Question

Asked by D Palumbo from us | Feb. 05, 2026 17:00

About:240-Hour Visa-Free Transit

us citizen, flying Canada to Shanghai airport and then back to Canada

Ten day trip for tourist reasons, would drive personal car from US to Toronto , then direct flights to China and back, was plan, would that qualify for visa free transit, or would it qualify if on either leg of journey we added a layover at an airport in a qualifying country , if so can it be either coming or going or does it need to be both

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Answers (1)

Answered by Borut | Feb. 06, 2026 06:01

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If I have properly understood, your intention is to do the following:

Toronto (Canada) - mainland China - Toronto (Canada)

If that is the case, then such an itinerary is not eligible for 240 hour visa free transit. The basic rule of 240 hour visa free transit requires that the immediate points before and after mainland China are located in two different countries or eligible territories. Eligible territories are Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau. As you can see, your itinerary is not eligible because both immediate points before and after mainland China, in your case, are located in the same country - Canada.

In order to make it eligible you have to create an itinerary that has immediate points in two different countries or eligible territories, for example:

Toronto (Canada) - mainland China - US
Toronto (Canada) - mainland China - Hong Kong - Toronto (Canada)
Toronto (Canada) - South Korea - mainland China - Toronto (Canada)

As you can see there are multitude of different options, but the essence is that the immediate points before and after mainland China are located in two different countries or eligible territories. Hope this helps.

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