China Digital Arrival Card (CDAC) — Who Needs It and How to File

What does CDAC actually stand for — and what is it not?

CDAC = China Digital Arrival Card, the online arrival-information form run by China's National Immigration Administration. If your airline email or a news alert told you to 'complete your CDAC,' this is the form it means. It digitizes the paper foreigner arrival card; the paper version still exists at ports as a fallback, so the digital card is the default path, not the only path.

Just as important is what the CDAC is not. It is not a visa and does not replace one — whatever visa or visa-free arrangement you're entering under still applies unchanged. It is not the customs declaration: dutiable goods, excess cash, and pets remain a separate China Customs process. And it is not the health declaration — that pandemic-era customs form was abolished for ordinary travelers back on November 1, 2023. The CDAC is an immigration form, full stop.

Who must file — and the 7 official exemptions

The rule is broad: all foreigners entering mainland China — by air, land, or sea — must complete an arrival card, whether they hold a visa or enter visa-free. That includes the 30-day unilateral visa-free entrants (France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, and 40+ other countries, a scheme extended through December 31, 2026) and 240-hour transit passengers who pass through immigration.

The NIA lists exactly seven exempt categories:

• Holders of the PRC Foreign Permanent Resident ID Card (the 'China green card').
• Holders of the Mainland Travel Permit for Hong Kong and Macao residents (non-Chinese citizens).
• Travelers entering on a group visa or under group visa-free arrangements.
• Direct transit passengers staying within the port's restricted area for less than 24 hours (i.e., you never clear immigration).
• Cruise passengers entering and exiting on the same ship.
• Travelers using fast-lane e-channels at entry.
• Foreign crew members of ships, aircraft, and other exit-entry transport.

Do you need the CDAC? Real itineraries, sorted

The official exemption list is written in bureaucrat. Here is how it maps onto actual trips (verified against the NIA notice, August 2026):

How to file the CDAC, step by step

There are several official channels, all free and all feeding the same system: the web portal at s.nia.gov.cn (a PC version and a mobile version), the NIA 12367 app on iOS and Android, and NIA mini-programs inside WeChat and Alipay ('12367' is the NIA's service hotline number, which is where the app gets its name). You can also scan the official arrival-card QR posters at the port itself. The web portal needs no app install or Chinese phone number, which makes it the simplest route for most visitors:

1. Open s.nia.gov.cn within 72 hours of your planned entry. The page loads in Chinese by default — the language switcher is in the top-right corner; English is available.
2. Upload or photograph your passport data page. The system OCR-reads it and auto-fills your name, nationality, passport number, and date of birth.
3. Check every auto-filled field against the physical passport — OCR misreads O/0, I/1, and B/8 often enough that this is the step that matters most.
4. Enter travel details: transport mode, flight/train/vessel number, port and date of entry, and purpose of visit. Enter your visa details if you have a visa; visa-free travelers skip what doesn't apply.
5. Enter your phone number (with country code), email, and your full first-night accommodation or host address in China.
6. Review and submit. You receive an entry declaration receipt with a unique QR code — save it as a screenshot or PDF immediately.

How early can you file? The 72-hour window explained

The system only accepts submissions within 72 hours (3 days) before your planned entry date. Try to file five days out and the form will refuse you — that's not an error on your side, just the window. Set a reminder for three days before your flight and file from your hotel or home Wi-Fi, not from plane Wi-Fi, which fails often enough that it's a known trap.

Here's the nuance the panicky forum threads miss: the 72-hour figure is a system constraint, not a legal deadline. The official NIA and embassy notices set no deadline at all — they say to file before coming to China, or on arrival. Missing the pre-filing window is not a violation of anything.

So what actually happens if you land without filing? You complete it at the port: scan a posted QR code with your phone, use a smart kiosk in the inspection hall, or fill in a paper arrival card like it's 2019. No official notice describes any fine or penalty for not pre-filing — the real cost is 10-15 extra minutes standing in an arrivals hall after a long flight, which is exactly the moment you least want to be typing a hotel address into a phone.

How the QR code works at immigration (yes, offline)

Submitting the form produces an entry declaration receipt with a unique QR code, which you can download or email to yourself. At the immigration counter, the officer scans the QR to pull up your pre-filed record — the QR is just a pointer to data already sitting in the NIA's system.

That design answers the three questions everyone asks. Do you need to print it? No — a screenshot or saved PDF on your phone displays fine with no internet connection, and no live connection is needed at the counter. Do airlines check it at check-in? It's checked by Chinese immigration, not required for boarding — though some airline staff may ask to see it, so having the screenshot ready avoids a conversation. Is it reusable? No — the card is tied to one specific entry. Next trip, or re-entry after a Hong Kong or Macau side trip, means a fresh card.

Made a mistake, or plans changed? File a new card

Submitted cards cannot be edited. There is no 'amend' button, and no process for correcting a typo on an existing submission. The fix is refreshingly blunt: file a fresh card with the correct details and use the new QR at the border. The superseded one simply goes unused.

The same applies when plans change materially after you submit — a rebooked flight, a different entry date, a new first-night hotel. If the change lands you outside your original details in any way that matters (which flight, which day, where you're sleeping), redo the 5-minute form inside the 72-hour window and screenshot the new QR. Minor typos in a phone number are unlikely to derail anything, but the flight number, entry date, and passport number should match reality.

The 5 most common CDAC failures — and their fixes

• Filing too early: submissions more than 72 hours before entry are rejected. Fix: wait until you're inside the window — three days out, not a week.
• OCR passport errors: the photo upload misreads O as 0, I as 1, B as 8. Fix: manually verify the passport number character by character before submitting; refile if you catch it late.
• No address to enter: the accommodation field is mandatory, and 'I'll find a hostel when I land' doesn't parse. Fix: book at least your first night before filing — you can enter the address from the booking confirmation.
• Relying on in-flight Wi-Fi: filing from the plane fails frequently. Fix: file before you leave for the airport, on a connection you trust.
• The site loads in Chinese: this is default behavior, not a wrong URL. Fix: the language switcher is top-right; switch to English and continue.

Is the CDAC the same as the health declaration or customs form?

No — and this trips up returning visitors most of all. If you traveled to China between 2020 and 2023 you'll remember the customs health declaration QR. That form was abolished for ordinary travelers on November 1, 2023: China Customs no longer requires an Entry/Exit Health Declaration from anyone, unless you actually have symptoms of an infectious disease (fever, cough, vomiting and the like) or a diagnosis to declare, in which case you self-declare to customs.

Customs itself is also unchanged and separate. Carrying cash over the limits, restricted goods, or a pet still means dealing with China Customs on its own terms — the CDAC does not cover, replace, or connect to any of it. Despite what a few aggregator blogs claim, the CDAC is not an 'all-in-one' entry mega-form. It is one immigration form with one job.

CDAC + 240-hour visa-free transit: how they stack

The 240-hour (10-day) visa-free transit lets nationals of 55 countries enter at 65 eligible ports (expanded from 60 on November 5, 2025, adding Guangzhou, Hengqin, Zhongshan, the HK-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, and West Kowloon Station) with an onward ticket to a third country or region. It's the single best reason a CDAC question and a visa question arrive together.

The interaction is simple once you see the logic. 240-hour transit passengers clear immigration as individual visa-free entrants — they are not 'group visa-free,' so the group exemption doesn't apply, and they must file the CDAC like any other visitor. The only transit scenario that skips the CDAC is the short airside connection: under 24 hours, never leaving the port's restricted area, never passing an immigration counter. The moment you step landside — whether for 10 hours or 10 days — you're an entrant, and entrants file.

Everything else about the transit policy is its own topic — eligible nationalities, the onward-ticket rules, what you can and can't do on transit status (tourism and business yes; work, study, and journalism no). Our dedicated 240-hour visa-free transit guide covers it end to end.