Residence Registration

Foreign nationals must register their residence within 24 hours of arriving at each accommodation in China. This is a legal obligation under Article 39 of the Exit and Entry Administration Law (出境入境管理法, 2012): hotels must register foreign guests and report the information to the public security authorities, while foreigners staying anywhere other than a hotel must be registered — by themselves or by their host — with the local public security organ within 24 hours of moving in.

How do I register my residence in China?

Accommodation	Who Registers	Process
Hotel / inn	Hotel front desk handles it	Show passport at check-in; hotel files with public security automatically
Private residence (rented apartment, friend’s or family’s home)	You or your host, within 24 hours	In person at the local public security station (派出所), or online where an official system exists (see below)
Short-term rental / homestay	Host should file — but you remain liable if the host fails to (see Important Notes)	Confirm before booking that the property can receive foreign guests; if in doubt, register yourself — see Accommodation

Registering at the Police Station (派出所)

For private stays, the default route is the neighborhood police station for the address where you are staying — not just any station. Bring:

• Passport (original) — with your valid visa, entry stamp, or visa-free entry basis; see Visa Types
• Proof of the address — an original lease agreement for rentals, or the property ownership certificate if you or your host own the home (per Beijing’s official service guide)
• Your host, if staying with friends or family — Article 39 allows either the foreigner or the host to file, and first-time filings usually go faster with the host (and the host’s ID) present

Practical points:

• It is free. Beijing’s official service guide lists the registration as free of charge, and professional relocation guides report the same nationwide.
• It is quick. Beijing’s official service guide lists registration as a same-day service, handled at the counter. You receive a registration slip — the Registration Form of Temporary Residence (境外人员住宿登记表; exact form name varies slightly by city).
• Office hours matter. The foreigner-registration desk typically keeps weekday business hours — Beijing’s official district-by-district station list (July 2021 municipal guide) mostly shows 09:00–12:00 and 13:30–17:00 on weekdays, with a lunch break (a few districts differ, e.g. Dongcheng 14:00–17:30, and a couple list weekend hours). The 派出所 may have a 24-hour duty desk for emergencies, but do not assume the registration window is staffed outside these hours — no official source we checked states that foreigner registration is processed around the clock. The law contains no weekend or holiday exception to the 24-hour rule, so if you arrive outside desk hours, use an online system where available; failing that, register at the earliest opportunity and be ready to explain the timing — see If You Miss the 24-Hour Deadline for how late registration is treated.
• Keep the registration slip. You will be asked for it when applying for a visa extension, stay permit, or Residence Permit. If you lose it, professional guides report you must return to the same station and ask for a new form to be issued.

Online Registration

National pilot — NIA 12367 platform

Starting March 20, 2026, the National Immigration Administration is piloting online accommodation registration for foreigners staying in non-hotel lodging in seven regions: Hebei, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Hubei, Guangxi, Chongqing, and Sichuan, with nationwide expansion planned. Either the foreigner or the host can file through the NIA Government Service Platform — the official website, the “NIA 12367” app, the “NIA 12367” WeChat mini program, or the Alipay mini program. Per the official policy interpretation, online registration has the same legal effect as on-site registration, and hosts are encouraged to help with a guest’s first filing.

City systems that predate the pilot

• Shanghai — the “Overseas Personnel Accommodation Registration Self-Declaration System” (境外人员住宿登记自助申报系统) at gaj.sh.gov.cn/crj/24hr. Hotel guests do not need to declare, and the login page warns that deliberate false, delayed, or missing declarations are subject to penalties. The detailed sign-up flow (creating an account, uploading your passport ID page, and entering your Shanghai address and entry/exit dates) sits behind the system’s login — reported by users; not confirmed against an official public page — so follow the on-screen prompts after you sign up, and keep the on-site police station as a fallback.
• Beijing — online registration at zwfw.gaj.beijing.gov.cn/zsdj (linked from the Beijing government services portal), available in English, French, Japanese, Korean, and Russian. Per the municipal government’s January 2024 guide, it accepts four document types — foreign passport, Foreign Permanent Resident ID Card, and mainland travel permits for Hong Kong/Macao and Taiwan residents — and you upload a photo of your document’s ID page, a bareheaded photo of yourself, and the address page of the property certificate or lease contract. Holders of other documents must still register in person.

Availability and entry points change quickly — if you are outside Shanghai, Beijing, or the seven pilot regions, assume in-person registration at the police station and check the NIA site (nia.gov.cn) or the 12367 service platform for current coverage.

Changing Cities or Changing Address

The registration is tied to the address, not to your trip. The 24-hour clock restarts every time you move in somewhere new:

• Multi-city trips: if you travel from Beijing to Xi’an on day 3, you must register at your Xi’an accommodation within 24 hours of arrival there — even though you were registered in Beijing. Hotel stays handle this automatically at each check-in; each private or rental stay requires a new filing with that neighborhood’s 派出所 (or online, where available).
• Hotel → private stay: switching from a hotel to a friend’s apartment mid-trip ends the hotel’s coverage. The private stay is a new address — register it within 24 hours of moving in.
• Private stay → hotel: nothing extra to do; the hotel registers you at check-in.
• Moving within the same city: a new apartment or a different friend’s home is a new address — register again, even if the old registration is recent.

Re-entry exemptions (national, March 2026): under the rules published with the NIA online-registration pilot, you do not need to register again if you return to the same residence after traveling within or outside China and you own that home, or if you hold a valid residence permit or permanent residence card and return to your registered habitual residence during the document’s validity.

Shanghai’s public-security guidance (gaj.sh.gov.cn) tracks the national rule rather than relaxing it. Its exemption for foreign nationals also requires a valid residence permit or permanent residence card: a holder who already registered and re-enters during the document’s validity with an unchanged address need not re-register. Shanghai additionally lists a self-purchased-housing exemption, but the published text scopes that to Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan residents living in their own home with an unchanged address — it does not create a no-ownership exemption for ordinary visa holders. Renters staying on visas must register again after each re-entry. Professional guides additionally advise re-registering after getting a new passport or changing visa status, since the registration on file no longer matches your documents — practitioner advice rather than a stated legal requirement; the national and Shanghai exemptions above are the authoritative baseline.

If You Miss the 24-Hour Deadline

What the law says. Article 76 of the Exit and Entry Administration Law: a foreigner who fails to register as required by Article 39(2) shall be given a warning, and may also be fined up to RMB 2,000. The fine is discretionary on top of the warning — the statute itself makes the warning the baseline penalty. (Hotels that fail to register foreign guests are penalized separately under the Public Security Administration Punishments Law; a hotel that fails to report registration information to the police receives a warning, or in serious cases a fine of RMB 1,000–5,000.)

What reportedly happens in practice. Immigration practitioners report that short, first-time lapses commonly end with a warning and an on-the-spot registration, and that enforcement most often surfaces later, at the Exit-Entry Administration counter — when you apply for a visa extension, stay permit, or residence permit and cannot produce registration covering your stay. Reported consequences in such cases have included delayed or shortened permit approvals. Treat this leniency as “reported, not guaranteed”: the fine is available to any officer, and repeat or long unregistered stays are reportedly treated less kindly.

What to do if you are late:

1. Register immediately — at the police station or online. A late registration is far better than none.
2. Bring the same documents as a normal filing; be ready to explain the dates briefly and honestly (e.g., arrival late on a weekend).
3. Keep the registration slip and any paperwork from the visit — you may need to show continuity of registration for later applications.

Important Notes

• Carry your passport or residence permit at all times — under Article 38 of the same law, foreigners aged 16 and over must carry their passport, international travel document, or stay/residence permit and accept police inspection. Document checks do occur, particularly at transport hubs and tourist attractions.
• Short-term tourists staying in hotels are usually covered automatically — no extra step.
• Short-term rental / host liability: under Article 39, both the host and the foreign guest bear responsibility for ensuring registration is completed. If your host fails to file, register yourself at the local 派出所 — do not assume the host has handled it. Not all short-term rental operators are licensed or set up to file foreign-guest registrations; staying at such a property may leave your registration incomplete regardless of your actions. See Accommodation for how to pick foreigner-eligible properties.

What law requires residence registration in China?

• Exit and Entry Administration Law of the People’s Republic of China (2012), Article 39 — hotel registration duty and the 24-hour rule for non-hotel stays; Article 38 — duty of foreigners aged 16+ to carry identity documents for police inspection (bilingual text, MFA)
• Exit and Entry Administration Law, Article 76 — warning and fine of up to RMB 2,000 for foreigners; hotel-side penalties
• NIA, “Regulations on Filing Accommodation Registration for Foreigners” (en.nia.gov.cn)
• Online registration pilot policy interpretation (March 2026) (english.www.gov.cn)
• National Immigration Administration (NIA): https://www.nia.gov.cn — 12367 hotline and service platform

The authoritative primary sources for this page are the Exit and Entry Administration Law (Articles 38, 39, 76), the National Immigration Administration’s accommodation-registration pages, and the city government service guides cited above.