Last updated: 16 October 2026
Direct answer. China visa fees are charged per person in CNY by number of entries: zero-entry CNY 160, single-entry 168, double-entry 252, six-month multiple 420 and one-year-plus multiple 672 for non-reciprocal countries. Single-entry group visas are CNY 130. Reciprocal-country fees follow Ministry of Foreign Affairs standards, and no amount is printed for them.
China's official visa fee list, per person in CNY: entry, group and residence-permit fees, the two notices they rest on, and what is charged at embassy rates.
Every amount on this page is printed on a page published by China's National Immigration Administration and retrieved on 16 October 2026: the NIA's "Fee Schedule" list, and the NIA's guide on visa extension, change and reissuance. Neither page states a per-nationality figure, and this page does not guess one.
Visa fees are the part of a China trip people search for last and plan for least. The problem is not that the numbers are secret — they are published — but that the published list is a schedule, not a quotation. It is divided by the kind of document being issued (a visa, a group visa, a residence permit, a permanent-resident card) and by number of entries, and it separates countries into two charging categories rather than listing them one by one.
Two limits are worth stating before the tables. The NIA's fee list carries its own release note — the list was released on 9 October 2020 — and the underlying charging notices are older still. And the NIA's English pages are published for reference; where a fee decides a live application, the office that will take the payment is the authority.
If the question is whether you need a visa at all rather than what it costs, start with the visa-free entry schemes and the three visa-free routes for US passports. If you are already in China and the stay is running out, the extension, change and reissuance guide covers the process and the deadline.
The NIA fee list names its legal basis in every row, and it names one document for visas in general and separate documents for residence matters. That split matters, because it explains why the list is organised the way it is.
| What is being charged | Charging basis named on the NIA list |
|---|---|
| Visas (all entry types, single and group), separation from a group visa, adding or reducing accompanying persons | National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Finance, Ji Jia Ge [2003] No. 392 |
| Residence permit matters — adding accompanying persons, reducing accompanying persons, alteration of the residence permit | National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Finance, Fa Gai Jia Ge [2004] No. 2230 |
| Permanent residence application service fee and the Foreign Permanent Resident ID Card | National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Finance, Fa Gai Jia Ge [2004] No. 1267 |
The NIA's guide on extension, change and reissuance states the same basis in full: the "Reply of the State Development Planning Commission and the Ministry of Finance on Approving the Adjustment to the Visa Charging Standards of Public Security Organs of the Mainland (Ji Jia Ge [2003] No. 392)". That guide then gives the standards themselves against a named notice — the "Notice of Public Security Organs to Adjust Charging Standards to Foreigners' Visas (Gong Ming Fa [2011] No. 470)". So the amounts below are not a market price or an agency price; they are a fee schedule with a stated instrument behind each row.
These are the amounts the NIA guide gives for non-reciprocal countries, charged per person. They follow the number of entries the visa carries, not the length of the trip.
| Visa issued | Fee | Unit as printed |
|---|---|---|
| Zero-entry visa (non-reciprocal countries) | CNY 160 | per person |
| Single-entry visa (non-reciprocal countries) | CNY 168 | per person |
| Double-entry visa (non-reciprocal countries) | CNY 252 | per person |
| Multiple-entry visa, valid for 6 months (non-reciprocal countries) | CNY 420 | per person |
| Multiple-entry visa, valid for 1 year and above to 5 years (non-reciprocal countries) | CNY 672 | per person |
| Adding or reducing accompanying persons (non-reciprocal countries) | CNY 160 | per person |
The pattern is the useful part. A six-month multiple-entry visa costs less than three double-entry visas, and a one-year-or-longer multiple-entry visa costs less than two six-month ones — which is why the multiple-entry row is the one worth checking against your actual travel pattern rather than assuming single-entry is the cheap option.
A zero-entry visa is not a contradiction in terms: it is the category used where the visa permits no additional entry beyond the one being made.
Group visas are charged at their own rates, and they are not simply the individual rate divided among the group.
| Document | Fee | Unit as printed |
|---|---|---|
| Single-entry group visa (non-reciprocal countries) | CNY 130 | per person |
| Double-entry group visa (non-reciprocal countries) | CNY 170 | per person |
| Separation from a group visa (non-reciprocal countries) | CNY 160 | per person |
| Adding or reducing accompanying persons (non-reciprocal countries) | CNY 160 | per person |
"Separation from a group visa" is the row to know about if a group itinerary breaks up: leaving the group is itself a chargeable matter on the list, priced at the same CNY 160 as adding or reducing an accompanying person.
The residence-related rows sit on the other two charging notices. They are charged per person, per time or per card, as printed.
| Document or matter | Fee | Unit as printed |
|---|---|---|
| Residence permit — adding accompanying persons for foreigners who hold a residence permit, valid for no more than one year | CNY 400 | per person per time |
| Residence permit — adding accompanying persons, valid for 1 year and above to 3 years | CNY 800 | per person per time |
| Residence permit — adding accompanying persons, valid for 3 years and above to 5 years | CNY 1,000 | per person per time |
| Reducing accompanying persons for foreigners who hold a residence permit | CNY 200 | per person per time |
| Alteration of the Chinese residence permit for foreigners | CNY 200 | per time |
| Service fee for the application for Chinese permanent residence for foreigners | CNY 1,500 | per person |
| People's Republic of China Foreign Permanent Resident ID Card | CNY 300 | per card |
| Renewal and re-issuance of the Foreign Permanent Resident ID Card due to expiration or information alteration | CNY 300 | per card |
| Replacement and renewal of the Foreign Permanent Resident ID Card due to loss or damage | CNY 600 | per card |
Two details in this table are easy to miss. The residence-permit rows are charged "per time", not per year, and the fee steps up with the validity being granted — the same additional accompanying person costs CNY 400, 800 or 1,000 depending on how long the permit runs. And the permanent-resident card is charged separately from the application service fee, with the loss-or-damage replacement priced at twice the ordinary renewal.
Three things are deliberately absent, and each absence has a reason printed on the page itself.
That last point is the practical one. If you read a number somewhere that is attributed to a specific nationality and presented as "the" fee, the number is either a reciprocal-country standard set by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or it is not from this schedule at all. Treat a per-nationality figure as something to confirm at the embassy or the exit-entry bureau handling the application rather than as a published constant.
The extension guide describes delivery rather than payment: visas issued to foreigners after approval are to be claimed by the applicants in person at the relevant exit-entry departments of public security organs, with the acceptance receipts. The same guide fixes the decision window: an acceptance receipt for a visa application is valid for no more than seven working days from the date of acceptance, and the decision on whether or not to issue the visa is made within that validity period. The extension guide page sets out the process steps and the refusal grounds in full.
What the pages do not carry is a payment channel — no online payment route, no bank details and no card handling are printed on either. Any payment page you arrive at through a search result is not the source of the amounts above.
The NIA list does not answer that, and this page will not guess it. The schedule divides countries into non-reciprocal countries, charged the amounts in the tables above, and reciprocal countries, for which the list prints "Please refer to the stipulations of relevant documents" and the guide says the fee follows Ministry of Foreign Affairs standards. Neither NIA page states which category any particular country falls into, so confirm the category and the current figure with the embassy or the exit-entry bureau handling the application.
Per person for every visa row, as printed in the list's unit column: zero-entry, single-entry, double-entry, the multiple-entry rows, the group visa rows, separation from a group visa, and adding or reducing accompanying persons are all CNY per person. The residence-permit rows are charged per person per time, and the permanent-resident ID card rows are charged per card. The only row charged per time alone is the alteration of the Chinese residence permit for foreigners.
The extension guide cites the same 2011 notice for its charging standards and the same per-person amounts, so extensions are charged on the same schedule rather than at a separate rate. The amounts are the 160, 168, 252, 420 and 672 rows above, plus CNY 160 per accompanying person added or reduced. Confirm the applicable row with the exit-entry department that accepts the application.
For non-reciprocal countries, a single-entry group visa is CNY 130 per person and a double-entry group visa is CNY 170 per person — both below the corresponding individual rates. Separating from a group visa is CNY 160 per person, and adding or reducing accompanying persons is CNY 160 per person.
The application service fee for Chinese permanent residence for foreigners is CNY 1,500 per person. The Foreign Permanent Resident ID Card is charged separately at CNY 300 per card, with renewal or re-issuance for expiration or information alteration also at CNY 300 per card. Replacement and renewal after loss or damage is CNY 600 per card. The basis named for these rows is Fa Gai Jia Ge [2004] No. 1267.
All sources retrieved 16 October 2026. This page is an independent reading of the sources listed; the official pages themselves are the specification.
| Fact used on this page | Source |
|---|---|
| S1 — The complete per-row fee list with units and legal basis: single-entry group visa CNY 130; double-entry group visa CNY 170; separation from a group visa CNY 160; adding or reducing accompanying persons CNY 160; residence permit adding accompanying persons CNY 400 (valid no more than one year), CNY 800 (1 year and above to 3 years) and CNY 1,000 (3 years and above to 5 years); reducing accompanying persons for residence-permit holders CNY 200; alteration of the Chinese residence permit CNY 200; permanent residence application service fee CNY 1,500; Foreign Permanent Resident ID Card CNY 300; renewal and re-issuance CNY 300; replacement and renewal due to loss or damage CNY 600; the defers made for visa service fees charged in foreign currencies and in CNY for reciprocal countries ("Please refer to the stipulations of relevant documents"); the split between non-reciprocal and reciprocal country rows; the charging bases Ji Jia Ge [2003] No. 392, Fa Gai Jia Ge [2004] No. 2230 and Fa Gai Jia Ge [2004] No. 1267; and the list's own note that the fee schedule was released on 9 October 2020 — National Immigration Administration, "Fee Schedule"; retrieved 16 October 2026 | https://en.nia.gov.cn/n147423/n147478/n147735/c158461/content.html |
| S2 — The charging basis stated in full, and the non-reciprocal visa amounts per person: zero-entry CNY 160, single-entry CNY 168, double-entry CNY 252, multiple-entry valid for 6 months CNY 420, multiple-entry valid for 1 year and above to 5 years CNY 672, adding or reducing accompanying persons CNY 160; the statement that for reciprocal countries the fees shall be charged in accordance with standards stipulated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the acceptance receipt valid for no more than seven working days; and the rule that issued visas are claimed in person at the relevant exit-entry departments of public security organs with the acceptance receipts — National Immigration Administration, "Guide on Visa Extension, Change and Reissuance for Foreigners", published 1 April 2021; retrieved 16 October 2026 | https://en.nia.gov.cn/n147423/n147478/n147715/c158249/content.html |
| S3 — The location of both pages under the NIA's own English "Guidelines for Foreigners" section, including the Fee Schedule entry reached from it — National Immigration Administration, "Guidelines for Foreigners"; retrieved 16 October 2026 | https://en.nia.gov.cn/n147423/n147478/index.html |
| S4 — The distinction between the two charging categories is drawn by the pages themselves (reciprocal and non-reciprocal country rows), and neither page prints a per-nationality amount; this page therefore states no per-nationality figure — National Immigration Administration, "Fee Schedule" and "Guide on Visa Extension, Change and Reissuance for Foreigners"; retrieved 16 October 2026 | https://en.nia.gov.cn/n147423/n147478/n147735/c158461/content.html |