The news we have all been waiting for has broken in the last couple of days. Effective immediately, nationals of some 36 countries in Europe may now reapply for their visa to China and enter the country before completing the necessary quarantine procedures.
While the news has come far earlier than most people expected, it nevertheless has left many Europeans scratching their heads in frustration. Rather than the announcement appearing in a centralised location such as China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, it instead has popped up in fits and starts on the websites of various Chinese Embassies in Europe and numerous media outlets.
But none paint the full picture.
While both the South China Morning Post and the Global Times stop short of publishing the entire list of countries whose citizens may now reenter China, the full 36 are listed on the website of the Chinese Embassy in Germany, among others.
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They are Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and the United Kingdom.
Nationals from the aforementioned countries are now eligible to return to China, provided they are also holders of a valid residence permit. This includes resident permits for work, family reunion and personal matters, together with group permits.
But, and it’s a big but, not included on the list are holders of business visas, or category M visas, the Foreign Affairs Office of Nanjing confirmed to The Nanjinger.
And that’s exactly the vital piece of missing information required by many an expat in Europe hoping to return to China to carry on their business affairs in the country.
Returning foreigners will still be subject to Covid tests, a 14-day quarantine and any other local restrictions that may be in place at their final destination.
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The Chinese Embassy in Germany also states that applications for a visa to China can now be made at any Chinese embassy or consulate in these countries for free and without invitation. This also goes for those whose existing residence permit is still valid, ie a newly-issued visa is required for all foreigners returning to China.
China’s doors are reopening in more ways than one. On a local level, many residential communities in Nanjing have started to reopen long-closed entry/exit points.
Barricaded by iron bars, barbed wire or in some places, even piles of disused shared bikes, closing all but one entrance to each and every residential community proved to be a integral part of China’s success story in curbing the epidemic’s spread.
Another key element, those all-important, body-temperature checks, largely remain in force at the gates of residential communities, supermarkets and other places where large concentrations of people gather.
