flyingstudent

My friend has a Chinese visitor card for Hong Kong citizens. He knows he'll have no problem entering China on a flight from Hong Kong. He's not sure whether officials in NRT can recognize the visitor card and allow him to board.

joejones

I assume that when you say "he'll have no problem entering China on a flight from Hong Kong," you mean "he'll have no problem entering China on a flight from Japan?"

kats

I am pretty sure they will let him board. They probably do not even ask any question. If they do, he can just explain. I often travel with one way tickets and I get asked questions about visa. From my experiences, he should be fine. He may have to sign a paper that the airlines is not responsible in case of entry problem.

flyingstudent

Exactly. That card is issued for Hong Kong and Macau residents and it acts as the entry card - no need for passport and additional visa to enter China. All agents at Macau and Hong Kong airport recognizes the card.

The issue is my friend normally travels with a Canadian passport which normally requires Chinese visa.

Anyway, can someone please answer whether any ANA staff checks passport at the gate at NRT for China bounded flights?

daniellam

First of all, THERE IS NO SUCH THING as a "Hong Kong Citizen". What your friend has is "Hong Kong Permanent Resident with Chinese Citizenship" (Note: It is possible to be a Hong Kong Permanent Resident WITHOUT Chinese Citizenship).

Also, the "Chinese Visitor Card", is a "Hui Xiang Zheng" or "ancestoral home return permit" and is only issued to Hong Kong/Macau permanent residents who have Chinese citizenship. Hong Kong perment residents with Chinese citizenship tend to also have a Hong Kong SAR passport where the identification page lists them as "Chinese" under the "Nationality" field (This is now a requirement to obtain a "Hui Xiang Zheng").

Since you friend normally travels with a Canadian passport, he may have problems in NRT boarding his flight to mainland China if he shows his Canadian passport without a Chinese visa (even if he shows his "Hui Xiang Zheng").

However, if you friend wants to use his "Hui Xiang Zheng", he will need to show it to the gate agents in conjunction with his HK SAR passport (which lists his citizenship as "Chinese")and NOT his Canadian passport.

flyingstudent

Daniel, thanks for clarifying.

My friend is in the odd situation where he has a "Hui Xiang Zheng" but did not bother to get a HK SAR passport. At the time he applied for the "Hui Xiang Zheng" it was not a requirement to have a HK SAR passport (I believe it now is since I couldn't get one when I tried two years ago).

joejones

I've flown from NRT to China three times and never had my visa checked at check-in or at the gate. This may be less of an issue in Japan than elsewhere, since Japanese people can get a visa waiver for China, unlike most other nationalities.

edweird

The ANA gate agent checked my US passport for a China VISA when I checked in for my NRT-PEK flight in November.

bossCJ

I have US Passport, and the NH check-in agent every time checks to make sure, in detail, that I have a valid Chinese Visa. For the past few years, I have 'Resident Permit for Foreigner' which on occasion confuses the NH agents.

Once time was checkin at IAD, for flight IAD-NRT-PEK, and they seemed perplexed by the resident permit, which is for all purposes a chinese green card. Said they had never seen it before, they even asked if they could make a copy for refrence for them to have. Seemed bizarre for me, as it's somewhat common for anyone who has a chinese work or student visa has the resident card in the passport compared to just the normal visa.

joejones

I had my US passport checked for a Japanese visa when I flew back to Tokyo a few days ago, despite the fact that US citizens can enter Japan without a visa. A lot of this probably depends on the specific agent you get.

WeidongGuo

I have two passports, one US and one HK and my China Re-entry Card for Chinese. So when i travel oveasea, and return to China, I do not need a visa to enter China. Never had problem with ANA, UA, Thai Airways, LH and AC. However, last Xmas when i return from Bangkok to Guangzhou, I was on Egypt Air which is also a SA member. When i checked in, they asked me about my China visa, I told them i do not need one and showed them my US passport and my China Re-entry Card, Boy, they could not recognize the card. Then, they sent a fax to Guangzhou China Custom office and the response was that I had to have a HK passport with me to use that China Re-entry card. In theory, it is true. But I have never used my China re-entry card with my HK passport together, always use it with my US passport in the past. So i was stuck at the airport and they refused me from boarding. And I have to change my ticket to Thai Airway and they do not have any problem with my card. But i missed my flight for that day and had to pay for the hotel. When I returned to Guangzhou next day, I went Egypt Air office. They still insisted in they had done nothing wrong, they are only going with the "proper" ways. So i learned the lesson in the hard way. And from then on, I always travel with two passports with me. And I will never fly that stupid airline (Egypt Air) again.