China Digital Arrival Card: Do You Need It Before Entry?

Quick Answer

Since November 20, 2025, foreign travellers can submit China's arrival card online before travel through official NIA channels. If you are not in an exempt category, use the official form—not a paid lookalike—and keep the confirmation available. If online filing is not possible, the NIA permits completion at the port, including a paper card. Visa eligibility remains separate: check visa-free entry first.

Do I Need to Complete China's Digital Arrival Card?

Most foreign travellers should complete the card unless they fall within an exemption published by NIA. The official notices list seven categories:

• Holders of a valid People's Republic of China Foreign Permanent Resident ID Card.
• Non-Chinese holders of a valid Mainland Travel Permit for Hong Kong and Macao Residents.
• Holders of a group visa or people eligible for group visa-free entry.
• Passengers in 24-hour direct transit who remain within the designated restricted area of the port.
• Cruise passengers entering and departing on the same vessel.
• Travellers entering through the E-channel.
• Foreign crew members of exit-entry transport vehicles.

If none clearly applies, file the card through an official channel or use the official on-arrival fallback. Do not infer an exemption because a trip is short, because you have a visa, or because a companion has completed a form. The card is an entry-information process; it does not grant a visa, approve a temporary entry, or replace a passport.

For a third-country stopover, check the separate 240-hour transit guide first. The NIA transit guidance requires its own temporary-entry process, including the arrival-card step. A 24-hour direct-transit passenger who stays in the restricted port area is an explicitly named exemption, but a traveller who needs to enter China cannot assume that exception applies.

What Changed and When

NIA introduced online arrival-card filling for foreigners on November 20, 2025. The official notices describe it as a way to submit relevant entry information before travel. They also preserve alternatives at the immigration inspection site for people who could not complete the process in advance: scan the official QR code with a mobile phone, use smart devices at the port, or fill in a paper arrival card.

That distinction matters. Online completion can make arrival calmer, but it is not described as a universal “online only” gate. Conversely, paper is an official fallback, not a reason to use an unofficial commercial website. The direct form URL published by the New York consulate is NIA's Arrival Card Filling page. Check the live page close to travel because channels and interface details can change.

The rollout date is stable historical context; the current form and exact port experience are not. The NIA service instruction is the appropriate authority for a current operational detail. Where an airline or immigration officer gives a newer direction for your actual journey, follow it.

Where to Fill the Digital Arrival Card

Use only channels named by NIA: the NIA website, government service platforms, the “NIA 12367” app, WeChat and Alipay mini programs, or the designated official QR code. The NIA fraud warning says the service is free of charge. A page that charges a filing fee, claims it can accelerate approval, or is reached through an advertisement rather than an official NIA or Chinese-mission link should be treated as suspect.

The least ambiguous browser route is the official PC form URL above. If you use a mobile route, begin from NIA's own website, app, or QR code rather than searching an app store or web search for a similarly named service. A phone screenshot of the completed page may be useful if you need to refer back to the details, but a screenshot is not a substitute for a valid submission or for the documents immigration asks to see.

If a page does not load, a mini program appears different from a guide, or you cannot determine whether a link is official, stop. Do not upload passport information to a lookalike. Use a different official channel or plan to complete the process at the immigration inspection site. The official fallback makes it safer to avoid guessing with a personal-data form.

When Should I Submit It?

The NIA wording says travellers may submit the relevant information online before coming to China. The reviewed English notices do not set a fixed number of hours or days in advance. Therefore this guide does not prescribe “one to three days” or another universal window.

The practical safe point is when the information the live official form requests is ready and you can still recheck it against your real travel documents. Do not submit speculative flight, passport, address, or itinerary details merely to be early. If travel changes after filing, consult the live official service instruction or use the on-arrival path rather than assuming an old confirmation remains correct.

Keep enough time before boarding to resolve an access problem through an official alternative. If you are travelling with a tight connection, an unfamiliar land crossing, or a ferry schedule, identify the official fallback beforehand. The NIA notices allow on-arrival completion; they do not promise the same kiosk placement, queue length, or language support at every port.

What Information Should I Enter?

Enter the information requested by the live official form using your actual passport and itinerary. Keep the passport, flight or vessel details, and accommodation or host records you are using close at hand. The card is about relevant entry information, so consistency is more valuable than trying to optimise a field based on advice for an earlier version of the form.

The current English NIA notices reviewed for this revision do not publish a field-by-field data dictionary. They do not state a definitive public English rule for a first-hotel address, every field's format, a family submission model, or a required screenshot. That is a real documentation boundary, not permission to invent a rule from a third-party blog.

If a field is unclear, first re-read its live label and official help text. If it remains unclear, use an official NIA channel such as 12367 or complete the form at immigration and ask staff rather than inserting made-up data. The purpose is to give accurate entry information, not to make a form look complete at any cost.

The companion-help prompt

Some users may encounter a prompt about helping a companion. The current official notices confirm the service channels and on-arrival fallback, but do not document a universal “companion mode,” a delete button, or a reset sequence. Do not follow a blog's claimed tap-by-tap fix as though it were an NIA instruction.

If you can continue while entering only accurate information for the traveller concerned, do so according to the live official form. If the prompt is unclear or the form appears to request data you cannot verify, stop and use an official alternative instead of inventing a companion record. The NIA's published fallback—official QR code, on-site smart device, or paper arrival card at the immigration inspection site—remains the defensible route when an online interface cannot be completed confidently.

Every traveller should have the passport and entry information relevant to their own arrival. The official notices do not support a blanket claim that one completed card automatically covers a whole family. For children or a group, follow the current form's displayed instructions or ask an immigration officer at the port.

What Address Should I Enter?

Use the live form's wording and enter information that truthfully matches your travel plan. The reviewed NIA English notices do not publish a public address-field rule detailed enough to confirm that it always wants the first night's hotel, a complete host address, an entire multi-hotel itinerary, or a particular transliteration. Do not turn a common travel practice into an asserted government rule.

Prepare your accommodation confirmation and host contact details before opening the form. If the current field clearly requests an accommodation address, supply the accurate address requested; if it asks a different question, follow that question. Once admitted, the separate obligations discussed in hotel check-in for foreign guests still apply. An arrival-card entry does not itself complete accommodation registration.

For a multiple-hotel itinerary, keep every booking available but do not claim that an unverified “first hotel only” rule is universal. Read the active form and use the address format it requests. If the itinerary is not settled enough to complete the form truthfully, the official on-arrival alternatives are safer than a guessed address.

Which Address to Enter When Connecting Through a Different Port

Arrival port and accommodation are different travel facts, but the NIA notices reviewed here do not publish a field-specific English instruction for a domestic onward connection after first immigration clearance. Do not automatically put a transit airport address in an accommodation field, and do not assume an article can decide the form's current interpretation.

Keep your first-clearance port, onward booking, and actual accommodation records available. Follow the live field labels exactly. If a same-day connection leaves you uncertain, use the on-arrival official QR, smart device, or paper-card path and ask immigration staff. A 24-hour passenger who never leaves the restricted port area may be exempt; a passenger who clears immigration for a domestic connection should not assume that direct-transit exemption.

Can I Still Use a Paper Arrival Card?

Yes. The NIA announcement and fraud warning both say a traveller who cannot complete online filing in advance may complete the process at the immigration inspection site by scanning the official QR code, using a smart device on site, or filling in a paper-based arrival card. The US Embassy notice independently repeats the paper-card option.

Paper is therefore an official fallback for an access, device, or form-comprehension problem. It is not evidence that a particular port will have unlimited supplies, no queue, or no additional questions. If you already know that you will rely on it—such as after an official site access failure—arrive with time to complete the process and keep passport and trip records available.

Never pay a third party merely because a paper card feels less convenient. NIA specifically warns that counterfeit sites have charged travellers for a service that is free through official channels. A paper card at immigration is safer than providing passport data to a paid impersonator.

Land Border Crossings and Ferry Terminals

The NIA notices frame the fallback as available at immigration inspection sites at Chinese ports of entry. They do not provide this guide with a port-by-port service map, a universal ferry timetable rule, or a promise that every land crossing uses identical equipment. That means land and ferry travellers need a more conservative plan than “an airport blog said there will be a kiosk.”

Before travel, check the live NIA instructions and the operator's current boarding requirements for the specific land crossing or ferry terminal. Start from NIA or an official Chinese mission rather than a search ad. If you cannot complete online filing, use the official immigration-site fallback described above and allow extra time. Do not use a paid agent or a lookalike site to solve a route-specific question.

Cruise passengers entering and departing on the same vessel are one of the seven published exemption categories. That exemption is narrow: do not extend it to every ferry passenger or every coastal itinerary. Confirm whether your particular journey actually meets its wording.

What Happens at the Airport?

At an airport, the published process is straightforward at a policy level: complete the online card before travel through an official channel, or, if that was not possible, complete it at the immigration inspection site with the official QR code, a smart device, or a paper card. Then present the passport and any information immigration requests. The entry decision remains separate from the card itself.

Avoid claiming a universal counter sequence, queue sign, facial-recognition process, or automatic-gate eligibility. Those operational details can vary by airport and traveller, and the NIA notices reviewed here do not guarantee them. If you are unsure where to go after landing, follow airport signs and ask staff at the immigration inspection site.

Bring a charged phone where possible, but do not make phone access a single point of failure. The paper-card fallback exists precisely because online completion may not be possible. Keep a printed or offline copy of essential trip details—passport number, transport number, first accommodation or host record, and onward travel—so you can complete the accurate information without relying on roaming data.

What Should I Keep for Arrival?

Keep the passport you will use for entry, your real itinerary, transport details, accommodation or host records, and any confirmation or screenshot generated by the official channel. A saved confirmation can help you retrieve what you submitted, but it does not supersede an officer's questions or compensate for inaccurate information.

Keep the direct official form URL rather than a bookmark to an advertisement: NIA Arrival Card Filling. Also keep a fallback plan: the official QR code at the port, a smart device, or a paper card. For the next stage after clearance, read the airport-to-city guide and your hotel's actual check-in instructions.

If you are exempt, retain the document that establishes the exemption and be ready to explain the itinerary. If you are using 240-hour transit, retain the confirmed onward ticket and required travel documents as well as the arrival-card information. Accurate documents, official channels, and a time buffer are a stronger plan than an unverified promise that a particular form screen will behave a certain way.

Related setup guides

• China Visa-Free Entry — confirm whether a visa is needed before the arrival-card step.
• China's 240-Hour Visa-Free Transit — check a qualifying third-country stopover.
• Hotel Check-In for Foreign Guests — prepare for your first accommodation.