Shanghai 72hour VISA on arrival

[RTS]

Hi all,

Has anyone has experience in obtaining this on arrival. Would be keen to understand what the actual procedures are for this.

[strickers]

Hi, firstly it’s not a visa, it’s transit without a visa (TWOV), you must enter and exit via different countries.

There is a detailed thread on FT, I did it just before Covid and it was fairly straightforward, I believe the rules are the same now as back then.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/china/708095-china-24-72-144-hour-transit-without-visa-twov-rules-master-thread.html

[TJones]

144 hours Transit Without Visa (TWOV) is available at Shanghai. It is not a visa. You must be in transit to a third country (or Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macao) without any other stops in China. LON-SHA-LON would not qualify for TWOV. Nor would LON-PEK-SHA-anywhere (if staying in China over 24 hours). But AMS-SHA-CDG would be ok. Also LON-SHA-HKG-SHA-LON qualifies in both directions, but LON-HKG-SHA-HKG-LON does not. The procedure is totally straightforward. When you check-in say that you are “in transit without visa”. There will probably be a separate lane at immigration in Shanghai. By the way, Chinese visa on arrival is only available in a very few ports (eg Shenzhen, Hainan).

[yorkieflyer]

Separate tickets fine and there is a separate lane on arrival, was all very straightforward in 2019

[Jon]

Does anyone have any recent experience of what the immigration process is like at Shanghai, in terms of speed, queuing, etc? I’m tempted to do a couple of nights TWOV stopover in Shanghai at some point soon (KUL-PVG-LHR return), to use up a Virgin credit card voucher that will otherwise go to waste (I wanted to go via Hong Kong as I can use the e-gates there, which makes immigration easy, but Virgin pulled that route).

Also the airside transfer process? Wondering whether I can get away with a 4 hour same day connection on the way back (hand baggage only, but different airlines and separate tickets) or whether I should plan for an overnight… Reading the FlyerTalk thread (thanks @strickers!) it sounds like separate tickets and airlines isn’t a problem, but there seems to be some suggestion that plenty of time should be allowed for unexpected complications… 🤷‍♂️

[strickers]

I think with China only opening properly a couple of months ago it’s tricky to know what it will be like. I’ve planned 2/3 nights in Jan but did 6 hours on my way to Vietnam pre covid.

[JDB]

Also, the TWOV is a separate channel to normal immigration which is very efficient as it is well staffed even if they take quite a bit of time per passenger. The TWOV line depends on how many people are looking to enter that way, so predictions aren’t very reliable.