Tibet Travel Permit

The Tibet travel regulation clearly states that all international visitors to Tibet must get a Tibet travel permit or Tibet Visa. Without this, no one can visit the Tibet Autonomous Region of China.

This permit is required for all international visitors traveling to Tibet, including non-Chinese citizens. Citizens of China, including those from Hong Kong and Macau, do not need permits to visit Tibet.

If you are an Indian citizen visiting Tibet for the Kailash Manasarovar yatra or a comrade from Taiwan, you have a special arrangement for the permit.

Indian citizens coming to the Kailash yatra must organise their yatra tour with MEA Kailash Yatra or Kailash Yatra agencies, which will work with the China Indian Kailash Pilgrimage Service center in Tibet.

The Taiwan Affairs Office of the Tibet Autonomous Region issues a Tibet Travel Permit for Taiwanese citizens. Only a few travel agencies in Lhasa can help you apply for it, so you must book your tour with Us. Read more Tibet Travel Guide for Taiwanese.

NRIs going on the Kailash Yatra will only need a Tibet Travel Permit, like any other international Traveler. You can book the yatra tour directly with a local agency in Tibet.

The following are some additional Tibet Travel Permits for the different regions of Tibet.

This travel permit is required if your tour crosses into one or more Tibet prefectures, such as visiting both Lhasa and Shigatse prefectures.

For example, the Local Public Security Bureau issues this permit for a journey from Lhasa to Mount Everest Base Camp. Upon arrival at the next prefecture-level headquarters, such as Shigatse or Tsedang, your tour guide will apply it.

Your Tibetan guide can make this permit in only one visit, which will last about an hour. Yet upon arrival at each different prefecture headquarters, your guide will have to go to the security bureau office to get the sign for each prefecture.

A Border Permit is an additional permit your travel agency needs to apply for before you arrive in Tibet.

If your journey is reaching the destination in border areas like Mount Everest or Mount Kailash, or you are coming to Tibet from Nepal, a border permit only takes one visit and a few hours to get this permit.

If you are visiting the Mount Kailash region and Ngari prefecture, where Mount Kailash is located, you will need to get this permit. This permit is issued by Tibet's branch of the People's Liberation Army in Lhasa. It takes about two weeks to make this permit. If you are traveling to the Mount Kailash region, you must ask your travel agency to apply for all the permits a month in advance to be safe.

A travel agency also applies for this permit in Lhasa before you arrive there.

This permit is required if you travel into Tibet's sensitive military region, such as Ngari Prefecture ( Mt Kailash region) or Nyintri Prefecture, or on an Inland journey from/ to Yunnan and Qinghai provinces.

It takes more than seven days; if your trip requires this permit, all the permit work will take about a month.

The Initial step in applying for the Tibet travel permit / Tibet Visa is booking a tour with a local Tibetan travel agency. Once you book the tour with us by signing a tour contract and sending the deposit, we can initiate the process of the Tibet permit. We will need at least a month to apply for and deliver the permit as per your tour plan.

After booking your tour with a local Lhasa travel agency, we can apply for your Tibet Travel permit at the Tibet Tourism Bureau. The following are the Documents we are required to submit with the application.

A) Your Valid Passport

The first document you will have to send us is your passport. It should be a valid passport that you use for a Chinese Visa.

For those with a Chinese Visa on their old passport, which is no longer valid, you must send both passports. You also have to bring both while you travel.

B) Chinese Visa

The second document that we need is the Chinese Visa.

• First, check if your country has a free visa policy for China. You don't need a visa to travel to Tibet if it does. If not, follow the following points.
• If you are coming to Tibet from other parts of China, you will need a Chinese visa from the embassy in your country.
• Suppose you are coming to Tibet from Nepal. You will need a Chinese Group Visa from the Chinese embassy in Kathmandu. Some agencies might ask you to get a Chinese group visa if you have a free visa policy in China. They are wrong; you don't need to get a Chinese group visa.

C) Supporting document for a non-tourist Visa

The regular Visa category for tourists is L. Suppose your visa is different. Then, you will have to send us a supporting document with it.

• For those on a Student Visa (X visa), you must submit your Chinese institution ID card or a supporting letter from the school supporting your enrollment.
• If yours is a Business Visa (F visa), you must submit it with a letter from your employing company in China. Then, you can use their visa invitation.
• Travellers with Family visas (Q Visa): You must submit your spouse’s ID card in China in addition to their Visa Invitation.

Suppose you have an existing Chinese Visa on your passport. It is not recommended that you come to Tibet from Nepal. You will have to get the Chinese Group Visa by going this route, and your existing visa will be cancelled.

D) Deposit for the Tour

Additionally, we have the above document. We will have to submit a bank receipt for your tour deposit. For this reason, we ask that you send 30% of your tour cost as a deposit to our official Bank account.

An Official Bank account means the name of the bank’s official holder should be the name of the company you will book the tour with.

Since the Tibet Tourism Development Committee in Lhasa is the only Government agency that issued this document, your travel agency or tour operator in Lhasa can only apply it on your behalf.

You must book a tour with us and send your passport and visa. It’s much easier to get a Tibet travel permit.

There is a different Visa Policy for those coming to Tibet from Nepal. Read more about it here.

Once you receive all your documents, as mentioned above, we will submit your Tibet travel permit Application online. The permit's completion time depends on the place you are visiting. The Tibet Visa process will take 5 to 20+ days. If there is a national holiday while processing the permit, you must also consider those days.

• Suppose you are visiting only Lhasa, Tsedang, and Shigatse. The permit would take about 5 to 7 days.
• It takes about 13 days to make a permit for Mount Everest Basecamp.
• Since visiting the Mt Kailash region requires all the above-mentioned types of permits, it would usually take about 20+ days to get them.

Add few days for shipping permit to your hotel

In addition to the above, consider adding 5 days. Then, send the permit to your hotel in other Chinese cities, like Chengdu. If you fly from different Chinese cities to Lhasa, please consider Chengdu your transit airport before flying to Tibet. If not, please consider spending a night in those other cities to make sure we can send the permit to your hotel.

Suppose you are coming into Tibet via a flight from any other major city in China. Without a permit, you will not be allowed to board the flight.

If you stay overnight in other cities before flying to Lhasa, your permit will usually be delivered to your hotel.

Suppose you are not staying in any cities but taking transit in other cities. Your permit will be sent to you at the airport. It is best to change your flight to Lhasa in Chengdu, as there are plenty of flights to Lhasa, and it is easier for us to send it to you at the airport.

We will provide the delivery person’s phone number so you can call him if you can't find him. We urge all travellers to take transit in Chengdu city, where we have an agency to deliver your permit.

As mentioned above, we will have to send your permit to your hotel in Chongqing for those taking the train from Chongqing to Lhasa.

If you are taking a train to Tibet and other cities in China, you do not need the original permit. You can take a printout of your permit from the mail and show it to them while boarding the train.

Your guide will be waiting for you at the train station with the Tibet travel permit in hand.

Whether you are coming overland to Tibet or flying to Tibet from Nepal. You will not have a permit in hand until you reach Tibet.

Remember, you need a Group Visa in Nepal if you come from Nepal. So, please do not apply for a visa from anywhere else.

Once you reach Nepal, we will send you the visa invitation to our associate in Nepal. After that, he must go to the Chinese Embassy in Nepal for a group Visa.

It takes three business days to get your Visa. So, plan accordingly.

However, to avoid all the extra work and extra days in Nepal while applying for the Visa, we suggest you take a transit in Chengdu. Your travel agency will have your permit delivered to the airport.