How to Get and Where to Receive Tibet Travel Permit: common questions, useful tips

Tibet Travel Permit is an official Tibet travel document issued by Tibet Tourism Bureau. It is the most basic and foremost, compulsory permit you need to get before traveling to Tibet. The following lists are the common questions about Getting Tibet Travel Permit.

How to get your Tibet Travel Permit?

One of the most common questions is How to Get a Tibet Travel Permit. There are four steps to apply for your Tibet Travel Permits:

Step 1 Consult online travel agency, confirm your Tibet tour and book it
Step 2 Prepare valid passport and China tourist visa
Step 3 Send the copies of valid documents to us
Step 4 Get your Tibet Travel Permit before traveling to Tibet

As a international tourist, you can not get your Tibet Travel Permit by yourself from a China Embassy or Consulate. You need to get it via a Tibet travel agency from TTB which is only one to issue your Tibet Permit. After you receive the permit, please take care of it and don’t lose it because there is only one permit for you.

How long does it take to get your Tibet Travel Permit?

According to our application experience in recent years, it takes normally 8-9 working days to apply for your Tibet Travel Permit from Tibet Tourism Bureau, incl. the days of preparing materials, putting on file and affixing the seal.  

For urgent permit (taking a short Lhasa tour itinerary and taking a train to Lhasa from Xining), it takes 4-5 days to process and extra charge is required.

If your Tibet tour itinerary is long and covers Ngari Prefecture and Bomi, it takes 20-30 days to process your Tibet Permit. Plus 3-5 days expressing time, it is better to confirm 30 days in advance.

Can anyone get a Tibet Travel Permit?

According to regulation of Tibet Tourism Bureau, all international tourists are required to get a Tibet Travel Permit before travelling to Tibet. But a diplomat, journalist or a government official can not get Tibet permit via Tibet travel agency. Only the Tibet Foreign Affairs Office can handle his/ her Tibet Permit application.

Will you have problem to get Tibet Travel Permit?

If you hold a personal passport, have already have a China tourist visa, and just want to come to Tibet for traveling, it is highly unlikely that you have any problem to get a Tibet Travel Permit, unless TTB suspends Tibet Travel Permit application. But you also need to choose a reliable online travel agency. It will be better if this online travel agency has a Lhasa based tour operator.

Where to receive your Tibet Travel Permit?

1. At Hotel or Friend’s Home of Mainland China city

1.1 Take a flight to Lhasa from Mainland China

At the airport of mainland China city from which to Lhasa or Nyingchi, such as: Chengdu, Chongqing, Beijing or Shanghai, your original Tibet Travel Permit will be checked three times. They are when you are picking up your flight ticket and checking in your luggage, when you are passing the airport security, and when you are boarding your flight.

1.2 Take a train from Lanzhou, Xian, Shanghai or Chongqing, etc.

China National Railway Administration says that all foreign travelers need to have valid Tibet Travel Permit to take a train to Tibet. When you take a train from Lanzhou, Xian, Shanghai, Chongqing, etc, your original Tibet permit will be checked several times, especially when you are picking up Tibet train ticket from ticket window at railway station, getting into the train station, boarding your train on the railway platform.

So we will deliver your original permit to you by Shunfeng Express in advance, and you need to give us your hotel address and friend’s home address, receiver’s name and phone number, check-in date or reservation number.

2. At Airport of mainland China city

When you take a flight to Lhasa and just have several hours transfer via a mainland China city, we can also arrange a local guide there to deliver your original permit to you at airport. In this way, there will be extra tour guide’permit delivery service fee.

3. In you Email

When you take a train from Xining, Chengdu and Beijing, the staff at the Railway Station will not check your original Tibet Permit and he/she will check the colorful paper.

So, we will send the scanned colorful copies of permit to your email, and you need to print two sheets in color and then hold the colorful papers to pick up your train ticket and board your train to Lhasa. But at Lhasa Railway Station, your Tibet tour guide will hold your original Tibet Permit to pick you up.

How to get Tibet Travel Permit from Kathmandu, Nepal?

If you do a Tibet tour from Nepal by flight, your original Tibet Travel Permit will be checked when you arriving at Lhasa Gonggar International Airport. If you take a Kathmandu to Lhasa tour by land, Tibet Travel Permit will be check at Gyirong Port. Your tour guide will take the permit to meet you at Lhasa Airport or Gyirong Port. Of course, if you need your Tibet Travel Permit, we can also send the scanned permit copies to your email in advance.

The application process of your Tibet Travel Permit is the same. All you need to do is to confirm your Tibet tour itinerary and sign tour contract with us, and just need offer your passport copy and occupation to us for your Tibet permit application.

Besides, you do not need apply for China visa from Chinese Embassy in your country. Our Kathmandu travel agency need to help you apply for your Tibet Group Visa from Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu for your Tibet tour from Nepal. Even though you have already had a China visa on your passport, it will be automatically expired when applying for Tibet Group Visa.

The application of a Tibet Group Visa need 3 working days. You need arrive at Kathmandu at least a working days in advance, and go to our Kathmandu travel agency office to offer your original passport and fill in the visa application form.