When traveling on a tourist Chinese visa, can you stay past the "final" date?

3/29/2017 3:07:57 PM

Most countries the way visas work is the date on the visa is the date you have to enter by, and does not affect the length of time you can then spend in the country, which is then calculated from the entry date. You can enter on the last day your visa is dated, and get whatever duration stay from then.

Chinese visas work this way- the date on the visa is the last day you are permitted to enter China and you will get 60 days as long as you enter by that date. I have done this myself with a 60-day Chinese visa (which I subsequently extended in country for an additional 30 days).

Of all the countries I have been to, Vietnam was the one exception to this rule- the expiry date on a Vietnamese visa is actually the “leave by” date, so if you enter Vietnam “late” you reduce the length of time you get on your visa. I got to Vietnam two weeks later than I intended and as such only got two weeks on a 1 month visa.

11/14/2016 12:35:36 AM

I just looked at half a dozen Chinese visas in my passport, all say “Enter before”. I do recall back in the old days with 90 day/single entry visas that we entered pretty close to the end of the time more than once but that passport is currently on the other side of the world.

I do specifically recall a planned trip that would have involved entering on the day printed on the visa, the only issue was whether it was still valid that day or not. We couldn’t resolve that adequately so played it safe and got new visas. (And then ran into a mechanical delay that resulted in us reaching immigration a few minutes before midnight.)

11/13/2016 10:27:37 PM

Looking at pictures of Chinese visas available on the Internet (e.g. on Wikipedia), there only seems to be an “Enter Before” date, and no other “expiration date”. “Enter Before” should make it pretty obvious that you just have to enter before that date.

Credit:stackoverflow.com‘

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Hello,My name is Aparna Patel,I’m a Travel Blogger and Photographer who travel the world full-time with my hubby.I like to share my travel experience.

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