If you are entering China specifically for treatment, the visa category that fits is the S2 (private affairs — medical treatment). Its requirements are published by Chinese embassies in essentially identical form worldwide, and every document on the list exists for a reason you can act on. Here is what the official list says, what the hospital invitation letter must contain, and a realistic timeline from first contact to boarding.
The visa category, in one table
The requirements below come from Chinese embassy visa instructions for the medical-treatment purpose (S1/S2 under “private affairs”). Posts worldwide publish the same list.
| Official requirement | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Hospital invitation letter, hospitalisation or admission certificate | Issued by the Chinese hospital that will treat you, on letterhead with the official seal. This is the critical-path document — see the next section. |
| Bank deposit certificate of not less than USD 10,000 | Original bank-issued proof of funds covering treatment and stay. Order it early; banks can take days to issue. |
| Companions limited to family members, normally max. 2 | Spouse, parents, children, siblings, grandparents and similar close relatives, with proof of kinship plus the hospital’s accompanying-person certificate. Friends and hired carers do not qualify under this clause. |
| Standard visa package | Passport valid well beyond your stay, completed online application form (COVA), photo, and the fee — submitted at the visa application centre serving your jurisdiction. |
The invitation letter: what it must show
Embassy guidance is explicit about what an invitation letter contains. For a hospital letter, expect every one of these elements — and treat any letter missing them as not yet ready:
- Applicant information — your full name (exactly as in the passport), date of birth, nationality, passport number.
- Visit details — the stated purpose (medical treatment), arrival and departure dates, and the place of treatment.
- The inviting institution — the hospital’s full name, address and contact telephone number, with the official stamp and signature of an authorised representative.
- Financial basis — who pays for the visit, consistent with your bank certificate.
A practical sequence works like this: you send your existing reports (imaging, pathology, lab results) to the hospital’s international patient department for a written second opinion or remote review; once the department confirms an in-person appointment, it has a clinical basis to issue the letter — and you have documentation worth having even before the visa stage. Hospitals do not issue letters for appointments they have not agreed to, so the letter is the output of a real appointment, not a form you download.
A realistic timeline
| Stage | Typical time | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Records gathered and translated | 3–7 days | Reports collected, translated into Chinese or English as the hospital requests |
| Remote review / written second opinion | 3–10 days | The specialty reviews your case; appointment agreed |
| Invitation letter issued | 2–7 days | International patient office prepares and stamps the letter |
| Visa application and processing | Per your visa centre | Submit at the centre; check its current posted processing times when you book |
Plan the stages to overlap where possible (translation can run during the review) but do not compress the total below roughly four to six weeks for anything involving surgery — pre-operative testing happens in China, in person, before a date is fixed.
✓Do this
- Start with the hospital’s international patient department, by name
- Send records before asking for a letter
- Check the letter contains every element above, with the seal
- Verify current requirements at your own embassy or visa-centre website
×Don’t do this
- Apply for a business (M) visa for treatment — wrong purpose, causes problems at the hospital desk
- Buy an “invitation letter” from a broker
- Book flights before the visa is in hand
- Assume another country’s posted rules apply to your jurisdiction
Separately, China operates visa-free transit policies (currently up to 240 hours for eligible nationalities) that allow entry for permitted activities including tourism. These are transit schemes with their own conditions — onward-ticket and port-of-entry rules — and they are not designed for planned treatment. If your trip’s purpose is medical, the S2 route with a hospital letter is the one that matches your paperwork end to end.
Verify before you file. Requirements are updated periodically and can vary by jurisdiction. Confirm against the embassy or China Visa Application Service Centre for your own country of residence — this guide reflects the published embassy lists but cannot substitute for that check.
Planning the whole trip?
The travel guide covers flights-to-follow-up, and the deposit checklist protects your money once a hospital conversation starts.