China Arrival Card Online: File Free Before You Fly — Timing, Prep & Common Mistakes (2026)

How to file the China arrival card online

1. Open the entry-filing service

   In the NIA 12367 app or mini program, tap the entry-filing service; on the web, open s.nia.gov.cn/ArrivalCardFillingPC. Read and agree to the application notice.

2. Choose your document type and upload its photo

   Select passport, upload a clear photo of the bio page, and let the system read it automatically — you can retake or replace the photo if the scan is off.

3. Check your personal details

   Compare the auto-filled fields against your passport and fix anything the OCR misread before moving on.

4. Add personal and travel information

   Complete the remaining personal fields, select the entry policy that applies to you, enter your visa number or transit details, and fill the travel information — fields marked with * are required.

5. File for companions (optional)

   If you travel with family or friends, add their details in the same submission; each companion still receives their own declaration.

6. Sign the declaration

   Confirm the information is true and correct, then sign in the signature field and submit.

7. Save the receipt and show the QR code at the border

   Download or send yourself the PDF receipt, keep the QR code on your phone, and present it at immigration on arrival.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the China arrival card free to file online?

Yes — completely free. The National Immigration Administration (NIA) has stated publicly that the online arrival-card filing service collects no fee at all, and on December 2, 2025 it issued an official warning that fake websites charging travelers for arrival-card filing have appeared. If a site asks you to pay, it is not the official service.

What is the official China arrival card website?

The official web portal is s.nia.gov.cn/ArrivalCardFillingPC, run on a .gov.cn domain. The same service lives inside the official NIA 12367 app and the NIA mini programs in WeChat and Alipay. Any other site — especially ones buying ads above the official result or charging a "service fee" — is not official.

Do visa-free travelers need to fill in the China arrival card?

Yes, in most cases. Individual visa-free entry (for example the 30-day unilateral schemes) and 240-hour visa-free transit are NOT on the exemption list — those travelers file the arrival card like everyone else and select their entry policy in the form instead of a visa number. Only group tours traveling on a group visa or under group visa-free arrangements are exempt.

When should I file the arrival card before my flight?

The official notice sets no deadline — it only says "before coming to China". The practical answer: file once your flight number and first-night address are final, usually a few days before departure. Border-checkpoint reports describe the QR code you receive as valid for 24 hours, so re-open your filing and refresh the code on travel day if you filed early. The app saves your details, so refiling takes seconds.

Can families file one arrival card together?

One traveler can file for companions in the same submission — the official FAQ lists "help companions file together" as an optional step. Each traveler still gets their own declaration and QR code, and children are filed the same way by a parent or adult companion.

What if I don't know my hotel address yet?

The form asks for your address in China, and the arrival process goes smoother when it matches your actual first-night booking. Book a refundable first night before you file, or if you are staying with friends or family, ask them for the full address and phone number in advance. If your plans change after filing, file again with the new address.

Do transit passengers need the China arrival card?

24-hour direct transit passengers who never leave the port's restricted area are exempt. But 240-hour visa-free transit passengers — who leave the airport to visit cities — must file the arrival card and select the transit policy in the form instead of entering a visa number.

What if the official arrival card website doesn't work?

Try a different official channel: the NIA 12367 app or the WeChat/Alipay mini programs often work when the web portal is slow. If nothing works, you lose nothing — you can scan the QR code at the border, use the smart devices in the arrival hall, or fill a paper card. Questions can also go to the 12367 hotline.

Can I fix a mistake after submitting the arrival card?

The official walk-through lets you correct details during the filing flow before you sign. If something changes after you submit — a rebooked flight, a new hotel — file again with the corrected details and use the fresh receipt. Bring both the old and new receipts if you are unsure; border officers resolve duplicates on the spot.

Are paid "arrival card services" legitimate?

No. China's arrival-card filing is free by design, and NIA's official warning (December 2, 2025, echoed in English by China Daily) says scammers abroad run imitation filing sites that charge travelers. Charging for the form itself is the red flag; no legitimate party — airlines included — requires a fee for it.

Quick Summary: China’s arrival card moved online on November 20, 2025 — free, official, and designed to be filed before you fly. This guide covers the part the form itself doesn’t explain: when to file, what to have ready, how families file together, what to do about the hotel address you don’t have yet, what breaks and how to fix it, and how to spot the paid lookalike sites that China’s immigration authority has publicly warned about. For the field-by-field form walk-through, see our companion guide China Arrival Card: How to Submit It Online.

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We are not a government website and we do not file the card for you. This guide explains China’s official process and links to it; preparation help lives in our free China Arrival Card Helper. The filing itself is free on the government’s own channels.

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What the arrival card is — and what changed on November 20, 2025

The arrival card (入境登记卡) is the short entry declaration that incoming foreigners traditionally filled out on paper while landing in China. Since November 20, 2025, the National Immigration Administration (NIA) lets travelers complete that same declaration online before departure — on the government’s website, in the official NIA 12367 app, in the WeChat and Alipay mini programs, or by scanning the arrival-card QR code published by Chinese embassies.

Three facts anchor everything else on this page:

• Filing is free. NIA’s own words: the online arrival-card service “does not collect any fee” (不收取任何费用).
• Paper still exists. Travelers who can’t file online — or couldn’t in time — can scan a QR code at the border, use the smart devices in the arrival hall, or fill a paper card. Filing early is a convenience, not a permission.
• Most foreigners must file. Only seven categories of travelers are exempt (below) — and the two most common misunderstandings, individual visa-free entry and 240-hour transit, are not on the exemption list.

The online flow ends with an Entry Declaration Receipt — a QR code plus a downloadable PDF slip. That QR code is what you show at immigration.

Is it free? Where is the official website?

The official web portal is s.nia.gov.cn/ArrivalCardFillingPC — note the .gov.cn domain, which is the one thing a fake site can’t fake. The same service runs inside the NIA 12367 app and the NIA mini programs in WeChat and Alipay.

Here the official and practical angles converge: on December 2, 2025, barely two weeks after launch, NIA issued a public warning that scammers abroad had set up imitation arrival-card filing websites charging travelers fees. China Daily relayed the warning in English for foreign audiences. The paid-arrival-card niche that went viral on Chinese social media — people selling “filling services” to foreigners — is exactly what these sites automate.

How to verify you’re on the real one:

1. The address starts with s.nia.gov.cn (web) or the app/mini program is published by 国家移民管理局 (National Immigration Administration).
2. Nothing in the flow asks for payment — no “service fee”, no “processing fee”, no card details.
3. You found the link from an official source: this page, a Chinese embassy site, or the airline’s official notice — not from a search ad.

If you already paid a lookalike site: your data may have gone nowhere official. File again on the real portal (it’s free), monitor the payment card, and report the site to your bank and to the platform that advertised it.

Who needs to file — and who is exempt

Every foreigner entering mainland China files the arrival card unless they fall into one of seven exempt categories from the official notice:

1. Holders of a valid Foreign Permanent Resident ID Card (the “five-star card”)
2. Holders of the Mainland Travel Permit for Hong Kong and Macao Residents (non-Chinese citizens)
3. Members of group tours on a group visa or qualifying for group visa-free entry
4. 24-hour direct transit passengers who never leave the port’s restricted area
5. Cruise passengers who enter and leave on the same ship
6. Travelers entering through E-channels (fast lanes)
7. Foreign crew of international transport vehicles

Two rules people get wrong, stated plainly:

• Individual visa-free entry is not an exemption. If you enter on a 30-day unilateral visa-free policy, you file the arrival card — the form asks which entry policy you’re using instead of a visa number.
• 240-hour visa-free transit is not an exemption either. You file the card and select the transit arrangement. (Our 240-hour transit visa checker confirms whether your nationality and route qualify for the transit policy itself — that’s a separate question from the arrival card.)

(Some official republications of the notice list a further courtesy category — travelers whose entry-exit documents are submitted collectively under courtesy arrangements. Our form walk-through counts it as an eighth group; if you travel under an arrangement like that, your organizer files for you.)

When to file: the timing question the notice doesn’t answer

The official notice says one thing about timing: file “before coming to China”. It sets no deadline and no opening date. So the practical question is “when do I actually have what the form needs?” — and the form needs your arrival flight/train/vessel number and your address in China. Those are exactly the two things that finalize in the last days before departure.

Our working guidance, consistent with what travel operators and border-checkpoint reports describe:

• File once your flight and first-night address are final — for most trips that’s within a few days of departure, not weeks.
• The QR code is short-lived. Border-checkpoint reporting on the rollout describes the generated QR code as valid for 24 hours. If you file early, re-open your saved filing and refresh the code on travel day — the app and mini programs keep your details, so this takes under a minute.
• Refile when plans change. Rebooked flight, different hotel, new port? Submit again with the corrected details. The receipt lists your entry city, port and date; mismatches at the counter cost more time than refiling does.
• Details you enter can be reused. NIA’s rollout coverage notes that information filed through the app can be reused on future trips (reported as up to a year), so the second file-through is faster than the first.

What to prepare before you open the form

Five things cover nearly every traveler:

1. Your passport, open to the photo page — you’ll upload its picture, and the system reads it automatically.
2. Arrival flight / train / vessel number — the format is short (CA982, MU540, G102, cruise name); it’s on your booking confirmation.
3. Your first-night address with a phone number — hotel name, full address and phone from the booking; or your host’s address if staying with friends.
4. Your visa or permit number — or your entry policy. If you’re using a visa-free policy or 240-hour transit, you won’t have a visa number; you’ll select the policy in the form instead.
5. Companions’ passport photos, if you’re filing for family or friends in the same submission.

Want this as an interactive checklist filtered to your situation? The free China Arrival Card Helper builds it in a minute — it runs entirely in your browser and sends nothing anywhere.

Families, children and companions

The official filing flow includes an explicit “file for companions” step: one traveler can add the other members of the group in the same submission, and the system supports “one person files, multiple people share” the declaration work. Each traveler still ends up with their own declaration and QR code — you can’t cross the border sharing one.

Practical notes from the flow:

• A parent or adult files for children the same way — a child is a companion with their own passport.
• Every companion needs their passport photo page uploaded, so collect the passports before you start.
• Companions can also file individually if that’s easier; there’s no requirement to bundle.

The fields people get wrong

These are the errors that slow travelers down at the counter — each fixable in ten seconds on the form:

• Name not exactly as in the passport. Copy the name from the machine-readable zone: all given names, no nicknames, no reordered parts. “Mike” is Michael here.
• A stale flight number. Rebooked since you filed? The receipt shows your arrival flight; officers see the mismatch on your boarding pass. File again — it’s free and fast.
• First-night address that doesn’t match the booking. The hotel’s Chinese name and its English booking-site name can differ; use the address and phone from the booking confirmation itself. If you haven’t booked yet, that’s the real problem to fix first — see our guide to booking hotels in China as a foreigner.
• Wrong traveler type. 240-hour transit passengers who answer “no” to holding a visa must then select the transit policy, not leave the policy field blank; the border for China’s visa-free transit routes works differently. Group tours are exempt entirely and shouldn’t file at all.
• Treating the arrival card as a customs declaration. They’re two separate things. The arrival card is immigration; cash limits, duty-free allowances and restricted goods go through the separate customs channel — see China Customs Declaration.

If the website doesn’t work — troubleshooting

In rough order of what to try:

1. Switch channel. The web portal, the 12367 app and the two mini programs are the same service on different fronts. When one is slow (they do get busy near Chinese holidays), another usually works.
2. Check the photo. Most filing failures we can see from the outside are photo problems: glare, cut-off edges, or a folded page. Flat passport, plain background, all four corners visible.
3. Try later — there is no deadline to miss. The official notice has no cut-off time. Filing at the airport on landing is a supported path: scan the arrival-card QR code on your phone, use the smart devices in the hall, or fill a paper card.
4. Ask. NIA runs the 12367 hotline for exactly these questions. Chinese embassies publish the same number for pre-travel inquiries.

Paper cards are not a downgrade — they’re the same declaration. The QR path just saves you queue time.

The scam landscape, in detail

For the record, because this is where search results get dangerous: after the online service launched, NIA’s warning described imitation filing sites set up abroad that charge travelers fees — some buying search ads that appear above the official result. The pattern isn’t unique to China; our broader guide to common scams in China covers the travel-fee family of scams in general.

What to remember:

• The service is free in every official channel. A fee is the tell.
• The domain is the proof: s.nia.gov.cn. Lookalikes use similar-looking domains that are not .gov.cn.
• Nobody legitimate — airline, hotel, or agency — needs your arrival-card receipt. Don’t email it anywhere.
• If a site took your payment, treat it as a data incident: file fresh on the official portal, and alert your bank.

Your pre-flight arrival-card checklist

Condensed from everything above:

1. Confirm you’re not in one of the seven exempt categories.
2. Finalize flight and first-night accommodation.
3. File on s.nia.gov.cn or the 12367 app — free, no payment field anywhere.
4. Save the receipt’s PDF and keep the QR code on your phone (refresh on travel day if you filed early).
5. File again if anything changes. Land, show the QR, and head to baggage claim.

Sources and verification

• NIA public warning on fake filing websites (2025-12-02): nia.gov.cn notice
• China Daily (English) on the same warning (2025-12-08): chinadaily.com.cn
• Official implementation notice, effective 2025-11-20 (English, Embassy of China in Israel): il.china-embassy.gov.cn
• Official filing FAQ with the seven-step flow (Nantong Municipal Government): nantong.gov.cn
• Official filing portal: s.nia.gov.cn/ArrivalCardFillingPC
• Official form walk-through video (transcribed in our companion guide): en.nia.gov.cn
• Beijing Foreign Affairs Office bilingual scam notice (2025-12): wb.beijing.gov.cn

Last verified: 2026-10-14. Procedures can change without notice; port officers apply the rules on site and their instructions prevail. The 24-hour QR-code validity is described in border-checkpoint rollout reporting rather than in the notice text itself — treat it as the reason to refresh your code on travel day, not as a published rule.