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Reading Your China Entry and Stay Dates: A Check Before You Make Plans

A practical check for foreign nationals in mainland China to read their own permitted entry and stay dates, and to keep visa validity, permitted stay and residence permit expiry distinct before making plans.

2026-09-28 · Official sources reviewed

Before you book a return flight or commit to a plan that depends on your immigration status, read the dates on the document that currently governs your stay. “Visa valid until” and “permitted to stay until” answer different questions.

Read the right field

  • Visa entry validity and entries: These determine whether and how many times the visa can be used to seek entry. The visa's validity date is not the end date of an existing stay.
  • Duration of stay: For a visa used to enter China, this is the permitted time after each entry. The entry record and the visa notation matter together. A visa extension or stay permit issued inside China may show a specific “permitted to stay until” date.
  • Residence-permit “valid until”: The NIA identifies this as the end date of the permit holder's authorized residence. It is a separate document from the visa originally used to enter.

A five-minute document check

  1. Lay out your current passport and all current Chinese entry, stay and residence documents. Check whether your most recent entry was on a visa, under a visa-free arrangement or on a residence permit.
  2. Read the visa's number of entries, entry-validity date and duration-of-stay field separately. Note the most recent entry record; do not substitute the visa's entry-validity date for the stay end date.
  3. If you hold a current stay permit or residence permit, read its own validity and any remarks. Check whether any later issue, extension or change affects the document you had been relying on.
  4. If your passport, purpose of stay or document has changed, ask the responsible public-security exit-entry office or 12367 which record controls before booking travel.

The national rules generally count visa duration of stay from the day after entry, while visa-free arrangements can have different counting rules. This checklist does not calculate your personal last lawful day. The NIA's guide to reading validity and permitted stay explains the document fields; the Regulations on Administration of the Entry and Exit of Foreigners, Article 36 distinguish entries, entry validity and duration of stay.

If the fields or your travel history do not line up, stop and have the competent authority check the actual record. Do not treat an employer, travel agent or a general article as a decision on your individual deadline.