My wife needs to visit a client in Shanghai, and the travel desk of the client’s firm has just told her that the “rules have changed” and the SARs are no longer considered a third country for TWOV purposes.

I was very surprised by this, having done TWOV routings involving HKG probably 10 times, most recently just a couple of months ago, so I suggested they must be mistaken but they were adamant there has been a rule change. Has anyone heard anything similar?