Question

Asked by Steve from us and philippines | Sep. 07, 2019 03:59

About:24-Hour Visa-Free Transit

19 hour transit Shanghai cruise port to Shanghai airport for Filipina

My Filipina gf and I (I’m from the US) arrive October 26, 2019 at 6am on a Celebrity cruise that ends in Shanghai. Have a 1am flight to the Philippines on the 27th (19 hour layover). Want to spend the day touring Shanghai. Understand we qualify for the 24 hour transit visa, which is up to the immigration officer. Do you foresee any reason the 24 hour transit visa would be denied? Celebrity Cruises referred me to Visa Central (think closed until Monday). Do you know if Celebrity Cruises requires either of us to have a visa to China? Or allow us to board, assuming the 24 hour transit visa will be approved?

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Answers (2)

Answered by Jerry | Sep. 08, 2019 23:59

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Normally, the 24-hour visa free transit in Shanghai will not be denied. If you are still worried about that, you could apply for a transit visa, just in case.

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Answered by ZUPAN | Sep. 09, 2019 12:29

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As Jerry has mentioned, you are definitely eligible for 24 hour visa free transit in Shanghai. Also, I can see that you probably do not fully understand the process because here we have two different things.

24 hour visa free transit

This is your right to make a transit in China if your itinerary and citizenship are eligible and this is something invisible, there is nothing to be allowed or not... You just appear at the doors of eligible city and eligible port of entry and that's it. You just perform your transit.

24 hour free entry permit

This is something that will or will not be granted based on immigration discretion. Free entry permit allows you to exit the transit area and to literally enter China. This is the difference. Free entry permit is a real sticker, something that could be seen.

In your case, you will be definitely granted an entry permit because there is simply no way to perform 24 hour visa free transit without the permit because the cruise terminal and the airport are physically separated. To conclude, you really don't need any kind of visa for this particular transit and your cruise company cannot impose the obligation that you obtain a visa when you are perfectly within the legal limits of Chinese visa free transit rules. Of course, they always prefer when the passengers have all kind of visas, so they don't have to take care about anything. Purely opportunistic.

One more detail...

Your 24 hour visa free transit is valid in case if your flight from Shanghai to Philippines don't have any kind of additional landing within mainland China and in the country where your cruise will have its last port of call, immediately before Shanghai.

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