alexinc

I posted in the stickied thread but I thought I'd post here as well as this may be a huge deal for many people transiting via CAN airport (Guangzhou)

The stickied wiki regarding China's transit TWOV program has a confusing update. It says at the very top that as of end of Aug 2017 no one will be allowed to enter China for under the 72 hours without visa when transiting to another country.

I am flying LAX -> CAN -> Kathmandu in Oct 2017. I have a 17hr layover in Guangzhou. I am a USA citizen, so I am on the list of approved countries eligible for the TWOV program. I cannot tell if the wiki update is poorly worded or if it meant for citizens of ALL nations that are affected.

Can anyone, with sources, verify that they changed this rule so radically and quietly? I see no literature otherwise and I figure if they are not allowing ppl to exit the country on a long layover I would have seen multiple angry posts about it but I see zero across all major travel forums. Would love some insight as I do not want to be stuck in an airport for 17 hours both ways.

cxfan1960

Your post should probably be in the wiki thread.

When I read the wiki originally, I thought 24-hour TWOV is no longer available at CAN, but for those who needs to enter China, they can be given 72-hour TWOV. Now that I read your post, I am uncertain if I understand correctly.

alexinc

I did an enormous amount of reaching out today.

This is the link people are talking about: http://www.csair.com/en/about/news/n...bvvk168i.shtml

I contacted the China embassy. They weren't even aware of such policy changes but that they could happen at any time and without them even knowing. I received an e-mail response just telling me about the 72hr visa exemption policy.

I contacted China Southern, and they were not very helpful either. They told me CAN airport will be have stricter security screening for those who attempt to transit there. I could not get a clear answer whether someone going from countryA -> Guangzhou -> countryB will be allowed in if under 24 hours. It appears the 72hr TWOV rule remains the same.

I cannot see why they would not allow someone to enter if they are under 24 hours but over 25-72 hours. I am wondering, if this is their way of refusing certain nationalities from entry - the 24hr waiver appears to allow most nationalities, but the 72hr allows only certain ones (USA being on the approved list.)

In addition, I checked IATA timatic and entered my flight information in: it is extremely poorly worded, confusing but it appears to still say that transiting, and entering the country, is still allowed as per the 72hr rule.

If anyone has any better insight than what I can sort of gather, I would love to hear it.

jiejie

Yes, it is, without being explicit about it. Unfortunately, as I remarked on the big TWOV thread, if your layover is under 24 hours--regardless of passport--you will likely get caught up in this new rule of not being able to leave the airport. I agree that the wording of this new wrinkle at CAN TWOV is murky, leaving a lot of uncertainty for transit passengers--the FT wiki can only reflect the same underlying uncertainty of the original Chinese pronouncement. I think that we'll know more when a decent body of field evidence starts coming in, as to how the CAN Immigration officials are actually dealing with this in real time--especially for passport holders eligible for 72 hours but who only have <24 hour transits.

The only way to pretty much guarantee your ability to leave CAN on a transit is to change flight schedule to get that layover over 24 hours....and that might not be easy with some itinerary destinations that have only a single daily or non-daily flight. The other tack to take is to reduce that layover down to only a few hours (just enough for a comfortable connection) but that also might be difficult to schedule, for same reason.

tentseller

Unofficial word is that there are some nationalities going back door to China to work.

HK press mentioned illegal entry by Filipinas into CHina to work is a problem that the Chinese government is aware of. Black market maids are making up to four times the wages compared to HK

LHR/MEL/Europe FF

There has been a further update which I posted in the wiki thread.

TIMATIC has now been updated which seems to permit - in theory - 24 hour TWOV involving direct air-to-air transit.

The earlier restriction that 'this does not apply to CAN' seems to refer to (a) multiple connections within China and (b) departure from CAN by any other means other than air (rail/ship etc).

What is not clear is whether you can enter China under this new arrangement (but no restriction that you must remain in the airport is stated either). The 72- hour option still remains, but with the caveat mentioned by jiejie above.

We just don't have any data points yet.

RossDM

I flew SYD to LHR via CAN at the start of October and was slightly worried about the prospect of being affected by the recent new policy change. Both flight legs were with China Southern, 19 hour layover, Pullman hotel pre-booked via China Southern website. UK passport holder. Was hoping 24 hour TWOV would remain in force. What happened in practice was that the transfer desk official walking me through immigration and customs requested that I fill in an additional form, called, I think, a Temporary Entry Permit. This was then processed fairly quickly by an Immigration official and my passport was stamped with a blue/green oblong Temporary Entry Permit stamp and I was able to proceed out of the airport to my hotel via the Special immigration line. After that I was free to take the Metro and enjoy a taste of the city. The manually-added date on the permit was for one day hence, so would appear to indicate it was valid for 24 hours. I also received what I assume are standard red entry and exit stamps in my passport.

Apologies if the above is a duplicate of information available elsewhere, hopefully will put a few minds at rest based on my very recent experience of transiting through CAN.