China’s long-anticipated digital arrival-card system quietly entered full operation on 20 November and is drawing real-world traveller feedback this weekend. Foreign passengers can now complete the immigration declaration online before departure via the National Immigration Administration (NIA) portal, the “NIA 12367” app, or built-in WeChat/Alipay mini-programs and generate a QR code for scanning at e-gates.
A Reddit thread that went viral on 23 November details the five-step process (passport photo upload, personal data, trip details, digital signature, QR generation) and confirms the system worked at Beijing Capital and Shanghai Pudong, with fallback kiosks and paper cards still available. Exemptions apply to permanent residents, 24-hour airside transit passengers, cruise-ship visitors and select group visas.
![Digital Arrival Card Goes Live Nationwide, Replacing Paper Forms]()
Context: the e-card is part of the NIA’s ten-point facilitation package unveiled on 3 November 2025, which also expanded 240-hour transit-visa ports. For frequent business travellers the change eliminates handwriting errors and shortens border queues—Shanghai pilot data indicate a 30 % reduction in average processing time.
Action points for corporates: update pre-trip checklists to include the e-card link (s.nia.gov.cn/ArrivalCardFillingPC). Encourage travellers to submit within 48 hours of arrival; early adopters reported occasional time-out issues when forms were started weeks in advance. Airlines such as Spring Airlines have begun pushing the link in pre-departure emails.
Data privacy: the NIA states that information is stored on domestic government servers and purged after the statutory retention period, but firms handling sensitive IP may wish to remind employees to use private devices and secure networks when uploading documents.
A Reddit thread that went viral on 23 November details the five-step process (passport photo upload, personal data, trip details, digital signature, QR generation) and confirms the system worked at Beijing Capital and Shanghai Pudong, with fallback kiosks and paper cards still available. Exemptions apply to permanent residents, 24-hour airside transit passengers, cruise-ship visitors and select group visas.
Context: the e-card is part of the NIA’s ten-point facilitation package unveiled on 3 November 2025, which also expanded 240-hour transit-visa ports. For frequent business travellers the change eliminates handwriting errors and shortens border queues—Shanghai pilot data indicate a 30 % reduction in average processing time.
Action points for corporates: update pre-trip checklists to include the e-card link (s.nia.gov.cn/ArrivalCardFillingPC). Encourage travellers to submit within 48 hours of arrival; early adopters reported occasional time-out issues when forms were started weeks in advance. Airlines such as Spring Airlines have begun pushing the link in pre-departure emails.
Data privacy: the NIA states that information is stored on domestic government servers and purged after the statutory retention period, but firms handling sensitive IP may wish to remind employees to use private devices and secure networks when uploading documents.
