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Need a visa for final destination to board flight to stopover?

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Old Feb 25, 2019, 1:58 pm
  #1  
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Need a visa for final destination to board flight to stopover?

Dumb question, but I've never run into this and didn't come up with the right search parameters to find the answer: Will ANA require you to have a visa for your final destination in order to board your flight to Japan when you're stopping over in Japan first?

Ticketed JFK-NRT-PVG with a week-long stopover at NRT. One traveler does not have a visa for China. Will they be allowed to board at JFK? Or will they need to show a reservation leaving China within the 72hr visa-free period?

Thanks in advance for any wisdom on this.
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Old Feb 25, 2019, 1:59 pm
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Generally they won't need to show the onward visa at that point (boarding to the stopover point), but either Japanese rules or ANA may have different results
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Old Feb 25, 2019, 3:17 pm
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Originally Posted by skywardhunter
Generally they won't need to show the onward visa at that point (boarding to the stopover point), but either Japanese rules or ANA may have different results
Thanks for the response! I understand that Japan / ANA may be more "by the book" on things, which is why I asked here (hoping that someone here has done this with ANA before).
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Old Feb 25, 2019, 3:41 pm
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It is not a question of "by the book". Pretty much all carriers are "by the book" as they face eye-popping fines and having to return the passenger to his origin if they transport someone without proper documents. TIMATIC is the universal IATA database which the check-in agent will review for your friend's situation. You may access it without cost at a number of portals, including:

https://www.united.com/web/en-us/app...TIMATIC&POS=US

Where your friend may run into trouble is that Japan may deny entry if he does not hold an onward or return ticket. That is in order to ensure that he leaves the country. But, if that ticket is not valid, it does not serve any purpose. Your friend's onward ticket is for China. If, as you say, he requires a visa to enter China, he may be required to show that visa to the check-in agent.

There is no way to predict what will happen. Likely nobody asks either at check-in or passport control at NRT. But, if there is an issue, it is a problem. Any reason your friend cannot obtain his Chinese visa now rather than once in Japan?
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Old Feb 26, 2019, 2:29 am
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The transit without visa is 144 hours now in Shanghai it will require a ticket to another country than Japan. It is not visa free entry, it is a visa free transit, so you will have to come to China from country A and continue to country B. You can return to Japan after another country, but not direct.

If there is not an itinerary in place that satisfies the full route of the ticket there may very well be a denied boarding at the outset. Arguing that your friend will get the visa in Tokyo is not necessarily a helping point as the Chinese embassy in Tokyo does not issue tourist visas.
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Old Feb 26, 2019, 7:03 am
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If OP's friend is Japanese/Singaporean/Brunei, they can stay 15 days in China with JFK-NRT-PVG-NRT-JFK.
If OP's friend has literally ONLY JFK-NRT-PVG ticket (i.e. without PVG-JFK), boarding at JFK will be denied.
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Old Feb 26, 2019, 7:15 am
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The bottom line here is that the friend needs to be able to demonstrate at JFK that he is admissible both to Japan and to China. The friend would be well-advised to review TIMATIC to assure that he is and that if he requires any documents beyond a passport, that he has those in hand by the time he checks in at JFK.
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Old Feb 26, 2019, 2:56 pm
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Originally Posted by NickatFM
Dumb question, but I've never run into this and didn't come up with the right search parameters to find the answer: Will ANA require you to have a visa for your final destination in order to board your flight to Japan when you're stopping over in Japan first?

Ticketed JFK-NRT-PVG with a week-long stopover at NRT. One traveler does not have a visa for China. Will they be allowed to board at JFK? Or will they need to show a reservation leaving China within the 72hr visa-free period?

Thanks in advance for any wisdom on this.
They have to prove at JFK they have either a Chinese visa, only plan to stay 72 hours or otherwise won't be refused entry. Because if ANA or any airline flies someone into any country who doesn't have permission to be there, it's their ... on the line in fines. Assuming your friend is an American citizen, they're going to need to get a visa. It's not cheap, but that's life.
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Old Feb 26, 2019, 3:04 pm
  #9  
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Not 72 hours, 144.

Depending on how long the friend plans to be in China, he could book a refundable PVG-South Korea-PVG ticket for example so as to comply with TWOV (done twice) rules.

How is he planning to obtain a visa for China in Japan? What nationality/passport?
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Old Feb 26, 2019, 5:26 pm
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
Depending on how long the friend plans to be in China, he could book a refundable PVG-South Korea-PVG ticket for example so as to comply with TWOV (done twice) rules.
If he books a refundable PVG-ICN-PVG ticket, wouldn't he then have to show either an ICN-USA ticket for travel within 90 days of arrival to ICN, or a PVG-"somewhere else" ticket for travel within 144 hours of his second entry to China?
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Old Feb 26, 2019, 6:02 pm
  #11  
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
Not 72 hours, 144.

Depending on how long the friend plans to be in China, he could book a refundable PVG-South Korea-PVG ticket for example so as to comply with TWOV (done twice) rules.

How is he planning to obtain a visa for China in Japan? What nationality/passport?
The bolded strategy was actively explained and endorsed by numerous bloggers 10+ years ago, but technology is much better now (e.g. your inbound flight gets stored in border control's database, so trying to fly back to the same country could be quite problematic).
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Old Feb 26, 2019, 7:50 pm
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Requirement is to show show check-in agents at JFK that you are legally permissible to enter BOTH Japan and China.
You can overcome visa stuff is to either book a refundable one way ticket PVG-South Korea/Hong Kong, or use American airlines to put on a 5 day hold on an award booking PVG-South Korea/Hong Kong/Australia (a day or two before departing the US),
This just placates the JFK checkin agents to let you board the flight to Tokyo.

BUT, how on earth do you plan to get the Chinese visa within the week after departing the US?
Chinese visa in Tokyo? or via a PVG-XXX flight to be bought while you are in Tokyo?
Please think this through!
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Old Feb 28, 2019, 7:15 am
  #13  
 
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Originally Posted by CPH-Flyer
Arguing that your friend will get the visa in Tokyo is not necessarily a helping point as the Chinese embassy in Tokyo does not issue tourist visas.
I got my tourist visa in Tokyo. Here is a website about getting a visa in Tokyo as an American.
https://www.visaforchina.org/TYO_EN/
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Old Feb 28, 2019, 1:07 pm
  #14  
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Originally Posted by Travelin_the_world
I got my tourist visa in Tokyo. Here is a website about getting a visa in Tokyo as an American.
https://www.visaforchina.org/TYO_EN/
Last I checked for a tourist visa they referred me to the visa center in Singapore, I was not exactly keen on going to Singapore to get a visa for China (Danish passport so since I have just been travelling on business visas or TWOV. But happy news

Last edited by CPH-Flyer; Feb 28, 2019 at 1:27 pm
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