Problems with a Group Chinese Visa. UPDATED September 2024. Here are the differences between a standard Chinese visa and a Group Chinese Visa.

Chinese Visa

In addition to a Chinese visa, all foreigners are still required to have tibet travel permits as they have for the past 30 years. This post is to explain the differences between a Standard Chinese Tourist Visa and a Group Chinese Tourist Visa.

If you plan to go to the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) from Mainland China, all you need is a standard Chinese tourist visa, which can be applied for at an embassy or consulate in your home country and in many Chinese embassies and consulates outside of your home country.(NB: foreign residents of China who hold X or Z visas can also travel to Tibet but need additional documents from their work or school. People holding an F visa can also go to Tibet but need additional paperwork to issue travel permits).

Visa Free policy

The Chinese Government has issued a new visa-free policy for 42 nationalities. The policy applies to stays in China for a minimum of 15 days and up to 90 days, depending on your nationality. This visa-free policy is valid for both cities in Lhasa and Nepal and for traveling routes to Lhasa. If you travel from Nepal to Lhasa, you don’t need to get a group visa from the Chinese Embassy in Nepal. I know many travel agencies in Nepal and Tibet don’t have this up-to-date information.

If you are traveling to Tibet from Nepal, you must ask your tour guide to fill out a form at customs so that you can quickly enter China. If you want to get in touch with a reliable travel agency in Tibet, we can help recommending you a native Tibetan Travel agency in Tibet.

Chinese Group Visa

However, if you plan to enter the TAR from Nepal, you need to enter on a Group Chinese Visa. If you arrive in Nepal with a standard Chinese tourist visa in your passport, it will be canceled, and you cannot enter China with it. You will have wasted both your time and your money.

The Tibet travel regulations on entering Tibet from Nepal are different than the regulations entering Tibet from the rest of China. The biggest difference is the requirement of the Group Chinese Visa. The Group Chinese Visa is normally only valid for 21 to 28 days and cannot be extended in China.

In comparison, a standard Chinese tourist visa is valid from 30 to 90 days, depending on your nationality, and can almost always be extended at least once for an additional 30 days. So, if you book a 14-day tour of Tibet, you will probably only have 7 to 14 days remaining on your group visa to visit other places in China before you leave the country.

Also, over the past three years, I have heard several reports of people only getting 15-day group visas if they only book a short tour in Tibet (less than seven days). Most people who go to Tibet plan on spending a few weeks traveling in China. If you enter from Nepal, you won’t be able to spend as much time in the rest of China after your Tibet tour.

The Potala Palace པོ་ཏ་ལ་, the most famous building in Tibet

The Chinese group Visa required to enter Tibet from Nepal can only be arranged by a travel agency. You cannot get this visa on your own. As I stated earlier, if you arrive in Nepal with a standard Chinese tourist visa already in your passport, you will not be able to use this and will not receive a refund.

The Group Chinese Visa is not placed in your passport like a standard Chinese tourist visa is. It is a piece of paper that lists everyone in your group’s name, gender, nationality, and passport number. You will still receive an entrance stamp in your passport, but the actual visa is a piece of paper you are responsible for holding onto until you depart China.

In the past, you were required to always enter Tibet from Nepal with a group of at least 2 or 3 people. This sometimes proves to be a major problem when budget travel agencies place strangers together in a group to split the cost of a tour to Tibet. That group of strangers would then be forced to travel to all of the same places in China at the same time and exit the country at the same time, at the same place. This would cause all kinds of problems because the agencies usually didn’t explain in detail what the Group Chinese Visa was and that the group had to be together until they exited China.

Groups of strangers with different travel plans in China quickly encountered major difficulties! For the past several years, getting a Group Chinese Visa as a solo traveler has been quite easy. You still have to be part of an organized tour that includes travel permits, a tour guide, a private vehicle, and a driver, but you can normally get a group visa for just yourself.

The minimum number of tourists on the group tour is 4-5 pax. If you are less than this, many travel agencies in Lhasa can help you find a local Nepalese passport to list on this visa. Yet you will have to pay for visa fees and borrow the passport.  Do keep in mind, though, that travel regulations for Tibet can change at any time.

Small village on the way to Everest Base Camp

Woman in Lhasa spinning a prayer wheel

Because of the Group Chinese Visa restrictions, I almost always recommend people travel from Mainland China to Tibet and Nepal. By traveling in this direction, you avoid having to get a group visa and can enter on a standard Chinese tourist visa. This allows you far more time to travel in China.

If you have any questions regarding Chinese Group Visas, feel free to email me via info@thelandofsnows.com

Losang བློ་བཟང་