Foreigners staying outside hotels in China can now register accommodation online via the NIA platform, app, WeChat or Alipay within 24 hours. Same legal effect as police station registration; failure may bring a warning or fine up to 2,000 yuan.
Tags:Foreign visitors to China who choose to stay somewhere other than a hotel can now register their accommodation with the authorities online, which analysts say will make travelling to the country more convenient. Those people who reside or stay in domiciles other than hotels, they or the persons who accommodate them, within 24 hours after the foreigners' arrival, may access the NIA Government Service Platform (including the official website, the "NIA 12367" App, and "NIA 12367" WeChat mini program, or the Alipay mini program) to complete the online accommodation registration. Online registration has the same legal effect as on-site registration. The initial registration should be completed with accommodation hosts's assistance.
China’s Exit and Entry Administration Law mandates that foreigners register their accommodation with the police within 24 hours of arrival. Those who fail to do so could be issued a warning or fined up to 2,000 yuan (US$298).
This applies both to foreign visitors arriving in the country and those moving from one part of China to another.
Hotels are usually able to complete this process on guests’ behalf, but those staying elsewhere previously had to visit a local police station in person to register.
Under the updated rules, they could now fill in the paperwork on the website of the National Immigration Administration, its official app, or services within the WeChat or Alipay platforms, the administration said in a statement on Monday.
Either the visitors or their hosts can complete the registration. Foreigners who have their own homes in China or have residency documents do not need to re-register each time they return to the country, according to the statement.
On March 20, a pilot programme for online registration was launched in seven provinces and regions – including Hebei, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Hubei, Guangxi, Chongqing, and Sichuan.
This had made the process “more convenient and better organised”, the immigration administration said at a press conference in July.
“We will gradually extend online accommodation registration for foreigners to the entire country so as to deliver more efficient and convenient government services to foreigners who work, study and live in China,” a spokesman said at the time.
In the past, the inconvenience of paperwork and the relatively lax enforcement of the rules meant that many foreigners simply did not bother to register when travelling, expats said. A Beijing-based American who wished to stay anonymous said that when he went to a village in Hunan province, the local police did not know how to register him.
Some foreigners might have seen registering as intrusive if their own governments did not carry out the same procedures, he said. But in China, the concept was less unusual – as part of a broader administrative culture that included the hukou household registration system applied to all Chinese citizens.
“China is constantly adjusting its administrative systems to changes in its national and local environment. The characteristic feature is that these changes are generally implemented through planning, pilots and controlled expansion rather than through sudden policy changes,” Tangen said.
China has introduced a series of policies in recent years to attract foreign tourists, including expanding visa free entry for travellers from dozens of countries and simplifying access to digital payment platforms
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Editor: Yuna
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