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Applying for a Chinese visa in Romania

Most short Romanian trips need no visa at all, and the page for those is the checklist. This one is for the trips the waiver does not cover — more than 30 days, work, study, journalism, family reunion — and for everything about the application that is priced, timed and located in Bucharest rather than in general. The fees are published in lei, the processing time in working days, the counter is one address in Sector 2, and the consular section keeps a closure calendar that can turn four working days into a fortnight. Three of the embassy's own pages currently disagree with three of its own notices about dates, in each case because the standing page is older than the notice; one of those disagreements is not an ageing page at all but a misprint, and it is set out below rather than quietly resolved.

Should I do it before China?

Yes — finish this before you fly

There is no version of this that happens after arrival. A visa is a condition of boarding, the passport is handed over in person in Bucharest and comes back four working days later at the earliest, the online form has to be filled in before that visit, and the two long consular closures — nine days in February, seven in October — are published a year ahead precisely so they can be planned around. The one decision that is genuinely upstream of all of it is whether you need a visa at all, which is why it is the first step rather than an assumption.

How

  1. Do before arrivalSettle whether you need a visa at all before anything else. A valid ordinary Romanian passport, a stay of no more than 30 days, and a purpose of business, tourism, visiting family or friends, exchange or transit means no visa. Other purposes and other documents need one. The stay is counted from 00:00 on the day after entry, so the window is one day longer than the older wording suggested, and it cannot be stretched after the fact.123
  2. Do before arrivalDistrust the standing reference page on the embassy's own site, and prefer the dated notice. The About Chinese Visa page, dated 22 May 2025, still describes the waiver as running from 30 November 2024 to 31 December 2025. The embassy's notice of 3 November 2025 extended it to 24:00 on 31 December 2026. Both are on the same host; only the notice is dated after the change it describes.4
  3. Do before arrivalIf you do need a visa, budget the consular fee in lei and then add the part that is not in the table. For Romanian citizens the published fees are 210 lei single entry, 315 lei double, 420 lei multiple within six months and 630 lei multiple valid a year or more; for third-country citizens applying in Romania, 113, 169, 225 and 338 lei. The visa centre collects those on the embassy's behalf and charges its own application service fee on top, which the embassy does not publish.5
  4. Do before arrivalKnow that the notice carrying those fees contradicts itself across languages, and which half this site follows. The Chinese version, published 29 December 2025, extends the fee reduction to 31 December 2026. The English version of the same notice, published the same day under the same title and with an identical fee table, says 31 December 2025 — two days after it was issued. Our reading is that the English version carries a misprint and the measure runs to the end of 2026; that reading is ours, and the only thing that settles it at the counter is the amount the centre actually charges.6
  5. Do before arrivalCount the days in working days, against a calendar the embassy publishes. Regular service is four working days and express is three for an extra 100 lei per visa, which buys one day rather than a same-day service; the embassy adds that individual applications may take longer and gives no ceiling for how much longer.7
  6. Do before arrivalCheck the 2026 closure list before you count those days. The consular section published on 3 December 2025 that it does not work with the public on 1-3 January, 15-23 February for the Spring Festival, 4-6 April, 1-5 May, 19-21 June, 25-27 September, 1-7 October for China's National Day, and 25 December. The February closure is nine consecutive days and the October one is seven.8
  7. Do before arrivalFill the form in online first. The embassy launched the China Online Visa Application System on 24 March 2025; the form is completed and the documents uploaded on the visa service centre's website, and the preliminary check happens there. This does not make the application remote — the passport is still handed over in person, with the printed form.9
  8. Do before arrivalGo to the visa centre, not to the embassy, and go without an appointment. Ordinary passport holders have applied at the China Visa Application Service Centre, Strada Gheorghe Titeica nr. 142, Sector 2, Bucharest, since 25 June 2018. Appointments were abolished from 20 November 2023, so you submit during the centre's working hours with the printed form, the passport and the supporting documents. The embassy warns in the same notice that peak hours are busier as a result.1011
  9. Do before arrivalBring a passport that clears the visa standard, not the visa-free one. For an application the embassy asks for the original passport with over six months of validity and blank visa pages, plus a photocopy of the information page. That is stricter than the visa-free rule from the same embassy, where a passport valid for the duration of the stay is enough.12
  10. Do before arrivalExpect no fingerprints for a short-term visa, and fingerprints anyway for six categories. The notice of 22 December 2025 exempts applicants for short-term visas — a stay of no more than 180 days — until 31 December 2026, in both its Chinese and its English version. D, J1, Q1, S1, X1 and Z applicants still give them.13
  11. Do before arrivalIf you go more than once, ask for the five-year multiple-entry visa. Since 10 July 2024 the embassy has issued five-year multiple-entry visas to Romanian citizens travelling for business, tourism or a family visit who hold a valid ordinary Romanian passport and meet all relevant requirements — requirements the notice does not list, which is why this is something to ask for rather than something to count on.14
  12. Do before arrivalDiplomatic and service passports take a different door and a different clock. The embassy states that a Romanian diplomatic passport allows a stay of up to 90 days in any 180-day period for travelling purposes and a service passport up to 30 days, and its 2013 notice is explicit that neither exempts the holder from a visa for work, study, family reunion, long-term family visit, permanent residence or resident journalism. These applications are lodged at the Embassy's Consular Section rather than at the visa centre, whose public counter is open Monday and Wednesday 14:00-16:00 and Friday 09:00-11:30.1516

Your trip → What it needs

Which route your trip takes

5 of 6 rows carry an official or operator source. 1 is our own judgement with nothing published behind it, marked on the row.

Your tripWhat it needs
Ordinary passport, 30 days or fewer, for business, tourism, a family or friends visit, exchange or transit, entering on or before 31 December 2026No visa. Carry proof matching the stated purpose anyway; admission is decided at the border, not by qualifying.Source: Chinese Embassy in Romania (notice extending the unilateral visa-free policy) · verified 2026-09-08
The same trip, but 31 days or longerA visa matching the purpose, obtained in Bucharest before flying. The waiver cannot be extended; after entry the only route is a stay permit from the public security exit-entry administration.Source: Chinese government body (Embassy of the PRC in Romania, FAQs on Visa-free Entry into China) · verified 2026-09-17
Work, study, news coverage or family reunion, any length of stayA visa. These purposes are outside the waiver whatever the passport and whatever the length of stay.Source: Chinese Embassy in Romania (notice extending the unilateral visa-free policy) · verified 2026-09-08
Several trips a year for business, tourism or family visitsAsk the visa centre for the five-year multiple-entry visa the embassy has issued to eligible Romanian citizens since 10 July 2024.Source: Chinese government body (Embassy of the PRC in Romania, notice on issuing five-year multiple-entry visas to eligible Romanian citizens) · verified 2026-09-17 · applies to Romanian citizens applying in Romania
You hold a Romanian diplomatic or service passport and are travellingNo visa for travel: 90 days in any 180-day period on a diplomatic passport, 30 days on a service passport. The application, where one is needed, goes to the Embassy rather than to the visa centre.Source: Chinese government body (Embassy of the PRC in Romania, About Chinese Visa) · verified 2026-09-17 · applies to Holders of Romanian diplomatic and service passports
The flight is in a week and the application has not been lodgedTreat four working days as a floor rather than a promise, and the embassy's own note that some applications take longer as the thing most likely to cost you the trip. Nothing published gives a ceiling, so this row is our reading of the numbers rather than a service level anyone has committed to.Editorial judgement — no official source

What can go wrong

You read the English fee notice, see the reduction ending on 31 December 2025, and budget for a higher fee that no longer exists — or abandon the plan.

What to do instead Open the Chinese version of the same notice, published the same day: it extends the measure to 31 December 2026 and carries an identical fee table. The English version misprints the year. Confirm the amount with the centre before paying rather than choosing a version to believe.56

You find the About Chinese Visa page, see the waiver ending 31 December 2025, and apply for a visa you do not need.

What to do instead That page is dated 22 May 2025 and predates the extension. The embassy's notice of 3 November 2025 runs the waiver to 24:00 on 31 December 2026. Where a standing reference page and a dated notice disagree on this site, the dated notice wins.4

You follow the visa centre link printed on the embassy's notice and land on a page saying the page does not exist.

What to do instead That notice is from 2018 and its link points at the old BUH2_EN path, which answers with a 200 and a not-found body. The live Bucharest centre page carries the same street address. The address itself has not moved: Strada Gheorghe Titeica nr. 142, Sector 2.10

You plan a February application around four working days and the passport is gone for a fortnight.

What to do instead Read the closure list first. The consular section does not work with the public for nine consecutive days over the Spring Festival, 15 to 23 February 2026, and for seven over National Day, 1 to 7 October. Four working days is measured around those, not through them.78

You bring exactly the published fee in cash and are asked for more at the counter.

What to do instead The published table is the consular fee. The visa centre collects it on the embassy's behalf and charges its own application service fee on top, which the embassy does not publish and this site therefore does not state. Check the total on the centre's own site before going.5

You count on the fingerprint exemption described on the About Chinese Visa page and find it reads as expired.

What to do instead That page describes a narrower, older version — single or double-entry visas, exempt before and on 31 December 2025. The notice of 22 December 2025 replaced it: all short-term visas, meaning a stay of no more than 180 days, exempt until 31 December 2026. D, J1, Q1, S1, X1 and Z applicants give fingerprints either way.13

You take the passport-validity wording from the visa-free rules into a visa application and it is refused at the counter.

What to do instead They are two different standards from the same embassy. Visa-free entry asks for a passport valid for the duration of the stay; a visa application asks for over six months of validity and blank visa pages, plus a photocopy of the information page.12

You go to the embassy on Șos. Nordului with an ordinary passport and a completed form.

What to do instead Ordinary passports are lodged at the visa centre in Sector 2, not at the embassy. The embassy's consular counter is for the cases it reserves to itself — diplomatic, service and official passports among them — and is open only Monday and Wednesday 14:00-16:00 and Friday 09:00-11:30.1016

Last verified and sources

Each record below is shown as provenance: who published it, what kind of document it is, how far it reaches and when we last checked it. The source’s own wording is not reproduced here — most of these documents are published in Chinese, and a translation of ours would be a paraphrase standing where a citation should be. Follow the link to read any of them in the original.

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