China Expands UK Visa-Free Access
UK nationals can now enter China visa-free for up to 30 days as of February 17, 2026, making travel to Beijing and Shanghai more accessible. Chinese authorities report a surge in visa-free arrivals with streamlined entry procedures. Japan is also considering abolishing face-to-face immigration checks to speed up arrivals amid a tourism surge.
The United Kingdom is one of nearly 79 countries, including Australia, Canada, France, and Germany, to be granted visa-free access to mainland China. This policy is part of a broader national strategy to boost inbound tourism and foreign investment. The visa waiver for UK nationals was confirmed during a visit to Beijing by Prime Minister Keir Starmer. In 2025, China recorded 30.08 million entries from foreign nationals using its various visa-free schemes, an increase of nearly 50% from the previous year. These visa-free entries accounted for 73.1% of all foreign arrivals. Inbound tourism saw a significant surge in 2025, with over 150 million visitors and total spending by foreign tourists exceeding $130 billion. The new policy for UK and Canadian citizens, which began on February 17, 2026, scraps a visa application process that cost British travelers around £151. The waiver applies to ordinary passport holders traveling for tourism, business, visiting family, or transit and is set to remain in effect until at least December 31, 2026. To manage the influx, major Chinese airports in hubs like Beijing and Shanghai have installed automated e-gates that read biometric passports. They have also implemented digital QR code arrival cards that passengers can complete on their phones before boarding, often reducing immigration clearance time to under ten minutes. Beyond the 30-day waiver, China has also expanded its transit-without-visa (TWOV) program. This allows travelers from 55 countries to stay in specific regions for up to 240 hours (10 days) without a visa, provided they are transiting to a third country. The policy is now active at 65 different ports across 24 provincial-level regions. Meanwhile, Japan is grappling with its own record tourism boom, having welcomed 42.7 million visitors in 2025 with a goal of 60 million by 2030. To ease airport congestion, the Japanese government plans to introduce a pre-travel online screening system called the Japan Electronic System for Travel Authorization (JESTA), which is expected to launch by fiscal year 2028.
