APEC Business Travel Card
travel document
The APEC Business Travel Card (ABTC) is a travel document issued to business travellers who are citizens of APEC member economies. Valid for five years, the card removes the need for visas when travelling to other APEC member economies, provided the holder has completed the necessary pre-clearance during the application process.
In 2021, the Virtual APEC Business Travel Card (VABTC) was introduced, offering the same benefits via a mobile application. Virtual cards are intended to replace physical cards entirely, though each participating economy will determine its own timeline for doing so. As of 2023, all APEC economies except Russia accept the VABTC for entry.
Participating APEC economies and application process
Nineteen of the twenty-one APEC economies are full participating economies in the APEC Business Travel Card programme:
Australia
Brunei
Chile
China
Hong Kong, China
Indonesia
Japan
South Korea
Malaysia
Mexico
New Zealand
Papua New Guinea
Peru
Philippines
Russia
Singapore
Taiwan (as Chinese Taipei)
Thailand
Vietnam
Transitional members:
Canada
United States
Russia became a full participant on 1 June 2013.
Citizens of these economies may apply for an APEC Business Travel Card through their home government. The general requirement is that applicants be business people who need to travel frequently for short-term visits within the APEC region. However, the criteria for approval vary by economy. For example, Hong Kong accepts applications from all permanent resident bona fide business people.
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This entry incorporates text from “APEC Business Travel Card” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.