China Arrival Card: Free Official Portal vs $50 Scam Sites (2026)
Yes, completely free. The official China arrival card is the China Digital Arrival Card (CDAC), launched by the National Immigration Administration on November 20, 2025. The portal sits on a .gov.cn domain. Any site charging you $30, $50, or any fee is a scam buying Google ads above the real one.
You have two filing paths. Open the desktop or mobile site directly in your browser, or use the 'NIA 12367' mini-program inside WeChat or Alipay (search '12367'). Both produce the same QR code. The form takes 5-8 minutes — you'll need passport details, flight number, hotel address in China, and entry port. Submit the form within 72 hours of your scheduled arrival. Earlier submissions get rejected with a 'too soon' message.
After submission, save the QR code screenshot to your phone gallery. At the immigration counter, the officer scans the code from your screen. Wi-Fi is unreliable at most border-control halls, so don't rely on opening the form live. Some carriers still hand out paper arrival cards on the plane regardless of your digital filing — fill in the paper form anyway if asked, since it costs nothing and prevents counter delays.
If your flight crew hands you a paper card and you've already filed the digital one, hand both to the officer. Border policy is in transition through 2026, and individual officers handle the overlap differently. Avoid third-party sites with official-sounding names — they're commercial agencies, not the government, and have no official status.
- File the China Digital Arrival Card free at the National Immigration Administration portal — third-party sites charging $30-50 are scams.
- Open the form via the NIA 12367 mini-program inside WeChat or Alipay, or the desktop site through any standard browser.
- Submit within 72 hours before your arrival; submitting earlier than that triggers a 'too soon' rejection from the system.
- Save the QR code screenshot offline — Wi-Fi is unreliable at immigration counters and scanners sometimes fail at peak hours.
- Bring a paper backup option — some flight crews still hand out physical cards on planes regardless of digital filing.
How this works
Open the official portal or 12367 mini-program
Type 'NIA arrival card' into a search engine and click only results ending in .gov.cn. Alternatively, open WeChat or Alipay, search for the '12367' mini-program, and tap Arrival Card Filling. Avoid sponsored ads and any site asking for payment to file the form.
Choose the right form within the 72-hour window
Select Foreign Citizen Arrival Card. Confirm your scheduled arrival is within 72 hours of the current Beijing time, otherwise the form rejects the submission. Pick English as the form language from the top-right toggle. The portal supports English, Chinese, French, Spanish, and Russian.
Fill in passport, flight, and hotel details
Enter your passport number, full name as printed in the passport's machine-readable zone, date of birth, and nationality. Add your flight number, scheduled arrival date, port of entry (e.g., Shanghai Pudong), and your first hotel address in China with full street name and district included.
Submit and save the QR code screenshot
Tap Submit. The system returns a QR code within 10 seconds. Take a screenshot, save it to your phone gallery, and email a copy to yourself as backup. The QR code stays valid through your scheduled arrival window. Print a paper copy if you prefer redundancy at the counter.
Show the QR at the immigration counter
Open the screenshot before stepping up to the booth. The officer scans the code from your screen, then your passport. Total interaction takes under 60 seconds for most travelers. If the scanner fails, the officer hands you a paper form to fill in — same data, no penalty.
Why this is different for foreign visitors
China's National Immigration Administration launched the China Digital Arrival Card (CDAC) on November 20, 2025, replacing the paper-only system that had run since the 1990s. Unlike most countries with a single mandatory online entry form (US ESTA, UK ETA), the Chinese system runs digital and paper paths in parallel for the foreseeable future. For foreign visitors, this means scammers buy Google ads ranking above the official site, charging $30-50 for a service the government provides for ¥0. The official URL ends in .gov.cn and matches the National Immigration Administration domain. Authority to fine scam sites sits with provincial cyberspace regulators, who move slowly. Until enforcement catches up, the simplest defense is recognizing that any China entry form charging a fee is fake.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Paying a third-party site $30-50 for a free government form, then receiving a useless PDF that immigration officers reject.
- Filing more than 72 hours before arrival and getting a 'too soon' rejection — the form requires the actual flight date in the window.
- Submitting the form on hotel Wi-Fi, then losing the QR code because the screenshot was saved to a cloud account inaccessible offline.
- Trusting a Google ad that looks official; the .com versions appear above the .gov.cn portal during peak booking weeks.
Frequently asked
Yes, you can file at the airport. Most major Chinese international airports — PEK, PVG, CAN, SZX, CTU — have free Wi-Fi and a self-service kiosk near the immigration hall. Open the National Immigration Administration site, complete the form on your phone, and join the queue. Allow 15-20 extra minutes for filing on arrival.
No. The arrival card is separate from your visa, visa-free transit, or e-visa approval. It collects your contact details and travel plan inside China; it does not grant entry. Make sure your visa or visa-exempt status is valid before you board the plane. The arrival card is the last step, not the first.
No. Each traveler files their own card under their own passport, including children. The form takes the same 5-8 minutes per person. You can fill them out back-to-back on the same phone or split across family members' devices. Save each QR code with the passport name in the file name to avoid mix-ups at the counter.
No. The China Digital Arrival Card is free for all foreign nationals, in all currencies, on all submission paths. The National Immigration Administration has issued public warnings about fraudulent fee-charging sites. If you see a payment screen during the form, you're on the wrong site — close the tab and start over from the .gov.cn domain.
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