According to updated confirmation by Tibet Tourism Board that a 20 days advance is minimum for applying Tibet Travel permits, The required documents, such as: passport copy, Nepal travel agent detail; for those who enter Tibet from Nepal (either by land or by flight), China travel visa is not required and it will be applied together with Tibet travel permits
tibet travel Permit and chinese travel visa
Different Tibet Travel Permit
How many “permits” do i need for a Tibet trip?
In our previous post, we mentioned that Chinese Travel Visa and Tibet Travel Permit are the 2 necessary documents for you to make a trip in Tibet. This is correct, however, this is also not sufficient for some other tours, because few other documents are also required to apply in advance for the tours to the remote area or counties that are bordered with foreign country. What are those documents? please go ahead to read through this post…,
Tibet is not like the other central located provinces of China, Tibet is bordered with some other countries, such as: Bhutan, India, Nepal; Obviously there is other law to administrate provinces or prefecture bordering with foreign countries like Tibet, This law is similar as other countries around this globe, It is called “border control” that requires all visitor including both foreign and chinese visitor to travel with one document that generally named: “Pass”, of which is also called “Alien’s Travel Pass” when foreign visitors travel with; and the same “Pass” is also called “Chinese Border Pass”, when chinese visitors travel with it; It is also confirmed that this pass is Not required for all Tibet tours, it is for the tour that goes to the region or district with bordering of foreign countries; For example, when you travel to Kathmandu from Lhasa, you will need this “Pass”, because you will travel through the border area of Tibet. This document is administrated by Public Security Bureau – short for ‘PSB’, so quite a lot of people call this “Alien’s Travel Pass” as “PSB pass” or “PSB permit”;
It is also clear that Army is an organization that a nation use to protect for its safe; The districts of Border is also administrated by Army, which requires all foreign visitors need to have an “Army Travel Pass” to travel through the bordering area; most of people call this document as “Army Permit”
In Tibet, there is another Government agency that is named: “Foreign Affairs Department”; this government agency also requires foreign visitors to travel with registration of this agency; Not for all area, but the area with bordering foreign countries;
What we need to pay attention is: A huge area of Tibet from east of Bangda to the West of Ali, and South to Zhangmu is bordered with over 3 different countries or territory, which results many tours that requiring the foreign visitors to travel with not only Chinese Travel Visa and Tibet Travel Permit, but also Alien’s Travel Pass, Army Travel Pass, Registration of Foreign Affairs Department; This sounds a lot, however, there is still one missed; when you make a trip to West Tibet for the ruin of Guge Kingdom, all visitors are required to have a registration at Department of Culture of Tibet; Now, it is all!
Complicated…? Yes, But NO!!! Why…? Check out our previous post, and Note: Tourists or Visitors do not need to apply for any permit or document in person. It is your travel agent, which you choose for the ground services of Tibet, shall be responsible for the whole papers application; What the tourist or visitors to do is to provide truthful personal information of Passport copy and Chinese visa, or even without Chinese visa if you enter Tibet from Nepal; all applications shall be accomplished before your arrival of Tibet by your travel agent!
Apply Tibet Travel Permits
How to Apply Tibet Travel Permits?
It, as a matter of fact, won’t be a serious issue for any visitor or tourist to obtain Tibet Travel Permit. The travel agent, which you confirm a tour with, shall be responsible of applying Tibet Travel Permit; No matter how hard the process of applying Tibet Travel Permits could be, it’s what your travel agent is supposed to do, Not you. What tourist or visitor need to do is just simply to provide the truthful personal information – copies of passport and Chinese Travel Visa; Note: For those, whom will travel to Tibet from Neal, just passport copy only, why? please view the last post
Other than the copies of chinese visa and passport, there is one other document for the holder, whom has one of three different chinese visa or documents, to provide:
-1, Foreigners, who live in China with green card, need to provide a copy of their chinese greent card;
-2, Foreigners, who work in China with work Visa, need to provide the Company Letter from which they work for within China;
-3, Foreigners, who study in China, need to provide a copy of their student certificate
Now, we understand that visitor and tourist do not need to apply Tibet Travel Permits but your travel agent, and what you need to do is to provide documents as below listed:
1), Foreigners, who come from abroad, need to provide the copies of their china travel visa and passport; And passport copy only for those, whom will go to Tibet from Nepal;
2), Foreigners, who live, or work, or study in China, need to provide the copy of their chinese green card, or work-visa, or student certificate other than their chinese visa and passport copies
Visa for Tibet Tour
When to apply Chinese Travel Visa for Tibet Tour
In this post, we will introduce you how to pre-apply Chinese Travel Visa, or even NOT!
You need to apply Chinese Travel Visa before your departure when the first arrival of China is any town on the mainland but Tibet. Such as: Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu…etc;
Then, in which case that you do Not need to apply China Travel Visa before your departure? The answer is: When Travel Onto Tibet From Nepal you do not need to apply China Travel Visa;
There is one Regulation from Chinese Government: All of pre-applied Chinese Visa are Automatically Invalid when a trip to Tibet with start of Nepal, China Travel Visa must be applied in China Embassy of Katmandu; Attention — To apply China Travel Visa in China Embassy of Katmandu is similar as the way to aply “Tibet Travel Permit” that it is not accepted if the application is from any individual visitor. You’ll have to have a local travel agent in Katmandu, whom will cooperate with the travel agency of Tibet that you select to make all the arrangements for your Chinese Travel Visa and Tibet Travel Permit together;
Now, we are clear about What to apply Chinese Travel Visa for a Tibet Tour
-1, A pre-applied Chinese Travel Visa is a must when you travel onto Tibet from any town on the mainland of China
-2, You do not need to have a Chinese Travel Visa before your departure when you will travel onto Tibet from Nepal; You need one Nepal travel agent and one Tibet Tour operator to apply Chinese Travel Visa and get it for you from Chinese Embassy of Kathmandu……
Tibet Travel Paper
What Tibet Travel Paper are necessary for making a trip to Tibet!
Is it ok to go to Tibet with Chinese Visa only? or Do i need “Tibet Visa”? Many of the people, whom want to travel through Tibet, ask the question like that. The answer is NO to the above two questions.
–First, there is NO Tibet Visa;
–Second, it is not enough to travel through Tibet with Chinese Travel Visa only, you need some other documents;
And people may ask: so, what the “some other documents” are required for making a trip to Tibet?
Simply speaking: There are 2 documents are required for making a trip to Tibet: Chinese Travel Visa & Tibet Travel Permit
“Chinese Travel Visa” that can be obtained at the Chinese embassy, it is believed that almost every visitor or tourist understands what this document means, click here to visit the Official Website of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of PRC finding Chinese Embassy that is the closest one, of which you can get all necessary information for applying and the processes of getting a “Chinese Travel Visa”;
“Tibet Travel Permit” – this document is permitted by Tourism Bureau of Tibet (TTB) that is a Government Agency under Administration of the Local Authority of Tibet Autonomous Region. Application on this document from any visitor or tourist will not be accepted, and can only be applied by legitimate travel agencies, of which are on the Agency List of TTB
So, It is now clear that there are two documents, which are required, for making a trip to Tibet: 1, Chinese Travel Visa; 2, Tibet Travel Permit;
Is that all about papers for making a tour to Tibet? are there any other obligated documents other than the above 2 papers? What if I live in China with a Chinese Greend Card, or what if I work in China with a Chinese Working Visa…etc, in such cases, what the required papers for making a trip to Tibetan Plateau? how can i get all those papers done? Even if I have all necessary papers, how to book and making my reservations of a trip to Tibet? Well, in the continue posts, we will provide you more detail in regard Tibet tours;
