China Online Arrival Card: Fill the Official Free Form and Keep a Port Backup

Almost every foreign visitor must fill in China's free arrival card, including Malaysians and Singaporeans entering visa-free. Since 20 November 2025 you can do it online before you fly: on the National Immigration Administration's website at s.nia.gov.cn/ArrivalCardFillingPC/, in its NIA 12367 app, or in its mini-program inside WeChat or Alipay. Fill it in once your flight and first hotel are booked; China sets no 24- or 72-hour deadline. If you cannot, use the QR code, a self-service device or a paper card at the Chinese airport or port. The card records your trip; it is not a visa. Checked on 24 September 2026.

From Malaysia or Singapore: visa-free, but still fill in the card

• Malaysia: the 30 days run from 0:00 on the day after you arrive, and the 90 days are counted back 180 days from each entry day; stays before 17 July 2025 do not count. The agreement is valid for five years from 17 July 2025, with automatic renewal, so it does not end in 2026.
• Singapore permanent residents follow the rule for their own passport: a Malaysian with Singapore PR uses the Malaysian arrangement, and a Chinese citizen entering on a Chinese passport does not fill in this foreigners' card.
• A package or private tour does not, on its own, make you exempt from the card. The "visa-free tourist group" exemption refers to formal schemes run by a registered travel agency, where the group enters and leaves together: cruise groups, ASEAN groups to Xishuangbanna or Guilin, and foreign groups entering Guangdong or Hainan from Hong Kong or Macao. If you enter on your own passport under the visa exemption, even as part of a tour, fill in the card.
• Flying straight to Hainan: Hainan has its own 30-day visa-free policy for both passports. Singapore's consulate in Guangzhou said in February 2025, before the online card, that travellers staying only in Hainan under that policy need not fill in the card. The NIA's current form does not list this exemption, so fill in the card anyway: it is free, and it covers you if you travel beyond Hainan.

When to fill it: China sets no 24- or 72-hour deadline

Fill it in once your flight and first night's hotel are booked and your arrival is less than three months away. Neither the NIA's announcement nor the Chinese Embassy in Malaysia's notice sets a deadline, and the entry-date picker in the live web form, checked on 24 September 2026, offers dates up to three months ahead. We suggest the week before you fly: it leaves time to fix a mistake but little time for plans to change. The 72-hour and 24-hour rules in some guides and search summaries do not come from the NIA. Do not invent a flight number or hotel to submit sooner; if the form shows its own window, follow it.

Where to fill it in: website, app, WeChat, Alipay or at the port

You may also see an arrival-card feature in Touch 'n Go or other travel apps. We have not confirmed that these submit your card to the NIA, and the NIA and the Chinese Embassy in Malaysia name only the NIA's own channels, so use one of those.

What to have ready

• Each traveller's passport: the form reads the photo page.
• Your flight number, arrival airport and the local arrival date.
• The full address of your first hotel, as on the booking confirmation.
• Your phone number and email, and your return or onward flight if booked.
• The countries or regions you have visited in the past two years.

Fill it in, screen by screen (checked 24 September 2026)

1. Open s.nia.gov.cn/ArrivalCardFillingPC/ (or /ArrivalCardFillingPhone/ on a phone) from a saved link, or use the NIA 12367 app or mini-program. Pick English or Chinese from the Language menu, select Entry Declaration and read the list of exemptions.
2. Photograph your passport data page. The form reads your details from it; check every letter, number and date it fills in against the passport.
3. Basic information: document type, name, sex, date of birth, citizenship and passport number; how you arrive (plane, train, ship or road), the flight, train or vessel number, and the city and port of entry; your phone number and email.
4. Entry category: the form asks whether you hold a valid visa or other entry permit. If you are entering visa-free from Malaysia or Singapore, answer No and choose the visa-exemption policy the form offers for your passport. If it says you do not qualify for visa-free entry, stop and check your passport and trip against the rules above.
5. Personal information: other names, any other citizenship, country and city of birth, and whether this passport has ever been lost or stolen.
6. Travel information: purpose (sightseeing or leisure for a holiday), date of entry, the cities you will visit and any you transit through, countries or regions visited in the past two years, your confirmed departure (date, city, port, transport and flight number, if booked) and the full address of your first accommodation. The form also asks whether you have an inviting company or person in China; on a holiday, answer No.
7. Accompanying people: you can add companions (the form's list holds up to ten), so one adult can complete the card for a family. Enter each person's own passport details; do not copy one person's passport number or address into another's record.
8. Sign in the box on screen and submit. You get an Entry Declaration Receipt on screen and by email. Save it offline, and carry your passport and your flight and hotel bookings: officers still inspect everyone.

If the live form differs from these steps, follow its wording and answer only what it asks. The NIA's own video walkthrough is listed under Sources. Do not send Homeground or an unofficial agent a passport scan to have the card typed for you.

What to do when details change or the form fails

Who does not need a China arrival card

Recover from a fake or paid arrival-card website

1. Stop the session. Do not send more passport images, payment details, verification codes or selfies.
2. Screenshot the website address, the amount, the time and any receipt or messages; you will need them for a refund claim.
3. If you entered card details, call your bank on the number on your card and ask it to block the card and dispute the charge.
4. Change any password reused on that website and protect the associated email account with a unique password and multi-factor authentication.
5. Open the NIA service by typing or using the official government link and submit the accurate arrival information there. A paid receipt from another site is not official proof.
6. Report the site. In Malaysia, call the National Scam Response Centre on 997 as soon as money has left your account; in Singapore, call the ScamShield Helpline on 1799 (+65 6869 1799 from overseas). For questions about the arrival card itself, call China's immigration hotline, 12367.

What the arrival card does not cover

• Permission to enter: the visa or visa-free rule, your passport and the border officer's decision. A submitted card does not guarantee entry or a faster queue.
• Customs is separate: declare food, medicine, cash over the limits or dutiable goods at the red channel; otherwise walk through the green channel.
• Where you stay: hotels register you with the police at check-in. If you stay with family or in a private home, you or your host must register the stay within 24 hours (Exit and Entry Administration Law, Article 39). Since 21 September 2026, the NIA has offered online registration for stays outside hotels nationwide, while in-person registration at the local police office remains available.

Five-minute check before departure

• Everyone travelling has a card, or clearly fits one of the eight exemptions.
• You used s.nia.gov.cn, the NIA 12367 app or its WeChat or Alipay mini-program, and paid nothing.
• Names, passport numbers, flight, arrival airport, date and first hotel match your bookings.
• The receipts are saved offline, and you know the port has QR, self-service and paper backups.