China Visa Waiver for LAX-HKG
 

Question for everyone - my friend is booking a roundtrip LAX-HKG and then a roundtrip HKG-CTU. He should be eligible for the China visa waiver since we are only staying in CTU for 2 days, right? My only concern is he'd have to basically have to show the Cathay staff in HKG his previous LAX-HKG flight and show them he just came from the US. He then will leave CTU 2 days later back for HKG.

So, he's going US -> China -> HKG (which is allowed), but it's just that the US -> China is on 2 different record locators.

Can anyone help me? Is he ok with the visa waiver?

He will not be ok. Travel via the transit visa waiver to China must be as part of traveling in transit between one country and a third country (where Hong Kong counts as one of the countries). HKG-China-HKG is not travel to China via a third country. China cares about the exact place you were immediately before you entered China and where you are immediately going after. Flying LAX-HKG-CTU, China views you as coming from HKG, not from the USA.

As an example, my personal transits of China where I entered China on the visa waiver are Japan-China-Hong Kong, New Zealand-China-Japan, and Hong Kong-China-Germany.

Hmm, ok, but he is traveling LAX-HKG-CTU it's just that LAX-HKG and HKG-CTU are on separate tickets? Then he leaves CTU-HKG. So, he is going US -> China -> 3rd country (HKG). Does this make sense?

That won't work. You have to be *transiting* China on the way to a place you didn't just come from. LAX->HKG->CTU isn't transiting China, it's transiting HKG. And then he's going *back* to HKG. Separate tickets or not, none of this satisfies the visa waiver requirement for transit.

No, as the travel is Hong Kong-China-Hong Kong. The ticketing doesn't matter; the flights do. As far as China is concerned, he will be coming from Hong Kong to China, then returning to Hong Kong. This does not qualify for the visa waiver. I'd highly recommend booking one direction through NRT or another non-HKG point if at all possible.

That's not how this works.

If your friend was traveling HKG-CTU-NRT, THEN it's a transit in China (CTU) from origin (HKG) to a third country (Japan). The LAX-HKG-LAX flights do not enter into this.

Going HKG-CTU-HKG means you're going BACK to your country of origin (HKG doesn't count as "China" for this, it's your country of origin). Your friend is going to get static at CTU like this blogger did, for the exact same reason. You need to be transiting from HKG through China to somewhere that isn't HKG to fulfill the visa free transit requirement.

Your friend should do something like this:

LAX-HKG-LAX on one set of flights

Second set of flights
Flight 1: HKG-CTU
Flight 2: CTU-NRT/ICN/someplace that's NOT HKG or China
Flight 3: NRT/ICN/someplace that's NOT HKG or China-HKG

Hope this helps.

Read here:

https://www.travelchinaguide.com/emb...a/free-72hour/

They will receive NO static in CTU, as there is very little if ANY chance that CX will allow you to board in HKG without showing proper documentation for the TWOV (a flight going to a third "zone" within 72 hours). There are very severe penalties for any airline that does not follow these rules.

The blogger I referenced seems to have experienced something different. Not that it matters all that much, I think.

Does this argument we are having over when OP's friend will have plans frustrated materially affect the advice of "don't do this"? If not, I am happy to concede your point as it seems trivial by comparison to the advice we are offering of "don't do this".

Might as well go with NRT/...-HKG

There's a huge, excellent, and highly informative thread on this in the China destination forum.

The short answer is no, and that's also the long answer.

The long answer would be noooooo.

This really isn't an AA issue, but a China visa issue. As such, I'm moving this thread over to the China forum.

Thanks.


aztimm

Thanks everyone for their input. Long story short, he was able to snag one of the $533 fares LAX-HKG and already upgraded to biz. Easy decision is to pay for the visa at that point :)

He could also do MFM in one direction.