China Visa for US Citizens: What We Paid and How We Applied

Most US citizens need a visa for a regular tourist trip to mainland China. Ours cost $1,062 for the three of us, and our passports came back within a week. We applied online from Texas for our nine-night July trip with our 6-year-old. We got 10-year multiple-entry tourist (L) visas, so that cost covers future trips too.

Visa rules and fees change, so treat this as our experience and check the embassy’s current requirements before you apply.

Last verified: September 2026

Do US Citizens Need a Visa for China?

Yes, unless your trip qualifies for an exception. The main one is China’s 240-hour visa-free transit policy, for travelers passing through China to a third country or region.

Transit only works if your whole route qualifies: where you arrive from, where you fly next, your entry and exit ports, the areas you visit, your length of stay, and a confirmed onward ticket. Check the Chinese Embassy’s current visa notices before counting on it.

We flew in from Manila and out to the US, but we didn’t try visa-free transit. We were flying between four cities inside China, and transit rules limit where you can go, so a visa was the simpler choice.

How to Apply for a China Visa for US Citizens

The process has two stages: an online application, then an in-person passport submission.

1. Apply online. Fill out the China Online Visa Application System form and upload your documents for preliminary review. The embassy may ask for corrections or more documents. Ours went through without any requests.

2. Submit your passport. Once your status changes to “Passport to be submitted,” the physical passport has to go to the visa office so the visa can be placed inside it. You or a representative can drop it off and pick it up.

Your office depends on where you live, not which one is closest. Texas falls under the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., so we had two choices: fly to D.C. ourselves, or pay a D.C. visa service to handle the in-person part.

We went with Oasis China Visa Services. We FedExed our passports and documents to them, their representative submitted and collected them at the visa office, and they shipped everything back. The embassy still makes the decision; the service just handles the drop-off and pickup.

For us, $642 beat a separate trip from Texas to D.C. If you’re comparing quotes, ask:

• Is the price per person or for your whole group?
• Is shipping included both ways?
• Does document review cost extra?
• Is there a charge for expedited handling?
• What happens if the embassy asks for more documents?

What Documents Do You Need?

Your passport needs more than six months of validity left and at least two blank visa pages. For a tourist visa through the Washington office, you may need to upload:

• Your passport’s photo page and a blank visa page
• Proof of residence
• Any previous Chinese visa or residence permit
• Name-change documents, if they apply
• Previous passport or nationality records, if they apply

The embassy says US-based tourist applicants generally don’t need flight or hotel bookings, an itinerary, or an invitation letter anymore. It can still ask for more during review.

Applying for a Child

Every child needs their own application, based on their own passport.

Our daughter got her second passport right before we applied for her visa. We double-checked that every field used her new passport number, issue date, and expiration date, since it’s easy for old details to slip into the form. We kept her old passport information handy in case the embassy asked for it.

How Long Does a China Visa Take for US Citizens?

The Washington office lists average processing at four business days for regular service and three for express, which costs $25 more per visa. That clock starts when your passport is submitted, not when you apply online.

The full timeline also includes preliminary review, any document requests, and shipping both ways. Our passports came back within a week of sending them to the visa service. We applied in May, about two months before our July trip, which left plenty of room for delays.

What Would We Do Differently?

Not much. The visa service handled the in-person part smoothly, and we’d use it again.

The one change: I’d put the full visa cost into our trip budget from the start instead of treating it as a small admin fee. The government fees were the smaller part of what we paid. We put it all on our Amex Business Platinum, so even the visa costs earned Membership Rewards points toward future trips.

Continue Planning Your China Trip

• How Much Does a Trip to China Cost? Our 9-Night Total
• What We’d Do Differently on Our China Trip with a Young Child
• China with Kids: A Realistic Itinerary
• China Packing List With Kids
• How to Get Internet in China
• China Travel Guide

Once your visas are sorted, grab our free China Travel Cheat Sheet for payments, internet, apps, and getting around.