOV.
But for Chinese custom, they only care whether you arrive from a 3rd-country airport/train station, enter China, then leave for another 3rd-country airport/train station (Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan are considered 3rd countries for this purpose).
So it is possible while your itinerary is fine for Chinese custom, but your airline denies you boarding due to their interpretation of the TWOV policy.
Take copies of the rules with you to check in. Lots of airlines have ooorly trained staff who don’t understand TWOV. Also if any issues ask them to check Timatic (it is a system airlines use to check visa access for all countries)
Yes. HKG-CHN-USA is a valid TWOV itinerary as long as you keep within 240 hours. You should be able to do Beijing & Hangzhou as well.
Thanks for your post, jeniusjen! It seems like your post is about a TWOV (Transit Without Visa) Program. This is one of the most frequently asked questions. Please take a look at the following quick references: (1) Wikipedia has great and thorough article on the 240 Hour Transit Program (2) /u/DoubleNo2902 did a great job of providing a guide for the 144 HR TWOV HND > CAN > HKG with a ton of useful information.
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Backup Post: My boyfriend is a US citizen and wants to visit China and HK with me!
Can he do US -> HK -> Shanghai (visit Beijing and Hangzhou via train) -> US and qualify for the 240-hour visa free program? Thank you!
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While HK-Shanghai-US qualifies for the TWOV at Chinese custom, be prepared to explain/convince your airline/boarding agent to let you board. They might see your trip as US-Shanghai-US, which does not qualify for TWOV.
What does it mean? I don't understand - the airline/boarding agent doesn't know about the TWOV program?
Depends on on the airline. They should know but there's been cases of airlines staff not knowing about twov and refusing boarding. Chinese Airlines should know. If you wanna be sure you could email the airline and confirm and bring that email printed.
Good to know! Thank you!
I think it's pretty rare for it to happen but maybe better safe than sorry.
Sorry, let me clarify. If you just do a layover at HK for less than 24 hours, some airlines will not treat that as a stop. Then they will see your trip as US-Shanghai-US, therefore concluding you are not qualified for TWOV.
But for Chinese custom, they only care whether you arrive from a 3rd-country airport/train station, enter China, then leave for another 3rd-country airport/train station (Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan are considered 3rd countries for this purpose).
So it is possible while your itinerary is fine for Chinese custom, but your airline denies you boarding due to their interpretation of the TWOV policy.
We are staying in HK for a few days for sightseeing! So that should be fine?
yes
Take copies of the rules with you to check in. Lots of airlines have ooorly trained staff who don’t understand TWOV. Also if any issues ask them to check Timatic (it is a system airlines use to check visa access for all countries)
I don't think this will be an issue for the proposed itinerary since OP is entering Mainland China from Hong Kong.