How Can Foreigners Enter China Under the COVID-19?

Recently, Chinese embassies and consulates in various countries have deleted the announcement of temporarily suspending the entry of foreigners holding residence permits. The Chinese Consulate General in San Francisco has clearly announced that foreigners holding three types of residence permits can directly test for COVID-19 and apply for health code without preliminary examination. Other Chinese Consulate General in the United States would follow up this policy as well.

Currently, foreigners with following visas and permits can directly enter China:

• Foreigners holding diplomatic, official, courtesy and C visa;
• Foreigners holding permanent residence permits;
• Foreigners holding visas issued after March 28, 2020;
• Foreigners holding valid residence permits for work, private affairs or reunion.

If you do not have the above visas and permits, you need to apply for a new Chinese visa. The current requirements are as follows:

• For work visa, PU letter issued by Provincial Foreign Affairs Office is generally required;
• For humanitarian visa, the notice of critical illness or death of immediate family members within three generations is required;
• For foreign underage children (without travel permit), if both parents are Chinese citizens, they can apply for a reunion visa after explaining the situation; it is difficult to get a reunion visa if only one parent is a Chinese citizen;
• If you have been vaccinated with Chinese vaccine, you can apply for Q2 visa (reunion visa), Z visa (work visa) and business m visa according to the pre epidemic standards.

The standards of Chinese embassies and consulates in Canada are basically the same as those in the United States, but the standards of the Consulate General in Vancouver are obviously stricter than others:

• Generally, work visas are only issued for the name on PU letter, underage children are not included;
• Humanitarian visas are generally issued only to the second generation;
• For foreign underage children (without travel permits), even if both parents are Chinese citizens, they are not able to get a reunion visa.

Foreigners in the UK, France, Italy, Belgium, Russia, the Philippines, India, Ukraine and Bangladesh need visas issued after November 3, 2020 to enter China, and are not allowed to enter China with Chinese residence permits for work, private affairs and reunion.

The visas that were issued between March 28 and November 2,2020 are still valid, but the local embassies and consulates do not allow these foreigners to go to China directly. In other words, if foreigners from these countries hold the visas and residence permits issued between March 28 and November 2,2020 can enter other countries (such as the United States) to go to China.