China-Singapore 30-Day Mutual Visa Exemption Starts Feb.9

Posted by Written by Qian Zhou Reading Time: 2 minutes

UPDATE (January 25, 2024): China and Singapore have officially agreed to implement a visa-free entry policy for their citizens, allowing stays of up to 30 days. Starting from February 9, individuals holding ordinary passports and traveling for tourism, family visits, or business purposes will benefit from this new agreement. The agreement, signed in Beijing, marks a significant step in creating closer ties between the two nations and facilitating smoother travel for their citizens.

China and Singapore are seeking to establish a mutual 30-day visa-free travel arrangement to boost people exchanges between the two countries, according to Reuters. The news was released by Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong during the 19th Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC) held in Tianjin on Thursday, December 7, 2023.  According to Wong, the movement of people between Singapore and China has been improving and flights between the two markets have almost recovered to the pre-pandemic level. “We hope to reach pre-pandemic levels and even exceed them on direct flight connectivity”, said Wong. The new 30-day visa-free travel arrangement is thus to support this goal, which is the cornerstone of the strengthened bilateral relationship.

I’m very happy that in this JCBC, we will be discussing ways to renew and extend our economic links, to reimagine our industries so that they are ready for the future, and to reinforce the close ties across all levels. – Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, 9th Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation

At the time of writing, no further details have been released regarding timeline or the eligibility, requirement, and application procedures of this new arrangement.

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Currently, Singapore has a 15-day visa-free travel policy with China (not vice versa—Chinese citizens still need to apply for visas for traveling to Singapore). Citizens with a valid ordinary passport from Singapore have been permitted to travel to China for a period of up to 15 days without applying for a visa for the purposes of tourism, business, visiting relatives and friends, or transiting to a third country. This 15-day visa-free policy was suspended when China imposed travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic and was resumed on July 26, 2023. Drawing insights from the existing 15-day visa-free policy, it can be reasonably anticipated that the new 30-day visa-free travel arrangement will work as follows:

  • Only citizens with a valid ordinary passport travel can apply for the new 30-day visa-free travel arrangement.
  • The purposes of travel might be limited to tourism, business, visiting relatives and friends, or transiting to a third country.
  • Travelers who plan to study, work, settle down, or attend an interview in China/Singapore may still need to apply for relevant visa.

We’ll keep monitoring the development of this 30-day visa-free travel arrangement between Singapore and China. For more information related to China’s visa-free policy, please read our China Briefing Article:

 

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