Visa-Free and Visa-Required Countries for Hong Kong Arrival or Transit

Hong Kong is one of the popular travel destinations. Besides being a travel destination, Hong Kong international airport also serves as a major airport hub. The airport connects flights to numerous destinations across the world. In 2019, Hong Kong airport served more than 71 million passengers, which put the airport as the 13th busiest airport in the world.

When planning for your next travel to Hong Kong or when traveling to other destination with Hong Kong layover, these questions may pop up in your mind: “Is visa required to visit Hong Kong? If it’s just a layover, is visa also required during the transit?” Shortly, we will discuss visa requirement based on visitor’s nationality as stipulated by Hong Kong authority.

Countries with Visa-Free Entry to Hong Kong

Hong Kong applies somewhat relaxed visa policy for short-term visit. The Hong Kong authority has enacted visa-free policy to more than 160 countries. A visitor whose nationality is whitelisted in the visa-free policy can visit Hong Kong without visa for 7 to 180 days, depending on the visitor’s nationality.

The list of countries with visa-free entry to Hong Kong is summarized in the following table.

No	Country Name	Visa-free Visit Duration
1	Albania (biometric passport holders)	14 days
2	Algeria	14 days
3	Andorra	90 days
4	Anguilla	90 days
5	Antigua & Barbuda	90 days
6	Argentina	90 days
7	Armenia	30 days
8	Australia	90 days
9	Austria	90 days
10	Bahamas	90 days
11	Bahrain	30 days
12	Barbados	90 days
13	Belarus	30 days
14	Belgium	90 days
15	Belize	90 days
16	Benin	14 days
17	Bermuda	90 days
18	Bhutan	14 days
19	Bolivia	30 days
20	Bosnia and Herzegovina	14 days
21	Botswana	90 days
22	Brazil	90 days
23	Britain (British citizen)	180 days
24	Britain (British overseas citizens, British overseas territories citizens)	90 days
25	British Antarctic Territory	90 days
26	British Indian Ocean Territory	90 days
27	British Virgin Islands	90 days
28	Brunei Darussalam	90 days
29	Bulgaria	90 days
30	Burkina Faso	14 days
31	Canada	90 days
32	Cape Verde	30 days
33	Cayman Islands	90 days
34	Chad	14 days
35	Chile	90 days
36	Colombia	90 days
37	Comoros	14 days
38	Costa Rica	30 days
39	Croatia	90 days
40	Cyprus	90 days
41	Czech Republic	90 days
42	Denmark	90 days
43	Djibouti	14 days
44	Dominica (Commonwealth)	90 days
45	Dominican Republic	30 days
46	Ecuador	90 days
47	Egypt	90 days
48	El Salvador	30 days
49	Equatorial Guinea	14 days
50	Estonia	90 days
51	Falkland Islands	90 days
52	Faroe Islands	90 days
53	Fiji	90 days
54	Finland	90 days
55	France	90 days
56	Gabon	14 days
57	Germany	90 days
58	Gibraltar	90 days
59	Greece	90 days
60	Greenland	90 days
61	Grenada	90 days
62	Guatemala	30 days
63	Guinea	14 days
64	Guyana	90 days
65	Haiti	14 days
66	Honduras	30 days
67	Hungary	90 days
68	Iceland	90 days
69	India	14 days (with pre arrival registration)
70	Indonesia	30 days
71	Ireland	90 days
72	Israel	90 days
73	Italy	90 days
74	Jamaica	90 days
75	Japan	90 days
76	Jordan	30 days
77	Kazakhstan	14 days
78	Kenya	90 days
79	Kiribati	90 days
80	Republic of Korea (South Korea)	90 days
81	Kuwait	30 days
82	Latvia	90 days
83	Lesotho	14 days
84	Liechtenstein	90 days
85	Lithuania	90 days
86	Luxembourg	90 days
87	Madagascar	14 days
88	Malawi	90 days
89	Malaysia	90 days
90	Maldives	90 days
91	Mali	14 days
92	Malta	90 days
93	Marshall Islands	14 days
94	Mauritania	14 days
95	Mauritius	90 days
96	Mexico	90 days
97	Micronesia	14 days
98	Monaco	90 days
99	Mongolia	14 days
100	Montenegro	14 days
101	Montserrat	90 days
102	Morocco	30 days
103	Mozambique	14 days
104	Namibia	90 days
105	Nauru	90 days
106	Netherlands	90 days
107	New Zealand	90 days
108	Niger	14 days
109	North Macedonia	14 days
110	Norway	90 days
111	Oman	30 days
112	Palau	14 days
113	Panama	30 days
114	Papua New Guinea	90 days
115	Paraguay	30 days
116	Peru	30 days
117	Philippines	14 days
118	Pitcairn Islands	90 days
119	Poland	90 days
120	Portugal	90 days
121	Qatar	30 days
122	Romania	90 days
123	Russia	14 days
124	Samoa	30 days
125	San Marino	90 days
126	Sao Tome and Principe	14 days
127	Saudi Arabia	30 days
128	Serbia (biometric passport holders)	14 days
129	Seychelles	90 days
130	Singapore	90 days
131	Slovak Republic	90 days
132	Slovenia	90 days
133	South Africa	30 days
134	Spain	90 days
135	St. Helena	90 days
136	St. Helena Dependencies (Ascencion, Tristan Da Cunha)	90 days
137	St. Kitts and Nevis	90 days
138	St. Lucia	90 days
139	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	90 days
140	Suriname	14 days
141	Sweden	90 days
142	Switzerland	90 days
143	Tanzania	90 days
144	Thailand	30 days
145	South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands	90 days
146	Akrotiri and Dhekelia	90 days
147	Tonga	90 days
148	Trinidad & Tobago	90 days
149	Tunisia	30 days
150	Turkey	90 days
151	Turks and Caicos Islands	90 days
152	Tuvalu	90 days
153	Uganda	30 days
154	Ukraine	14 days
155	United Arab Emirates	30 days
156	Uruguay	90 days
157	United States of America / USA (non diplomatic passport holders)	90 days
158	Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands	14 days
159	Vanuatu	90 days
160	Vatican City	14 days
161	Venezuela	90 days
162	Zambia	90 days
163	Zimbabwe	90 days
164	Nationals of other foreign countries without visa requirements	7 days

If your country is included in the visa-free list, you can come to visit or transit in Hong Kong only with your passport. If you want to enter Hong Kong, obviously you still need to clear the immigration and submit the arrival card to the immigration officer. There is, however, entry exception imposed to Indian nationals. All Indian citizens are required to apply and complete pre-arrival registration (PAR) online before they can visit Hong Kong visa-free for 14 days.

Countries with Visa Requirements for Hong Kong Entry or Transit

Citizens from some countries are still required to apply for visa when visiting Hong Kong. Not only that, Hong Kong also enacts a special policy that requires citizens from certain countries to have obtained a valid visa when they are just doing transit in Hong Kong without leaving the airport but entering the airside of the airport (for e.g. waiting at the departure gate). This means that if your country is in the list of countries with visa requirements for Hong Kong transit, it is better to reconsider flying with transit or layover at Hong Kong airport since you are required to have a valid Hong Kong visa just for the transit.

List of countries with visa requirement for Hong Kong entry or transit is summarized in the following table. Visa requirement for Hong Kong arrival and entry to Hong Kong (leaving the airport and visiting the land) is specified in “Visa Required on Entry” column. In contrast, for a case where a passenger is on transit in Hong Kong and stays only in the transit area without leaving the airport, the visa requirement is described in the “Visa Required on Transit” column. Additionally, there can be an exception to visa requirement policy imposed on a country, which is visa-free policy for diplomatic/official passport holders.

No	Country Name	Visa Required on Entry	Visa Required on Transit	Visa-free Exception
1	Afghanistan	YES	YES
2	Albania (non-biometric passport holders)	YES	NO
3	Angola	YES	YES	Visa-free for 14 days for diplomatic/official passport holders
4	Azerbaijan	YES	NO	Visa free for 14 days for diplomatic/official passport holders
5	Bangladesh	YES	YES	Visa-free for 14 days for diplomatic/official passport holders
6	Burundi	YES	YES	Visa-free for 14 days for diplomatic/official passport holders
7	Cambodia	YES	NO	Visa-free for 14 days for diplomatic/official passport holders
8	Cameroon	YES	YES	Visa-free for 14 days for diplomatic/official passport holders
9	Central African Republic	YES	YES
10	Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire)	YES	YES
11	Republic of Congo	YES	YES	Visa-free for 14 days for diplomatic/official passport holders
12	Costa Rica (provisional passports)	YES	NO
13	Costa Rica (Documento de Identidad Y Viaje)	YES	NO
14	Cote D’Ivoire / Ivory Coast	YES	YES
15	Cuba	YES	NO
16	Eritrea	YES	YES
17	Eswatini (formerly Swaziland)	YES	YES
18	Ethiopia	YES	YES	Visa-free for 14 days for diplomatic/official passport holders
19	Gambia	YES	YES
20	Georgia	YES	NO
21	Ghana	YES	YES	Visa-free for 14 days for diplomatic/official passport holders
22	Guinea-Bissau	YES	YES
23	Iran	YES	YES
24	Iraq	YES	YES
25	Democratic People’s Republic of Korea / North Korea	YES	YES
26	Kyrgyztan	YES	NO	Visa-free for 14 days for diplomatic/official passport holders
27	Laos	YES	NO	Visa-free for 14 days for diplomatic/official passport holders
28	Lebanon	YES	NO
29	Liberia	YES	YES
30	Libya	YES	YES
31	Moldova	YES	NO	Visa-free for 14 days for diplomatic/official passport holders
32	Myanmar	YES	NO	Visa-free for 14 days for diplomatic/official passport holders
33	Nepal	YES	YES	Visa-free for 14 days for diplomatic/official passport holders
34	Nicaragua	YES	NO
35	Nigeria	YES	YES
36	Pakistan	YES	YES	Visa-free for 30 days for diplomatic/official passport holders
37	Palestine	YES	NO
38	Peru (special passports)	YES	NO
39	Rwanda	YES	YES
40	Senegal	YES	NO
41	Serbia (non-biometric passport holders)	YES	NO
42	Sierra Leone	YES	YES
43	Solomon Islands	YES	NO
44	Somalia	YES	YES
45	South Sudan	YES	YES
46	Sri Lanka	YES	YES	Visa-free for 14 days for diplomatic/official passport holders
47	Sudan	YES	YES
48	Syria	YES	YES
49	Tajikistan	YES	NO	Visa-free for 14 days for diplomatic/official passport holders
50	Togo	YES	YES	Visa-free for 14 days for diplomatic/official passport holders
51	Tonga (national passports)	YES	NO
52	Tonga (protected person passports)	YES	NO
53	Turkmenistan	YES	NO	Visa-free for 14 days for diplomatic/official passport holders
54	Tuvalu (I-Tuvalu national status)	YES	NO
55	Uruguay (passports issued under Decree 289/90)	YES	NO
56	United States of America / USA (diplomatic passports)	YES	NO
57	Uzbekistan	YES	NO	Visa-free for 14 days for diplomatic/official passport holders
58	Vatican (service passports)	YES	NO
59	Vietnam	YES	NO	Visa-free for 14 days for diplomatic/official passport holders
60	Yemen	YES	YES
61	Stateless travel document holders	YES	NO

If your country is in the list of visa requirement policy for Hong Kong visit or transit, you must present a valid visa to the Hong Kong immigration officer at the immigration checkpoint in the transfer area or at the immigration clearance gate for Hong Kong arrival.

Applying for Hong Kong Visa Online

Hong Kong immigration authority has developed an online portal for visa application. If you plan to visit or transit in Hong Kong and are required to present a valid visa for immigration clearance on the visit or transit, you can check the application page for visit/transit visa. On the webpage, you can check the eligibility criteria, forms that should be completed, and document that should be provided. After you prepare all the required document and completed all forms, you can submit the visa application online.

According to Hong Kong immigration authority, visa processing time will be around 4 ( four) weeks from the submission of required documents. So, if the visit or transit in Hong Kong is inevitable, it is recommended that you plan ahead with your Hong Kong visa application.