If you hold a mainland Chinese passport and you were planning to enter Gibraltar on a United Kingdom visa, that route closed on 8 July 2026. This page used to recommend it. It was correct when it was written in April and it is wrong now, so here is the corrected version. On 15 July 2026 Gibraltar aligned its short stay visa policy with the Schengen Area. The Government's [technical notice on visa arrangements](https://www.gibraltar.gov.gi/press-releases/technical-notice-reminder-concerning-visa-arrangements-5582026-12201) is the primary document and it is blunt about what went: Gibraltar will no longer operate exemptions linked to a person's immigration status in the UK, which covers both UK residence and the holding of a UK visa. Three things happened in a week. The former UK visa application process for travel to Gibraltar ceased on 8 July 2026. On 15 July 2026 the treaty began to apply and Gibraltar's short stay rules became Schengen rules. And the exemptions that had let a UK visa holder or a UK resident skip the Gibraltar visa requirement stopped existing. This matters more for Chinese nationals than for almost anyone else, because the UK multiple entry visa was the route this site and most others recommended. A six month UK visit visa is now worth nothing at the Gibraltar border for visa purposes. If that is the document you were relying on, you need a different one. A Schengen short stay visa. The notice says Gibraltar will recognise, as valid for entry into Gibraltar, Schengen short stay visas issued by any of the Schengen States. There is no Gibraltar specific application to make instead: you apply to a Schengen state's consular authority or its authorised visa application centre under the Schengen Visa Code, and where Gibraltar is your main destination that will normally be Spain. That is a real change in where you queue and what you fill in, not a relabelling. A Schengen application asks for travel insurance, proof of accommodation and proof of funds in a format the old UK route did not, and the appointment lead times in mainland China are set by the Spanish consular network rather than by Gibraltar. The notice gives two Gibraltar addresses if your case is unusual: the Department of Immigration and Home Affairs at visas.diha@gibraltar.gov.gi and the Borders and Coastguard Agency at info@bca.gov.gi. Use them. A page cannot know your specific immigration history and this one is not going to pretend otherwise. This is the distinction the old version of this page missed completely, and it is the single most useful thing on it. Three documents, three different answers. | Travel document | Schengen short stay visa | ETIAS, once it starts | At Gibraltar airport | | Mainland China passport | required | never applies to visa holders | Schengen visa plus EES registration | | Hong Kong SAR passport | not required for tourism up to 90 days | will be required | passport plus EES registration | | Macao SAR passport | not required for tourism up to 90 days | will be required | passport plus EES registration | | British National Overseas passport | not required for tourism up to 90 days | will be required | passport plus EES registration | The Schengen visa exemption attaches to the document, not to the person. A Hong Kong permanent resident travelling on a mainland passport needs the visa. The same person travelling on their HKSAR passport does not. The [Schengen states' published list of visa requirements by nationality and travel document](https://www.sem.admin.ch/sem/en/home/publiservice/weisungen-kreisschreiben/visa/liste1_staatsangehoerigkeit/leg_visum.html) is the reference, and it lists documents rather than countries for exactly this reason. There is a counterintuitive consequence. ETIAS is for travellers who do not need a visa, so a mainland passport holder will never need one. A Hong Kong or Macao SAR passport holder will. Gibraltar International Airport was [renamed Joshua Hassan Gibraltar International Airport](https://www.gibraltar.gov.gi/press-releases/gibraltar-international-airport-to-be-renamed-joshua-hassan-gibraltar-international-airport-5382026-12182) after the territory's first Chief Minister, announced in the budget address on 7 July 2026. You will see the new name on signage and in some booking systems and not in others. On arrival you clear [both Gibraltar and Schengen immigration controls](https://www.gibraltarairport.gi/at-the-airport/passports-and-identity-cards). The FCDO's [entry requirements page for Gibraltar](https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/gibraltar/entry-requirements) spells out who runs the second one: the Schengen check is performed by the Spanish authorities, as the authorities of the neighbouring Schengen State, on Gibraltar soil. Once you are through, you can move freely across the land frontier into Spain and the wider Schengen Area. That is the part worth planning around. The frontier itself no longer has routine checks, so the airport and the cruise port are wh