Yiwu Airport opens port-visa services: “free transit + port visa” now covers China’s world supermarket
- On 16 July 2026, Yiwu Airport in Jinhua, Zhejiang issued its first batch of port visas — the first port-visa service at a county-level air port in the province and a milestone in deepening the “free-transit-plus-port-visa” entry convenience system for foreign business travellers.
2026年7月16日，浙江金华义乌机场签发首批口岸签证——这是浙江省县级航空口岸首次落地口岸签证业务，标志着义乌”过境免签+口岸签证”双轨并行的外籍客商入境便利体系成形。
- Port visas serve foreigners with urgent entry needs who hold ordinary passports but could not obtain a visa abroad in time — for business, investment, exhibitions, tourism, family visits or private emergencies — and can be applied for and issued on arrival at the port (“落地即办、即办即取”).
口岸签证面向持普通护照、因紧急商务等事由来不及在境外办妥签证的外籍人员，可在抵达口岸后即时受理、即时审批、即时签发，实现”落地即办、即办即取”。
- Yiwu’s numbers explain the demand: in 2025 the city received over 680,000 foreign-visitor arrivals, hosted about 38,000 resident foreigners, and counted more than 10,000 foreign-invested business entities — the highest of any county-level city; import-export volume exceeded RMB 830 billion.
义乌的数据解释了需求：2025年义乌接待外籍客商超68万人次、常住外籍人士约3.8万人、外资经营主体超1万户（居全国县级市首位），进出口总额超8300亿元人民币。
- The port visa complements the 240-hour visa-free transit already in place at Yiwu Airport since the end of 2024: transit solves “passing through” convenience, the port visa solves “coming specially for” urgency — together they cut the cost of last-minute business trips for foreign buyers and suppliers.
口岸签证与此前实施的240小时过境免签互补：过境免签解决”路过”的便捷，口岸签证解决”专程来”的急迫，共同降低外籍采购商与供货商临时商务来华的成本。
- For foreign companies and trade intermediaries, the practical effect is a shorter, cheaper route for overseas customers to reach China’s largest small-commodity market on short notice — reducing order losses caused by visa delays and reinforcing Yiwu’s position as a global sourcing hub.
对外国企业与贸易中介而言，实际效果是海外客户临时来华抵达全球最大小商品市场的路径更短更省——减少因签证延误导致的订单流失，巩固义乌作为全球采购中心的地位。
Yiwu Airport opens port-visa services: “free transit + port visa” now covers China’s world supermarket | 义乌机场落地口岸签证：”免签+签证”双通道打通外商来华”最后一公里”
Overview
On 16 July 2026, two foreign buyers — Egyptian purchaser Ayman and Niger businessman Mohammed — landed at Yiwu Airport in Jinhua, Zhejiang, completed visa formalities at the airport’s port-visa counter and entered China. These were the first port visas issued at Yiwu and the first time a county-level air port in Zhejiang provided port-visa services. The development was reported nationally in September 2026 as a defining step in Yiwu’s international-personnel convenience reform, pairing the 240-hour visa-free transit already available at the airport since end-2024 with an on-arrival visa channel for urgent visits.
What a port visa is
Under China’s visa regime, a port visa (口岸签证) is a visa issued by the public-security exit-entry administration at designated ports to foreigners who, holding valid international travel documents, need to enter China urgently for reasons including business co-operation, investment and entrepreneurship, exhibitions, tourism, family visits and private emergencies, and who did not have time to obtain a visa from a Chinese embassy or consulate abroad. Eligibility requires ordinary-passport holders with material supporting the urgent purpose. The visa can be applied for at the port counter on arrival, with immediate acceptance, review and issuance — in the Yiwu case, the first two buyers completed the process and cleared immigration in about half an hour.
The service is designed for genuine urgency rather than routine travel: it removes the need to fly to another Chinese city with a visa office, apply there, and then travel onwards to Yiwu.
Why Yiwu: the numbers behind the reform
Yiwu is a city “built on a market” — more than 2.1 million types of goods flow from it to over 230 countries and regions. In 2025:
- import-export volume exceeded RMB 830 billion;
- foreign-visitor arrivals exceeded 680,000;
- resident foreigners numbered about 38,000;
- foreign-invested business entities surpassed 10,000 — the most of any county-level city in China.
Buyer Ayman’s own story illustrates the pain point: he had purchased about USD 200,000 of goods in Yiwu the previous year; with his order at the closing stage he urgently needed to come for inspection and container loading, and a conventional embassy visa application would have delayed the shipment. The port visa let him land and transact within the day.
How the two channels fit together
Since the end of 2024, China’s national immigration authority extended visa-free transit to 240 hours and added Yiwu International Airport to the list of ports where visa-free transit applies. The two mechanisms now complement each other:
- 240-hour visa-free transit serves travellers who are “passing through” — short stays for inspection, meetings or connecting itineraries;
- Port visa serves travellers “coming specially” — buyers who need to inspect goods, close deals, check factories or attend exhibitions at short notice.
Local officials frame the pairing as one “channel” (免签疏、签证引): together they clear the bottleneck that previously forced foreign buyers to route through other ports with visa offices, adding time, money and lost orders.
Behind the scenes: how Yiwu prepared
The port-visa service did not appear overnight. Jinhua formed a dedicated working group and engaged the National Immigration Administration and provincial authorities to obtain the approval — an item under Yiwu’s new round of 38 power-expansion reforms. Yiwu’s public-security exit-entry administration completed the construction of the port-visa area and a professional service team, and the airport now runs a full-chain inbound service package: a first-stop consultation point for arriving passengers, a payment-facilitation service area for inbound foreigners, and a duty-free/export-tax-refund service point. During the summer peak, the airport operated “one route one policy, one flight one plan” with the immigration inspection station, bilingual guides for groups and families, a dedicated processing zone for visa-free passengers, and a multilingual electronic arrival-declaration system.
Since the reform, Yiwu has added one new international direct route, doubled the number of international transit cities year on year, and recorded a 16.5 per cent year-on-year increase in registered temporary inbound foreigners; professional exhibition halls now host on average one show a week, and the frequency of international sourcing and supply-demand matching events has doubled.
What this means for foreign companies and intermediaries
- Lower cost of last-minute trips. For buyers sourcing in Yiwu, the ability to arrive and obtain a visa on the spot protects urgent orders that previously risked being lost to visa timelines. Companies hosting buyer delegations should factor the port-visa channel into invitation and logistics planning.
- A full “airport-to-market” corridor. With the port visa added to visa-free transit, the practical journey for a buyer is now: fly to Yiwu Airport, clear immigration, and walk into the market — the province promotes it as “exit the airport, enter the market”, and the same corridor connects to Jinhua’s wider industrial belts and tourism resources such as Hengdian World Studios.
- Structured business facilitation. Yiwu’s “one matter” digital reforms let merchants pre-submit buyer materials to the exit-entry authorities, so verification on arrival is faster (“pre-submission of declarations, issue on landing”); foreign companies using Chinese intermediaries should ask whether their Yiwu partners can pre-file buyer data.
- Longer-term signals for investors. The pairing of visa-free transit and port visas is part of a broader push by Zhejiang and Yiwu to deepen institutional opening — relevant context for foreign firms considering distribution, sourcing offices or market-entry projects in the region.
Practical steps
- For foreign buyers planning urgent Yiwu trips: check whether the purpose qualifies for a port visa and prepare the supporting documents (invitation letter, purchase orders, exhibition registration) before boarding.
- Verify whether your Chinese partner or the Yiwu exit-entry administration can pre-submit buyer materials to shorten on-arrival processing.
- If your visitors are merely transiting for a short stay, compare the 240-hour visa-free transit route and the port-visa route to decide which applies.
- Use the airport’s inbound service points (consultation, payment facilitation, tax refund) when arranging staff or customer arrivals.
- Monitor further immigration-facilitation pilots in Jinhua and Zhejiang as the “free transit + port visa” model is extended.
Sources
- 义乌市人民政府门户网站 — 当越来越多外国人飞来义乌（口岸签证与240小时过境免签互补）: https://www.yw.gov.cn/col/col1229425018/art/2026/art_231db578fda5460b850fa2482b51cd59.html
- 中国新闻网（今日头条转载）— “世界超市”浙江义乌启用口岸签证 外籍人士入境再提速: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7663128579190374918
- 金台资讯（今日头条转载）— 金华”免签+签证”并行畅通外商入境路: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7681477399858479654/
Related reading
- see also: China’s 240-hour visa-free transit expansion and how to use it (303-visa-free-transit-expansion)
- see also: first-week operations data of the expanded transit policy (346-transit-visa-expansion-first-week)
义乌机场落地口岸签证：”免签+签证”双通道打通外商来华”最后一公里”
概述
2026年7月16日，埃及采购商艾曼与尼日尔客商穆罕默德抵达浙江金华义乌机场，在机场口岸签证窗口完成签证办理并通关入境。这是义乌签发的首批口岸签证，也是浙江县级航空口岸首次落地口岸签证业务。2026年9月，这一进展被作为义乌国际人员往来便利化改革的关键一步在全国报道——它与此前已实施的240小时过境免签政策组合，形成”过境免签+口岸签证”双轨并行的外籍客商入境体系。
什么是口岸签证
依据中国签证制度，口岸签证（port visa）是由公安机关出入境管理部门在指定口岸向外籍人员签发的签证，适用对象为：持有效国际旅行证件，因商贸合作、投资创业、展会访问、观光旅游、探亲及私人紧急事务等非公务类事由急需入境，且来不及在境外中国使领馆办妥签证的外国人。口岸签证可在抵达口岸后于口岸窗口申请，即时受理、即时审批、即时签发——义乌首批两名客商在半小时左右即完成办证与通关。
该服务针对的是真实紧急需求而非常规旅行：它免去了先飞到其他设有签证机构的口岸城市办证、再辗转赴义的奔波。
为什么是义乌：改革背后的数字
义乌是一座”建在市场上的城市”——超210万种商品从这里发往全球230多个国家和地区。2025年：
- 进出口总额超8300亿元人民币；
- 入境外籍客商超68万人次；
- 常住外籍人士约3.8万人；
- 外资经营主体超1万户，居全国县级市首位。
采购商艾曼的经历直观呈现痛点：他上一年在义乌采购约20万美元商品，眼下订单进入尾声、急需来义验货装柜；走常规使领馆签证将延误货期。口岸签证让他当日落地、当日进入交易流程。
两条通道如何互补
2024年底起，国家移民管理局将过境免签停留时间统一延长至240小时，并把义乌国际机场列入新增过境免签口岸名单。如今两套机制互补：
- 240小时过境免签服务”路过”型旅客——短期停留看样、洽谈或中转过境；
- 口岸签证服务”专程来”型旅客——需要临时验货、谈单、看厂、参展的采购商。
当地官方把组合概括为一”疏”一”引”：两条通道共同打通外籍客商来义堵点。此前外国客商有紧急入境需求，往往要先到其他口岸办证再中转来义；如今在义乌机场即可直接办理。
背后的准备
口岸签证并非一蹴而就。金华组建攻坚专班，对接国家移民管理局及省级主管部门争取口岸签证扩权——这是义乌新一轮38项扩权赋能改革的核心举措之一。义乌市公安局出入境管理部门完成了口岸签证办证区域建设并组建专业服务队伍，机场同步打造全链条入境服务：入境旅客首站咨询点、境外来华人员支付便利化服务区、离境退税服务点。暑运期间，机场联动出入境边检站落实”一航线一政策、一航班一方案”，为外籍团体与家庭旅客增配双语引导人员，单设免签旅客专属办理区，全面上线多语种入境电子申报系统。
改革落地后，义乌机场新增国际直飞航线1条，国际中转通航城市数量同比翻番，全市登记临时入境境外人员同比增长16.5%；专业展馆平均”一周一展”，国际采购与供需对接活动频次翻倍。
对外国企业与贸易中介的意义
- 临时来华成本下降。 对在义采购的买家而言，落地即可办证保护了此前可能因签证周期流失的紧急订单。接待采购团的企业应把口岸签证通道纳入邀请与行程规划。
- “机场到市场”全走廊成形。 口岸签证叠加免签过境后，买家的实际动线是：直飞义乌机场、通关、进场采购——当地称之为”出了机场就进市场”，同一走廊还连接金华全域产业带及横店影视城等文旅资源。
- 商务便利结构化。 义乌推行”通关一件事”数字化改革，商户可提前向出入境部门提交外商材料初核，客商抵达核验后当场签发，实现”申报前置、落地即办”；通过中国中间商采购的外企，应询问义乌伙伴能否预提交买家材料。
- 对投资者的长期信号。 免签+口岸签证的组合是浙江与义乌深化制度型开放的一部分——对考虑在该区域设立分销、采购办事处或市场进入项目的外企而言，这是重要背景。
实务建议
- 计划紧急赴义乌的外国买家：出行前确认事由是否符合口岸签证条件，备妥邀请函、采购订单、展会登记等支持材料。
- 核实中国合作方或义乌出入境部门能否预提交买家材料以缩短落地办理时间。
- 若来访人员只是短期过境，比较240小时过境免签与口岸签证两条路径后选择适用者。
- 安排员工或客户抵达时使用机场入境服务点（咨询、支付便利、退税）。
- 跟踪金华与浙江”免签+签证”模式的延伸，关注后续出入境便利化试点。
来源
- 义乌市人民政府门户网站 — 当越来越多外国人飞来义乌（口岸签证与240小时过境免签互补）: https://www.yw.gov.cn/col/col1229425018/art/2026/art_231db578fda5460b850fa2482b51cd59.html
- 中国新闻网（今日头条转载）— “世界超市”浙江义乌启用口岸签证 外籍人士入境再提速: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7663128579190374918
- 金台资讯（今日头条转载）— 金华”免签+签证”并行畅通外商入境路: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7681477399858479654/
相关阅读
- 见：中国240小时过境免签扩容与使用要点（303-visa-free-transit-expansion）
- 见：过境免签扩容首周运行数据（346-transit-visa-expansion-first-week）