Originally Posted by
LHR/MEL/Europe FF
Two separate issues. There's the Chinese immigration rules... they only care about the immediate inbound and immediate outbound. They see the flight to HKG and that satisfies their requirements and they grant you TWOV. This is also supported by Chinese consular services around the world.
Airlines are a different matter. Some rogue agents refuse to believe that a transit stop is sufficient to qualify you for TWOV. They want you to have a stopover (more than 24 hours). They believe a two hour transit is not an onward ticket to a third country.. it is an onward transit in a third country.
These agents are incorrect, working on incorrect assumptions. In every case where this has happened, the airline has later admitted their agents acted incorrectly. The most recent case was an AA ticket which involved a short connection in NRT. The passenger was denied boarding but AA later admitted liability.
Just wanted to come back on here to thank you and Yurop for help and input. Travels went well without any issues on either end. Some notes:
1) We kept calling United 1k desk to see if we could find a supervisor who knew about TWOV and could add a note to my file,BEFORE we showed up for the flight. Although the agent we finally spoke with didn't know ALL the rules, they added a note about TWOV. This was incredibly helpful and when I arrived for check in (I was prepared with timatic printout and all ongoing flight reservations printed) the whole process took 3 minutes. (!!)
2) As advised here, I only spoke about China as TRANSIT and HK as destination. This consistency was really key because we didn't want to deal with a rogue agent who wanted to question how long the HK stopover was, since it was irrelevant to the outbound flight.
3) In Shanghai PVG there was a short line for TWOV and they had an additional blue form they asked you to fill out if TWOV for 72 or 144 hours. The process was much quicker than the regular immigration line.
4) At PVG they scanned a copy of my departing flight out of China to HK so it was recorded/ on file. I left on that exact flight and so I had no problems on departure, but I just wanted to add this point as some people ask "what if I change my departure after I'm in the country?" They may ask questions if the a info you submitted on arrival and your actual departure are not matching.
5) had no problems flying with less than 6 months validity in US passport. I think this was largely due to the fact that my "destination" was HK (where I met the validity requirement of 1 month) and China was only a transit.
All in all TWOV is a great program that provides a really helpful option for those who, for whatever reason, cannot procure a visa last minute. Thanks for this invaluable forum and the help you provide.