How Is the Expiry Date Counted? Which Document to Read, and What Happens After an Extension

Three documents, three dates

The visa sticker date governs entry. It answers the latest day you may arrive on that visa, not how long you may stay. A valid visa does not mean lawful presence.

The entry stamp date governs authorised stay — the end of your first period and the original baseline for scheduling.

The extension annotation or receipt governs the current period. Every filing updates the baseline, so your present expiry is always on the most recent one, never on the entry stamp.

The full distinction is in validity versus authorised stay, and day counting in how visa-free days are counted.

For an extension, read the newest entry

Find the most recent annotation or receipt; its date is your baseline. If you have never extended, use the entry stamp.

To confirm you have the right one, lay every stay-related stamp and annotation out in order with the matching receipts and check whether they form an unbroken line. If they do, the last one is correct. If they do not, a period was never carried across and that must be fixed first.

This matters most after a passport change, because stamps do not follow automatically — see transferring a visa to a new passport.

Not sure which entry is the current baseline? → Send Yixing the stamped pages and your latest receipt for an exact expiry

Where the new period starts

Two possibilities: the new period continues from the previous expiry, or it runs from the date of filing. Which one applies changes how many days you actually gain.

The practical impact is on scheduling. If it continues, early filing costs nothing. If it runs from filing, going far too early shortens your total stay. Ask that one question before you go — see how early to file.

Check three things on the new annotation before leaving the window: the new expiry, your name and passport number, and whether the bracket matches what you applied for. See what you receive after an extension.

Five common miscounts

• Scheduling from the visa sticker date — the most common error of all.
• Mentally adding days to the arrival date. Counting has an established method; do not improvise.
• Carrying the old expiry across a departure. Leaving and re-entering normally restarts the count — see how days are counted.
• Treating the registration card expiry as the visa expiry — two separate timelines, see the ACR I-Card renewal guide.
• Assuming the expiry day itself is still covered — see whether there is a grace period.

Keep a table you can check yourself

Four columns are enough: date, transaction, reference number, new expiry. Add a row after every filing.

It pays off at three moments: the next filing, when someone asks about your stay history, and when a passport is replaced and the record must be reconstructed.

Keep the paper receipts in date order and photograph them. Losing one is not fatal, but it turns a single trip into two.

Cumulative ceilings are a separate calculation — see maximum continuous stay. Yixing holds SEC registration CS202009551 and BI accreditation CA-202624381-1.