24 hour transit visa-free confirmation

The most important detail is that both of you do not need any kind of visa. You will have two separate situations, though:

1. The citizen of New Zealand can enter China visa free for up to 15 days, so she/he does not have to bother about visa free transit formalities and other related stuff. So, the citizen of NZ will fill out an arrival card on board of the plane that will take you to Changsha. She/he will tick the transit box on the arrival card. Upon landing in Changsha, she/he will just follow you, but she/he is free from any applications and similar.

2. The citizen of UK will not fill out an arrival card on board the plane. Upon landing in Changsha, she/he will approach 24/144 hour visa free transit counter where she/he will apply for a temporary entry permit by presenting her/his flight itinerary. The citizen of NZ will be there, but not doing anything. This application is a formality and also free of any charge. After a short check, the UK citizen will be granted a permit and then both will proceed to the immigration because your next flight segment is a domestic one. By the way, usual length of stop in Changsha is 3 hours and 15 minutes.

As you can see, there are some differences and the reason is, NZ citizen does not need a visa to enter China at all, will the UK citizen need one. However, in this particular case, even the UK citizen will travel visa free covered by 24 hour visa free transit.

Upon your landing in Haikou, you will just cross the immigration to exit China and head to the gate of your flight to Auckland.

Although this could look complicated at first, in reality it is not. You have both layovers long enough to perform everything at relaxed pace and in the same time the layovers are not too long to make your bored. Have a nice journey.

Just to add that you do not have to accomplish any paperwork before your flight or later, with the exception of those forms when you land in China. You should just keep in mind that at the time of your check-in in London you will declare that you are traveling to New Zealand via China using 24 hour visa free transit. No other formalities are necessary, beside those already described in my previous post.

Hi Borut,

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to my question, especially when you get so many!

Just as a follow up question, which you may or may not know the answer to. I also have a Swiss passport, would I be better off transiting through China with this rather than the UK passport? From what I can find a Swiss passport may offer the same privilege as the New Zealand passport in that I could visit China for up to 15 days visa free and therefore just need to complete the arrival card on board the plane?

And if this is the case, again you may not know the answer to this, would there be an issue if my flight information has my UK passport information on it, but I use my Swiss Passport at immigration to transit through China, but then use my UK Passport to enter New Zealand?

And also, just to check, is the process exactly the same as you described on the return journey? i.e. at Haikou just complete the arrival card on the plane and then at Changsha just cross immigration to our flight to London.

Again, many thanks for taking the time to read through my questions and for providing assistance!

If only you have bough your tickets under the Swiss citizenship because the Swiss citizens enjoy the same visa free regime as the citizens of New Zealand do. My suggestion is that you do not use Swiss passport regardless of hassle free transit procedures because at some instance you could be really asked about the use (misuse) of both citizenship. In the end you would be allowed to proceed the travel, but you do not need any stress or any questioning at all. Please, just follow my advise in this regard. Thank you.