Your family no longer has to queue at a police station.
The 24-hour registration still applies.

Since 21 September 2026, foreigners staying anywhere other than a licensed hotel in China can register their accommodation online, through the National Immigration Administration's service website or its 12367 app and mini-programs. The 24-hour deadline in Article 39 still applies, hotels still register you themselves, and children are not exempt.

What changed on 21 September 2026

The National Immigration Administration published Announcement No. 7 of 2026 on 21 September, and it took effect the same day. Foreigners staying anywhere other than a licensed hotel can now complete their accommodation registration online, anywhere in the country, instead of travelling to a police station to do it in person.

The online route sits alongside the counter, it does not replace it. The announcement states that online registration carries the same legal effect as registering on site, and that the offline channel stays open. What changed is that you no longer have to turn up in person — not the obligation itself.

The service was piloted from 20 March 2026 in seven provincial-level regions: Hebei, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Hubei, Guangxi, Chongqing and Sichuan. Guangdong was not among them, so for families coming to Shenzhen this is a new workflow rather than a local habit.

Who this applies to, and who is already covered

The rule turns on one question, and it has nothing to do with how much you paid: is your bed inside a licensed hotel? If it is, the hotel registers you and reports your details to the local public security bureau, and you do nothing. If it is not, the duty is yours, or your host's, and it starts the moment you arrive.

The 24-hour clock, and what your host has to produce

The deadline comes from Article 39 of the Exit and Entry Administration Law, in force since 1 July 2013. Foreigners who reside or stay anywhere other than a hotel must register with the local public security organ within 24 hours of arrival, either in person or through the person who accommodates them. The September announcement changes the channel, not the clock.

For a first registration at a new address, the National Immigration Administration expects the host to file, on the reasonable grounds that the host knows the property. Your host can be a Chinese citizen or a foreign one. In practice that means the tenant who signed the lease, or the relative whose flat it is, creates the record and adds your family to it.

Have the photo page of every passport ready to scan, plus the lease or other proof of the address. The platform files through a foreigner-services section, and you can retrieve the record afterwards through a registration-record query.

How it works when you are travelling as a family

Registration attaches to each foreigner, not to the booking. Four family members in one rented flat produce four records, and a young child travelling on a foreign passport is one of them. Article 39 sets no minimum age, and there is no family exemption, no matter how short the stay.

Once an address has been registered through the platform once, the administration allows you to file subsequent registrations yourself, without the host standing next to you. That matters if you extend the stay or shift between units in the same building, and it is the one part of the process a visitor can genuinely control.

You can also read back what was filed. The record is the thing you want on screen if a question comes up later — at a hotel desk that cannot find you, at a bank, or at the border when you leave.

The exemptions, and the trip that resets the clock

Everything else, treat as a fresh arrival. If your family rents a flat in Shenzhen, crosses into Hong Kong for two days and comes back to the same address, the honest reading of the announcement is that the 24-hour window restarts and the record needs refreshing. Ask your host to confirm with the local public security office rather than assuming the old entry still covers you.

• You are staying in your own property in China, and you return to it after travelling inside or outside the country.
• You hold a residence permit or a permanent residence permit and you return to your usual address within the validity of the same document. The administration counts a stay of more than 180 days as long-term.

What happens if nobody files

A foreigner who fails to register a non-hotel stay faces a warning, or a fine of up to RMB 2,000 — roughly US$298. Shenzhen's own district-level guidance for foreign residents states the same ceiling. In practice the heavier cost for a family is administrative rather than financial: a missing record tends to surface at the worst possible moment, such as when you extend a stay or apply for a permit.

The channels you can file through

Four online channels were named in the announcement. All of them require an account, and all of them produce a record with the same standing as a counter filing.

How this lands on a Qumogu camp week

Our camps are residential, so lodging is part of the programme. For the 11 camps we run — including the flagship six-day, five-night Shenzhen camp at our own Dapeng base, near a walled city that has stood for around 600 years — accommodation, meals, transport, insurance, medical cover and equipment sit on our side of the ledger. We have run camps for 16 years, served more than 8,000 families, and staff them at a 7:1 ratio.

That covers the child on programme. It does not cover the family. Almost every international family we work with arrives a few days early or stays on afterwards, and books its own flat, serviced apartment or hotel in the city. Whatever you book is your registration, not ours, and we cannot file it on your behalf.

The pattern we see is a rented apartment or a serviced apartment near the coast, with the child joining camp for the middle week. If that is your plan, settle the registration question with the host before you pay, not after you land.

The honest limits

• Enforcement is locally uneven. Public security practice differs between districts, and a Shenzhen service centre and a rural station can give the same question two different answers.
• The service is days old. Some counters will still hand you a paper form out of habit, and not every officer has been briefed on the online route.
• The platform is Chinese-first. English support exists but is uneven, and creating an account is noticeably easier with a Chinese phone number.
• Some individual landlords in China decline foreign tenants precisely because registration adds work for them. That is a booking problem, not a legal one — find another flat.
• We are a camp operator, not an immigration adviser. Nothing here is legal advice, and a single new announcement can change the detail.

Who barely notices, and who should read the whole thing

If your family only ever stays in licensed hotels and serviced apartments, this announcement changes nothing for you. If you hold a residence permit and live at the same address year after year, it changes almost nothing either.

It matters if you rent a flat, sleep in a rural minsu, stay with relatives, or plan anything longer than a fortnight. It matters more in Shenzhen than in most Chinese cities, because Shenzhen sits an hour from the Hong Kong, China border and families based here tend to cross it in the middle of a trip and come back.

Check the National Immigration Administration's announcement and your host's local public security office before you travel. Immigration rules here are updated by announcement, and the version in force on your date of arrival is the one that counts.

Frequently asked questions

Do children need their own accommodation registration in China?

Yes. The duty applies to each foreigner rather than to the booking, and a child holding a foreign passport is a foreigner. A family of four in one rented flat will produce four records. Article 39 sets no minimum age and no family exemption.

We are only staying in hotels. Do we need to do anything?

No. Licensed hotels register foreign guests and report their details to the local public security bureau themselves. You hand over passports at the desk. The new online service exists for the nights you are not in a hotel.

Can we register before we land in China?

No. The 24-hour window runs from arrival, and the record attaches to an address you have actually taken up. Your host can prepare the passport scans and the lease in advance, but cannot file early.

Is a serviced apartment treated as a hotel?

Only if it is licensed and operated under hotel-industry rules. Plenty of apartments marketed as serviced are not, and then the 24-hour duty falls on you. Ask the operator one direct question before you pay a deposit.

What is the fine for not registering a stay in China?

A warning, or a fine of up to RMB 2,000 — about US$298. Shenzhen district-level advice for foreign residents cites the same ceiling. The practical risk is a missing record surfacing at a bad moment rather than the fine itself.

Sources

• National Immigration Administration — Announcement No. 7 of 2026 on nationwide online accommodation registration (English text, 21 September 2026)
• Changzhou Foreign Affairs Office — Policy interpretation of the announcement (channels, who may file, simplified cases)
• China Daily — Nationwide online residence registration launched for foreigners staying outside hotels
• Yantian District Government, Shenzhen — Notice on temporary accommodation registration for foreigners (PDF)
• South China Morning Post, 21 September 2026 (as summarised by News Herald)
• VisaHQ — China launches nationwide online accommodation registration for foreigners staying outside hotels
• Qumogu — Kids Summer and Winter Camps in China (accommodation and insurance included)