Travelers arrive on the departure hall in Singapore Changi airport in Singapore on March 31, 2023.
Catherine Lai | Afp | Getty Images
SINGAPORE — China will reinstate its 15-day visa-free entry for residents of Singapore and Brunei from July 26, based on the embassies of each countries.
This comes after a three-year suspension of visas as China adopted strict travel restrictions under its stringent zero-Covid policy, which resulted in December last yr.
Singapore residents will have the ability to enter China with no visa for 15 days in the event that they are there for business, tourism, family visits and transit, the Chinese embassy to Singapore said. It added that visas which have been issued to Singaporean residents will still be valid and people which have been requested might be processed.
Singapore and China have long enjoyed strong economic ties, with leaders from each side meeting this yr.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in March. Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong was met Chinese Premier Li Qiang while visiting Beijing in May.
The resumption of the visa-free entry policy “will facilitate people and business flows between our countries and pave the way in which for deeper bilateral cooperation,” Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a Facebook post.
“The news made me extremely pleased and excited, I’m planning more trips to China now,” said 54-year-old Wang Guoliang, a Singaporean whose parents and relatives are currently living in China.
“I applied for an emergency visa to go to China last month. It took me greater than every week to get my hands on the $157 visa,” he told CNBC. “This policy might be very convenient for my family and I. We might be returning to China in December in the course of the school holidays.”
Travelers from quite a lot of countries already enjoy visa exemptions, in the event that they are visiting China for lower than 30 days.
Amongst those countries are the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Maldives and Fiji, whose residents need only apply for a visa in the event that they are visiting China for greater than a month or for work, study or migration purposes.
Airline stocks were muted on Monday following the weekend announcement.
Shares of Singapore Airlines were higher by 0.4% initially of Monday’s trading session, while Cathay Pacific shed 0.35%.