April 25
General advice about the 60-day China Visa Extension Policy for foreigners
Brief Introduction
It is my understanding that on around 1 March 2020, China National Immigration Bureau (“NIB”) released a notice on a press conference that “during the battle against the COVID-19 outbreak, foreigners will have their stay or residence permits extended automatically for the two months without needing to apply or go through any special procedures and during the automatically extended period, their stay in China is regarded as legal stay and could exit China normally”(在疫情防控期间,在华的外国人如果停居留期限已经到了,可以自动顺延两个月。在顺延的期限内,没有必要再去办理延期手续,仍可以在华合法的停居留,或者正常的出境), and in another PDF page provided in the WeChat Group Chat (which content is confirmed by a telephone consultation with NIB) above notice is informed with more details as “During control period of 2019-CoV which is calculated from 20th Jan 2020 and the deadline will be announced later, the China visas/resident permits for foreigners will be extended automatically to 60 days.”
“For those visas/resident permits which have expired before 27th Feb, the duration of stay will be extended automatically to 60 days since the date of 27th Feb. For those visas/resident permits which expired on 27th Feb, or will expire after 27th Feb, the duration of stay will be extended automatically to 60 days since the original visa expiration date. The expats who are with China visas/resident permits that under the above circumstances can stay in China or exit China legally without going through any visa extension procedure.” (“60-day Policy”)(疫情防控期间(从2020年1月20日起算,截止时间另行通知),在华外国人所持签证、停留居留证件有效期自动延长60日。对在2月27日前签证证件过期的,停居留期限自2月27日起自动延长60日;对2月27日后(含本日)到期的,自原停居留期限到期日起自动延长60日;上述外国人可凭原签证、停居留许可在华停居留或出境,无需办理延期手续.
After searching the relevant keywords in the official and private legal database and telephone consultation with Shanghai NIB until today 23 April 2020, it is in my belief that this 60-day Policy is existing as an oral policy without formal document and its interpretation and application would be on a case-by-case basis. For clarification on the “oral policy” by comparison, I would explain further the formal policy. The formal policy in China is in written form and its most prominent feature is that it has an official classification number.
Example
The Guo Fa Ming Dian (2020) No. 2 (国发明电〔2020〕2号) is the official classification number of a policy with the official name of Urgent Notice by the General Office of the State Council of Effectively Organizing the Resumption of Operation and Production of Manufacturers and the Scheduling of Key Supplies for Epidemic Prevention and Control (国务院办公厅关于组织做好疫情防控重点物资生产企业复工复产和调度安排工作的紧急通知)
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As an oral policy, except core and keywords, the information in the 60-day Policy is uncertain. According to the 60-day Policy (if applied), the extension could be classified into 2 types as below:-
Type 1 Extension:
China visas/resident permits with an expiration date before 27th Feb 2020. In this case, if the 60-day Policy is applied, the China visas/resident permits will expire on 27th April 2020.
Example
China visa with an expiration date on 26th Feb 2020. If 60-day Policy applies, its extension date is 27th April (not 26th April)
Type 2 Extension:
China visas/resident permits with an expiration date after 27th Feb. In this case, if the 60-day Policy is applied, the China visas/resident permits will expire on its original expiration date + 60days.
Example
China visa with an expiration date on 3 March 2020. If the 60-day Policy applies, its expiration date is 3 May 2020.
Questions
1- A lot of expats are needing clarifications on the “2-month visa extension” & especially would like a government announcement on if it will be extended or something.
Answer: According to the telephone conversation with Shanghai NIB, it orally informed that in high possibilities that new policy would be released in several days (since the deadline 27th April is near) for solving the over-stay problem and Shanghai NIB cannot give a certain answer since Shanghai NIB itself is waiting for the answer from State NIB too. The officer on telephone conversation recommended keeping a close eye on the public Wechat Account of Shanghai NIB.
Conclusion & Advice
According to the telephone with NIB, it is recommended that to extend one’s visa or resident permit at one’s own earliest convenience when possible or at least before the expiration of the 60-day policy since the branches or departments of NIB at a different level have been open and taken applications now.
In case of any change in government notice due to nowadays urgent COVID-2019 matter, above may be amended. Please let me know your comments if any.
Thanks.
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Schedule from State NIB:
Service Telephone of NIB in Provincial Level (Telephone is very likely in Chinese) |
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