Australia, China to establish new multi-year visa

Australia and China will develop a new ‘multi-year multi-entry’ visa for tourists and business travellers jetting between the two countries.

The reciprocal platform forms part of an in-principle agreement reached between PM Anthony Albanese and his Chinese counterparts, president, Xi Jinping and premier Li Qiang, during Albanese’s visit to China this week.

The new visa is expected to last between three and five years and permit multiple entries throughout that period .

Australians visiting China currently do so primarily on a Category L tourist visa, which is valid up to one one year and permits a stay of up to 30 days per entry, and a Category M business visa, which allows one stay of up to 30 days but is valid for only 90 days after being issued.

The relevant departments of both the Australian and Chinese governments will now set to work finalising the details of the new visa.

In a joint statement, the governments of Australia and China welcomed “the contribution of people-to-people exchanges to the bilateral relationship, including the increasing exchanges of students, tourists and business people.”

For his part, Albanese later described China as “one of Australia’s most important relationships” and said he hoped “there’s a recognition that this was a point where the relationship moved forward, where dialogue ­occurred in a way that was respectful, where differences were able to be discussed in a way that didn’t define the whole relationship.”