On April 10, China’s National Immigration Administration (NIA) held a press conference to release major data on immigration management for the first quarter of 2026.

In the first quarter, immigration authorities nationwide handled a total of 185 million entries and exits, rising by 13.5 percent year on year. These included 91.662 million trips by mainland residents, 72.491 million by residents from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, and 21.333 million by foreign nationals, up 14.2 percent, 10.3 percent, and 22.3 percent, respectively. A total of 8.315 million foreign nationals made visa-free entries, accounting for 77.9 percent of all inbound foreign visitors, representing a 29.3 percent year-on-year increase. Immigration authorities inspected 10.098 million inbound and outbound vehicles, including planes, trains, ships and motor vehicles, an 18.9 percent increase year on year. Among them were 248,000 planes (up 3.7 percent), 27,000 trains (up 8 percent), 113,000 ships (up 6.7 percent), and 9.709 million motor vehicles (up 19.5 percent).

During the first quarter, immigration authorities across the country intensified their efforts to implement a series of innovative measures to support expanded opening-up and high-quality development. In coordination with relevant departments, they expanded the list of countries eligible for China’s unilateral visa-free policy, piloted online accommodation registration for foreigners staying at locations other than hotels in seven provincial-level regions including Hebei, continued to streamline the application procedures for various entry-exit documents, and consistently improved the efficiency of government services to better facilitate high-level opening-up and high-quality development. A total of 5.201 million ordinary passports and 26.88 million travel permits and endorsements for mainland residents traveling to Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan were issued; and 541,000 mainland travel permits were issued to Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan residents. Moreover, 406,000 visas and other documents were issued to foreign nationals. The immigration administration’s online service platform handled 51.322 million inquiries and other government service requests from Chinese and foreign travelers, and offered 23.24 million free identity-verification services to Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan residents as well as overseas Chinese. The 12367 service platform of the NIA handled 1.797 million inquiries from people in more than 100 countries and regions, with an average satisfaction rate of 99.4 percent.