warakorn

With valid pb you mean a valid boarding pass to HKG?

WilcoRoger

From panxta's experience I drew the conclusion not to try to game the TWOV system. They'll catch you.

But still a question lingers - does it get recorded where I was planning to leave for on entry? If so, where? Is still within the rules of TWOV to declare on arriving from HEL the next destination as (say) HKG, but to actually leave to BKK? No monkey business with two bp's, just one to BKK and still within the stamped in time-frame.

(Plans may change after all)

warakorn

If you did not arrive into PVG from Thailand, then it should be within the TWOV rule to continue to BKK.

In my eyes it should be possible to change the country - you want to go next - within your TWOV timeframe. However, you must show the boarding pass of the flight, who really want to take (BKK), to the exit immigration agent. He will stamp it.
The gate agents and the security guard before the plane door will check both the stamp and the flight number.
Trying to enter a plane to BKK with a non-stamped boarding pass is not going to work. They will catch you.

WilcoRoger

OK, my thoughts, too. They shouldn't care where I continue to, as long as I'm within the rules (departing to 3rd country) - but who knows? I declared something on arrival, which I'm not sticking to

Courmisch

I am not sure the stamp is enough. A passenger could easily cheat that system by presenting a onward flight ticket for transit on arrival at the immigration desk, ditch that ticket, then present a return flight ticket for departure at the emigration desk.

Maybe the airlines are keeping track. In any case, I wouldn't risk gaming the system. If there is a real issue requiring you to not obey the transit rules, you are supposed to report to the Chinese police proactively.

warakorn

It is very likely the exit immigration agent can see your arrival card in the computer system. They normally scan the cards. Moreover, your arrival flight number is noted as well in the system.
If the agents spots that you want to take a flight to HEL (while arriving from HEL and using the TWOV facility), you can be caught.

revigik

How about if I am going JFK-HEL-LED-MUC.

stopover in HEL for a couple days, the. HEL-MUC via LED (less than 24 hours). Will the agents in JFK give me a hard time for not having a Russian Visa as I am under the TWOV limit?

ffay005

Russia allows airside transits without visa (at least for Finnish nationals). No need to ask for the visa in that case. However, they might want HEL-LED and LED-MUC on the same ticket.

Is your intention still to stay in HEL? You might find equally good pricing without the visa hassle if you try WAW, KRK, PRG, BUD or even RIX, VNO, ARN.

Courmisch

This is kinda off-topic...

BlueNordicSky

This year I've done HEL-XIY-HKG and HKG-CKG-HEL. Every time it has been quite a hassle. Funnily enough, the only place where TWOV has gone smoothly without a hitch is in HEL. They are quite familiar with the procedure and I have simply shown my onward ticket and they note it down. Both in XIY and CKG the border officials seemed confused, as if seeing a transit for the first time. It took several minutes for them to look up what to do, and then they carefully checked that my onward flight actually existed. I felt a bit bad in XIY since I was the first one out of the plane, and there was only one lane for foreign nationals - I was blocking everyone behind me for several minutes. Same thing upon exiting, the border official was confused and called over other officials, who took minutes to figure out what to do.

Not any better in the other airports connected to the trips. I was surprised that even in HKG, they took forever to figure things out, and had to tell me to come back later. I would have thought that in HKG of all places they would be familiar with the process. The worst was in MXP (this was MXP-HEL-XIY-HKG), the check-in agent had never heard of this, and even when I offered to help her find the exact spot in TIMATIC where it says this thing exists, she wouldn't budge. After 30 minutes she finally decided that the visa-free transit is real, but after that took another 10 minutes to try to figure out if my flights really fit the 72-hour limit. Apparently math is hard because the onward departure was 2 days after. All this time waiting, I was wondering if calling AY plat line would help speed things up.

I'm done with China for now fortunately.

intuition

Interesting.
Last time through, I did try to look for the TWOV and transfer channel at CKG T3. As I remember it, there was a visa desk somewhere to the left of the regular flow, but it was unmanned when AY arrived. Did you use that one or did you go to regular immigration channel?

Also, were you able to do clean-side transfer? (IIRC, there was a transfer channel to the right after immigrations). And what airline did you use for HKG-CKG T3? Or did you have a terminal change aswell?

BlueNordicSky

I used the regular immigration channel both in CKG and XIY, it seems like there is no separate transfer desk like in PEK. Both times I had a stay of 2 nights so it wasn't going to be a simple transfer anyway, the purpose was to stay in those places a bit and play the tourist. HKG-CKG was a CA flight.

Courmisch

TPE-XIY-HEL was a hassle for me both at TPE and at XIY. The check-in staff had no clue about TWOV at TPE, and the border control at XIY was ostensibly not expecting any TWOV on my flight.

And then HEL-CAN-HKG was fast and smooth both at HEL (I proactively warned the gate staff about the situation) and CAN.

WilcoRoger

My experiences:

CAN, PVG, PEK are smooth, obviously many travellers use the TWOV facility. Separate desks/booths, too.

HEL - very easy, ICN and HKG might take time for the agent to look up and read thru the rules on Timatic, but had no real issues aside for a few extra minutes. Easier if you have the tix printed out.

reflektia

I have couple experiences with arriving to China with airplane and departing with a ship. In Helsinki they are quite clueless both in check-in and at gate. However, I was able to convince them to let me board the airplane. In china there was zero issues. Vice versa everything works well, immigration in china ports knows about this and they don't care at the airport too much.