China will tighten its entry and exit rules effective September 15, 2026

The State Council of China has issued new regulations on entry and exit management. The regulations consist of 19 articles and will take effect on September 15, 2026. This is the most far-reaching overhaul in this area since the Chinese Entry and Exit Law took effect in 2013. A key new development is that the outflow of expertise, technologies, and data is explicitly treated as a matter of national security.

What’s changing for foreign travelers: Anyone who provides false information or submits incorrect documents in a visa application for China will face an entry ban of one to five years. The same ban may apply to individuals who have previously been punished for violating border regulations or for document forgery. Anyone listed on one of China’s countermeasures or entity lists may be denied a visa or barred from entry.

It is also explicitly stipulated that the relevant authorities may verify the applicant’s identity and purpose of travel and may request documents or data for this purpose. For applicants, this means above all that the information provided must be complete, accurate, and consistent across all documents—from the passport and the stated purpose of stay to the invitation and address of residence. A carelessly filled-out application thus poses a significantly greater risk than before.

Travel bans for Chinese nationals. The second focus of the regulation concerns the travel of Chinese citizens. In cases of document forgery or illegal border crossings, as well as criminal offenses committed abroad that endanger national security, travel bans ranging from six months to three years may be imposed. For violations of export control and technology transfer rules that affect industrial or technological security, no fixed maximum duration is specified; bans in such cases may also be imposed by specialized ministries such as the Ministry of Commerce. Those affected must be informed in writing of the reasons and their legal remedies—unless such notification would compromise national security or ongoing investigations.

The agency industry is also subject to stricter regulation: Providers of emigration and visa services in China must register—new providers within 15 days, and those already operating within 90 days. Foreign companies are not permitted to provide such services in China; only companies legally established there are allowed to do so. Those applying for a visa from outside China are not affected by this—the application process remains unchanged.

Tourists, business travelers, and expatriate professionals can still enter China as before; the only change is that there is less room for error in the application process. We select the appropriate visa type, compile the necessary documents, and review them for completeness and consistency before submission. This applies to both the tourist visa for China and the business visa for business travel.