New China Visa Rules for Malaysians in 2018

New China Visa Rules for Malaysians in 2018

There is an article from China Daily a few days ago, there will be new China Visa rules for ‘selective’ Malaysians starting February 2018. According to the article, Malaysian Chinese will get China VISA from three to five years. The current China VISA allows multiple visit up to ONE year for Malaysians.

A couple of years ago, Malaysians can apply up China VISA up to two years before they restricted it to one year. That is one of the main reasons why we didn’t travel to China since 2012. The hassle of getting the China VISA and the fees you have to pay to visit China.

Qu Yunhai, director of the ministry’s Exit and Entry Administration Bureau, said at a news conference that the move was an upgrade of similar measures issued in recent years to encourage overseas Chinese “to participate in China’s economic development”.

The move aims to streamline the process for overseas Chinese to “return home” and to make it easy for them to visit families, conduct business and cultural exchanges and run personal errands in China, the ministry said.

In addition to the visa extension, the ministry also made public several policies related to cross-border travel, including enabling Chinese citizens to apply for visas anywhere within a province and provide photo services for visa applicants free of charge.

According to the ministry, the number of cross-border visits surpassed 590 million in 2017, a year-on-year increase of 4.7 percent. Of those, some 290 million were made by Chinese mainland residents. – China Daily

It is a good move but we hope it is extended for all Malaysians than selective Malaysian Chinese. Since Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia has been expanding heavily to China, more Malaysians should be encouraged to travel to China and not just Malaysian Chinese ethnic alone.

To be safe on the authenticity of the news, we checked on the official website of China Embassy in Malaysia and there is nothing mentioned of this new China VISA rules.

Thus, let us wait until the official announcement from the China Embassy in Malaysia before we celebrate this news. We hope the China VISA extension is for all Malaysians. If there is an extension of China VISA to 5 years, we don’t mind visiting and traveling to China again.

Malaysians do not require VISA for Hong Kong and Macau even though they are part of China.

Wilson Ng