Visa required — what to do next

If the checker told you that you need a visa, this page is the next step. The process has changed a lot in the last two years, and most guides online are still describing the old one — so here is what actually happens now, in order.

The four steps

China's visa process is now a closed loop with four stages. The old walk-in-and-queue model is gone.

1. Fill in the form online — one government website, no agency needed.
2. Wait for online review — a consular officer checks your uploads first.
3. Hand in your passport — no appointment, just turn up with your passport and signed form.
4. Collect it — typically 4 working days after you handed it in.

Step 1 — The online form

Everything goes through one official site: consular.mfa.gov.cn/VISA. It's the new version of the "COVA" system.

• The form has nine sections: personal details, visa type, employment, education, family, travel plans, previous trips, other matters, and a declaration.
• You can only apply for an entry date within the next 90 days. Later than that and the system won't accept it.
• Once you submit, you can't edit it. Check it carefully — changes mean waiting for a consular officer to reject it and start again.
• Uploads must be images, not PDFs. Fields marked with a red dashed box are mandatory.
• You can't pay online. Payment happens when you hand in your passport.
• One account can file for several people. Each person gets their own application number.

Step 2 — Online review

A consular officer reviews what you uploaded before you go anywhere. This is the stage people underestimate — see How long it takes below.

When it's done, your status changes to “online review completed”. Only then do you print and sign. Print the first and last page of the application form and sign them by hand. If the applicant is under 18, a legal guardian must sign too, and you'll need a consent letter plus supporting documents.

Step 3 — Hand in your passport

No appointment exists anymore. Once your online review passes, you simply turn up on a working day with your passport, your signed form, and your application receipt. Bring your passport original — not a copy.

Two things worth knowing:

• The booking buttons you'll see on visa-centre websites are for a walk-in queue number, not a timed appointment slot. Don't read them as a requirement.
• If you don't hand in your passport within 30 days, the system cancels your application automatically. You'd then start over from the form.

Step 4 — Collect

Collection is normally 4 working days after you handed in your passport. Faster tiers exist at some centres and not others — see timing.

Where you hand it in — the one hard split

This is the part that trips people up, because it depends on your country of residence, not your nationality:

Around 57 countries have a CVASC. Notably, the United States does not — US applicants deal with the embassy and consulates directly. See the US guide for that path.

You must also apply in the consular district you actually live in. Applying across districts gets your file turned away.

Fingerprints — you probably don't need them

China has suspended fingerprint collection for short-stay applicants, and then widened it:

• All applicants for a stay of 180 days or less are exempt — including multiple-entry visas. This runs to 31 December 2026.
• Separately and permanently: under 14 or over 70; diplomatic passports; anyone who gave fingerprints at the same embassy or centre within the last five years on the same passport; and applicants with no usable fingerprints.
• Still collected: D, J1, Q1, S1, X1 and Z visas — the categories that require a residence permit after arrival.

The exemption is what unlocks the genuinely useful part: if you're exempt, someone else can hand in your passport, and in many countries you can post it in. That turns “take a day off to visit a visa centre” into “send a courier”.

What to prepare

These are the core items, and they're the same almost everywhere:

The photo rules are strict

The Chinese photo standard is not the same as a Western passport photo:

• White background, no border, no objects in the background — no casual snapshots.
• Head width 21–24mm, head length 28–33mm.
• Face the camera, eyes open, mouth closed, both ears visible. Head turned no more than 20°, tilted no more than 25°.
• No thick-framed, tinted or reflective glasses. No hats or head coverings — including for religious reasons, if they cover the face.
• Taken within the last 6 months.

If your online upload is accepted, you don't need to bring a paper copy.

The tourist visa question — flights and hotels

The main tourist visa is the L visa. The baseline requirement is a round-trip flight booking and hotel booking, or an invitation letter from someone in China. This is a genuine requirement, not a formality.

But it is not a global rule. Chinese embassies in the United States have waived these documents entirely for L visa applicants since 1 January 2024. We checked the official pages of several other countries — the UK, Canada, the Philippines, the Bahamas — and they still require flights and hotels as of 2026. So don't assume the US waiver applies to you; check your own embassy.

How long it takes — two stages, not one

Almost every guide gets this wrong by quoting a single number. There are two stages, and only the second one is predictable:

So the honest answer for “how long does a China visa take” is roughly 2–4 weeks, and the printed 4-day figure only covers the second half.

What it costs

Chinese visa fees follow a reciprocity principle: you're charged what your own country charges Chinese citizens. That makes the spread enormous — for the identical documents, applicants from different countries pay anywhere from roughly US$20 to US$140+, a difference of several times over.

• And it moves fast. One country's single-entry fee went from about ¥2,250 to ¥16,750 — a sevenfold jump — in September 2026. Rate tables are also recalculated periodically against exchange rates.
• There are two separate charges. The visa fee (set by the embassy) and the service fee (charged by the visa centre). Refused applications don't get the service fee back.
• A fee discount is currently in effect through 31 December 2026. It applies to most nationalities but not uniformly, so don't assume a fixed percentage off.

Because these numbers change quickly and by nationality, we deliberately don't print a table here — it would be wrong within weeks. Check your own embassy's fee page, and treat any figure you find without a date as unreliable.

Four things that change your answer

Almost everything that varies between applicants comes down to four variables:

1. Your nationality → what you pay.
2. Your country of residence → where you hand in your passport, and whether a visa centre exists at all.
3. Your age and fingerprint history → whether you must appear in person, or can delegate or post.
4. The visa category → which documents you need.

Everything else — the website, the four steps, the photo spec, the passport rules — is the same worldwide.

Before you start

• Check your passport: 6+ months validity, 2+ blank pages. Sort this first — it's the most common reason to start over.
• Check your entry date is within 90 days. Earlier isn't possible; the system won't take it.
• Get the photo right before you upload.
• Find your local embassy's page and confirm your country's document list — especially whether flights and hotels are required.
• Apply about 3 months before travel if you can. Visa validity runs from the date of issue, not the date you enter, so applying far too early wastes it.

The bottom line

Getting a Chinese visa is a four-step loop with no appointment, no fingerprints for short stays, and — for many applicants right now — the option to hand it off to someone else entirely. The two things that catch people out are the online review stage that sits before the famous 4-day turnaround, and the fact that your country of residence, not your passport, decides where you apply.