Visa requirements for Chinese citizens

Chinese citizens need a Schengen visa, which covers all member states for up to 90 days in any 180-day period.

Of the 198 countries whose entry rules are known in both directions, China and 32 of them let each other’s citizens in without a visa obtained in advance (visa-free, on arrival or with an ETA; an e-visa counts as a visa).

49 countries ask holders of the Chinese passport for a visa beforehand, although their own citizens enter China without one: Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium and 44 others.

The reverse holds for 45 countries: holders of the Chinese passport get in without a visa obtained in advance, but their citizens need one for China (Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Burundi, Cambodia and 40 others).

84 countries ask holders of the Chinese passport for a visa obtained before travel from an embassy, a consulate or a visa centre. 48 of them have an embassy or consulate on record in China.

36 countries have no embassy or career consulate on record in China, so the application usually goes to one of their posts in another country. Counting the post an official diplomatic list names for China, or else the nearest one within 2,000 km, those posts are most often in South Korea (6).

The United States refused 20% of visitor-visa (B1/B2) applications from citizens of China in fiscal year 2025, by the State Department’s adjusted refusal rate. 66 of the 197 nationalities with a published rate had a lower one and 130 a higher one; the middle value was 32%.

Schengen consulates in China refused 4% of short-stay visa applications in 2025 (all Schengen consulates worldwide: 15%). Among the 74 countries where they received at least 10,000 applications, that is the 70th highest rate. The figure counts every nationality applying there, not only citizens.

Visa-free travel with the Chinese passport

By continent, the Chinese passport is visa-free in 13 countries in Asia, 10 countries in the Americas, 9 countries in Africa, 5 countries in Europe and 5 countries in Oceania. The longest visa-free stays for Chinese citizens are allowed in Armenia (180 days), Dominica (180 days), Fiji (120 days), Vanuatu (120 days), the United Arab Emirates (90 days) and Albania (90 days).

Visa on arrival

Chinese citizens can get a visa at the airport or land border of Bahrain, Bangladesh, Burundi, Cambodia, Cape Verde, the Comoros, Djibouti and 26 others.

E-Visa and electronic travel authorisation

An e-Visa, applied for online before the trip, is how Chinese citizens enter Australia, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad and 30 others. Ivory Coast, Kenya and Saint Kitts and Nevis ask instead for an electronic travel authorisation (ETA), a lighter online check than a visa.

China’s neighbours

Kazakhstan and Russia admit Chinese citizens without a visa. For the other neighbours, the rules are: Laos (visa on arrival for up to 30 days), Bhutan (e-Visa), Tajikistan (e-Visa), Mongolia (e-Visa), Afghanistan (visa required), Nepal (visa on arrival for up to 150 days), Myanmar (visa on arrival for up to 30 days), Kyrgyzstan (e-Visa), Pakistan (e-Visa for up to 30 days), North Korea (visa required), Vietnam (e-Visa for up to 90 days) and India (visa required).

How the passport compares

Among neighbouring passports, the Russian passport ranks 79th (115 destinations), the Kazakh passport ranks 112th (79 destinations), the Mongolian passport ranks 132nd (65 destinations), the Kyrgyz passport ranks 139th (62 destinations) and the Tajik passport ranks 150th (56 destinations). Of the 198 passports in the data, 81 can enter visa-free and 117 need a visa from an embassy or consulate for China.