Where to Fill the China Arrival Card: Official Website, 12367 App and Mini Programs

Key Takeaways

• Foreign nationals arriving in China can complete the arrival card (entry card) digitally before departure through the National Immigration Administration's official service platform at s.nia.gov.cn, the 12367 mobile app, or the official WeChat and Alipay mini programs — all of which are free.
• A digital submission generates a confirmation or QR code that you present at immigration inspection. It does not replace your passport, your visa or visa-free eligibility, or the inspection queue itself.
• Paper cards are still normally distributed on inbound flights and available in arrival halls, so a dead battery or no data connection is an inconvenience rather than a blocking failure.
• Exemptions and form rules change. Verify your specific nationality, visa type, and port of entry on the official platform or through the 12367 hotline before you fly.
• Any website or agency that charges a fee to "process" a China arrival card is not an official channel.

1. Introduction

China's entry rules have moved quickly. Over the past two years the visa-free list has expanded repeatedly, transit-without-visa stays have been lengthened, and more first-time visitors are landing at Chinese airports with no prior experience of the paperwork. That surge has created a very specific, very common anxiety: where exactly do I fill in the arrival card, and is the site I'm looking at actually official?

The confusion is understandable. Search results for "China arrival card" mix airline pages, third-party form-filling services, outdated blog posts describing only the paper card handed out on the plane, and genuine government portals whose menus are partly in Chinese. Travelers reasonably worry about handing passport details to the wrong website, or about arriving at immigration inspection with an incomplete form and a long queue behind them.

This guide untangles that. It explains what the China arrival card actually is, who needs one, and how the three official digital routes — the s.nia.gov.cn arrival card service, the 12367 app, and the official mini programs — compare in practice. It also covers the mistakes that most often cause a form to be rejected at the counter, and what to do if your phone fails you at the worst possible moment.

2. What the China Arrival Card Is — and Who Actually Needs One

Core conclusion: The arrival card is a short immigration form completed by foreign nationals on entry. It is an administrative record, not a permission — it does not grant entry, and it does not substitute for a visa or visa-free eligibility.

The card collects the information an immigration officer needs to process you quickly: identity, travel document details, the flight or vessel you arrived on, your purpose of visit, and where you will be staying. Because the same fields appear on paper and on screen, knowing them in advance is the single biggest time-saver.

Form section	What you provide	Where people go wrong
Identity	Surname and given name, exactly as printed in the passport	Reversing name order, or using a nickname or married name not in the passport
Travel document	Passport number, nationality, date of birth, sex	Transcribing a character incorrectly from a machine-readable zone
Journey details	Flight, train, or vessel number; port of entry	Using the booking reference instead of the flight number
Purpose of visit	Tourism, business, visiting relatives, transit, study	Choosing "transit" when actually entering the city
Address in China	Hotel name and address, or host's address	Writing only "Shanghai" or a city name with no street address
Duration	Intended length of stay	Leaving it blank because the return date is undecided

Two practical points matter more than the rest. First, the address in China must be a real, specific address — a hotel name with its street address is ideal, and it is worth screenshotting the booking confirmation before you fly. Second, the name field must match the passport exactly, including hyphens and spacing conventions where the form allows them. Small mismatches are the most frequent cause of a traveler being sent to one side to redo the form.

Exemptions exist and are not always obvious — certain document holders, crew, and some categories of travelers are handled differently, and the rules have been adjusted as visa-free policies expanded. Rather than rely on a blog post (including this one), confirm your own case on the official platform or by calling the 12367 immigration service hotline, which operates around the clock and offers service in several languages including English.

3. The Three Official Digital Channels, Compared

Core conclusion: All three official routes submit the same underlying form to the same authority. Choose based on what is already installed on your phone, not on any difference in outcome.

The official website — s.nia.gov.cn. This is the National Immigration Administration's government service platform. It runs in a mobile browser, which means it works on any phone without installing anything — useful if you are on a borrowed device, a tablet, or a laptop in a hotel lobby. The practical advantage is that you can complete it calmly the night before departure, save a screenshot of the confirmation, and skip the scramble for a pen on the aircraft. Look for the English language toggle; some menu labels remain in Chinese, so navigate by the arrival card / entry card wording rather than by position on the page.

The 12367 app. The 12367 number is the immigration service hotline, and the associated app bundles the arrival card service with other immigration functions. It is a reasonable choice for repeat travelers, for people who want the service pinned to their home screen, and for anyone who prefers an app to a browser session. The caveat is availability: app store listings and versions can differ by country and platform, so if you cannot find it in your region's store, use the website instead — the form and the result are the same.

Official mini programs. If you already use WeChat or Alipay, the official mini programs inside those apps are the fastest route, because there is no download step and payment or identity verification is already set up. This is the smoothest option for travelers who keep WeChat installed for messaging and payments in China anyway. The trade-off is that mini programs live inside a larger app, so screenshots of the confirmation are essential in case the parent app logs you out or updates mid-journey.

Channel	Best for	Requires	Works without installing anything?	Main caveat
s.nia.gov.cn	First-time visitors, laptop or tablet users, anyone avoiding app installs	A browser and a data connection	Yes	Some interface text is in Chinese
12367 app	Repeat travelers, frequent business visitors	App install from your regional app store	No	Store availability varies by country
WeChat / Alipay mini program	Travelers already using these apps in China	An active WeChat or Alipay account	No	Session can expire; screenshot the result

Whichever route you use, treat the confirmation screen as a document. Screenshot it, and if the platform offers an email or download option, use it. Airport Wi-Fi and mobile roaming at a foreign SIM's data rate are both unreliable exactly when you need them most.

4. How to Fill It Correctly: A Practical Walkthrough

Core conclusion: Fifteen minutes of preparation the day before departure eliminates almost every arrival-card problem. The form itself takes a few minutes; the delay is always in retrieving information you did not bring.

Work through this sequence:

1. Assemble the source documents. Passport, ticket with the flight number, and the hotel booking with a full street address. Photograph each one so the details are readable even if the originals are in an overhead bin.
2. Choose your channel and open the arrival card form. Confirm you are on the official domain or in the official app or mini program — check the URL, and be suspicious of any page that asks for payment.
3. Enter the name exactly as printed in the passport. If the passport shows a surname and given names in separate boxes, follow that split rather than typing the full name into one field.
4. Copy the passport number character by character. Check digits at the end of the number are frequently mistyped, and a wrong check digit can stall the record.
5. Enter the flight number, not the booking reference. The airline's two-letter code plus the numeric flight number is what immigration staff are matching against.
6. Write a specific address in China. Hotel name plus street address is the safest pattern; if you are staying with a host, use their full residential address.
7. Select the purpose of visit honestly. Tourism, business, family visit, study, and transit are treated differently, and the officer can see your visa category.
8. Submit, then save the confirmation. Screenshot the QR code or reference number and keep it in your photo library, not buried in an email inbox that needs a data connection to open.

A realistic scenario: a traveler lands after a long flight, opens the mini program in the arrival hall, and discovers the session has timed out and the airport Wi-Fi requires a verification code that will not load. This is precisely why the card should be completed before departure, ideally the day before, and why the screenshot matters more than the submission itself.

If the digital route fails entirely, the fallback is simple: take a paper card from the arrival hall or ask a flight attendant on board, and fill it in the queue. It costs a few minutes. It does not cost you your entry.

5. Key Considerations, Cautions, and Boundary Cases

A few points deserve separate attention because they cause disproportionate stress:

• The arrival card is free. No official channel charges for it. Sites that collect a "service fee" or "processing fee" for a China arrival card are third parties, and handing them passport data is an avoidable privacy risk.
• It is not a visa, and not a health declaration. Visa and visa-free eligibility are separate determinations made before travel. Customs and health declaration requirements are a different process again and have changed several times since 2023 — check the current rule close to your departure date rather than assuming last year's practice still applies.
• Digital does not mean queue-free. You still join the immigration inspection line, present your passport, and answer any questions. The digital card simply means one less piece of paper to fill in.
• Transit travelers should be careful with the purpose field. If you are using a transit-without-visa arrangement and leaving the airport, your onward ticket and accommodation details become relevant, and selecting the wrong purpose category invites unnecessary questions.
• Families and groups. Each traveler generally needs their own card, including children, though the exact handling of minors is worth confirming with your airline. For group tours, the tour operator often manages this — ask in advance rather than at the counter.
• Rules change. Ports introduce and retire processes, and form windows (how far in advance you may submit) can be adjusted. The platform itself and the 12367 hotline are the authoritative sources; use this guide to understand the landscape, not as a substitute for checking the current rule.

6. FAQ

Q1. Is s.nia.gov.cn the official website for the China arrival card?

Yes — it is the National Immigration Administration's government service platform, and the arrival card service sits within it. The key practical test is the domain itself: the official service lives on the government domain, not on a lookalike site with a hyphenated or commercial address. If a page asks for a card payment before showing you a form, you are in the wrong place.

Q2. Do I still need the paper card if I filled it in online?

Usually not, provided your digital confirmation is visible and your submission went through. But keep the paper option in mind as a backup: if your phone dies, the confirmation will not load, or the officer cannot read the QR code, a paper card filled in at the arrival hall resolves the situation quickly. Many airlines still hand them out on inbound flights.

Q3. Can I complete the arrival card without WeChat or Alipay?

Yes. The website at s.nia.gov.cn works in any modern mobile or desktop browser with no app install and no messaging account, which makes it the most universally accessible option. The 12367 app is an alternative if it is listed in your regional app store.

Q4. Is the arrival card the same as a visa or the health declaration?

No. The arrival card is an entry record completed at the point of arrival. A visa (or visa-free eligibility) is a separate permission determined before travel, and customs or health declarations are a different process with their own current rules. Completing one does not satisfy the others.

7. Conclusion

The China arrival card is one of the least complicated pieces of China travel paperwork — once you know where it lives. The judgment is straightforward: use s.nia.gov.cn if you want the most universally accessible option with no installation; use the 12367 app if you travel to China regularly and want the service on your home screen; use the official WeChat or Alipay mini program if you already live in those apps. All three are free, all three produce the same result, and none of them changes what happens at the inspection counter.

The practical recommendation is to complete the form the day before departure, with your passport, flight number, and hotel address open in front of you, and to keep a screenshot of the confirmation rather than relying on a live connection at the airport. Treat the official platform and the 12367 hotline as your sources of truth for exemptions and current rules, and treat any paid "arrival card service" as a red flag.

For travelers building out the rest of their pre-departure checklist — visa categories, transit rules, entry ports, and what to expect in the arrival hall — HelloChina publishes English-language guides at hellochina.fans, written for readers who would rather plan from a clear source than piece together conflicting social posts.

Related reading

• China Arrival Card main guide
• The arrival card is free: avoid scams