24-hour Visa Exemption Border Inspection

From April 15th, 2015, passengers who take international or regional flights to other countries or regions via Beijing Capital Airports and stay in Beijing Capital Airport for less than 24 hours without leaving limited area can be exempted from border inspection formalities, instead, the ground service personnel will collect passenger information, instead, the ground service personnel will collect passenger information. Information acquisition time will be decreased from 45s per person to 10s per person, which is the most efficient transfer passenger information acquisition procedure with the highest speed in China. It facilitates transfer passenger flow greatly, and increases the international-to-international transfer capacity and efficiency of Beijing Capital Airport.

There is no nationality limitations on passengers who can enjoy 24-hour visa exemption border inspection formalities. Foreigners, China mainland residents, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan residents can all enjoy this policy. Flight scope includes transit routes to the third countries,regions or departing countries.

In terms of policy procedures, passengers who arrive at Capital Airport by taking international flights can handle ticket procedure in ground service transfer desk, and then reach international-to-international dedicated channel according to the clear instruction along the way. Ground service personnel will collect passenger information by border defense permit reading machine, and affix a transit-affirmation sign on boarding check. Next, passengers will have security check in closed transit channel before waiting for boarding at the boarding gate.

In order to ensure the smooth operation of 24-hour visa exemption border inspection, in the early stage, Beijing Capital Airport Co., Ltd. together with Beijing Exit-Entry Frontier Inspection Central Station, Air China Limited and Beijing Airport Aviation Ground Service Co., Ltd signed memorandum of cooperation, defining their respective responsibilities. As an airport management organization, Capital Airport rebuilt airport facilities actively, ensured the management of port limited areas; optimized instruction signs; assisted frontier inspection conducted training and assessment for ground service personnel; performed field exercise, ensuring smooth operation. At last,this policy was accepted by the inspection group composed of organizations including Bureau of Exit and Entry Administration of the Ministry of Public Security.

Currently, Capital Airport is the airline hub with the largest number of international-to-international transfer passengers in the country, with natural advantage of being the transit routes of North America-to-Southeast Asia/Northeast Asia, and Europe-to-Northeast Asia/Southeast Asia geographically.The implementation of 24-hour visa exemption border inspection has great significance to further development of Capital Airport international transit business. It not only helps simplify the international transfer formalities of the airport, decrease MCT (Minimum Connection Time), perfect clearance process, increase the transfer capacity and efficiency of the airport, but also provides a more convenient clearance environment for large amount of international transfer passengers, further enhances the hub attraction of the airport to international transfer passengers, increases number of international transfer passengers and strengthens its hub competency.