Chinese companies face visa issues ahead of CES

By Scott Murphy

International Consultant at Masei & Ryland

More than a thousand Chinese tech companies are getting ready to show their new products at CES, the world’s largest tech exhibition, in Las Vegas from January 7th-10th, but representatives from many of those firms are claiming that their US visa applications are being rejected.

Close observers say that such visa denials are unprecedented and represent a potential deterioration in US-China relations ahead of Donald Trump’s Presidential inauguration later in January.

Now in its 58th year, CES (formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show) is well known to all in our industry as a crucial business-to-business trade show where the latest in tech, trade, innovation, online, and more are showcased to key industry insiders. The upcoming 2025 CES is expected to focus on themes such as artificial intelligence, digital health, and autonomous driving. Nearly 4,000 exhibitors from around the world have registered to attend, with more than 30 percent of attendees estimated to be from China.

Yet according to anecdotal evidence, many would-be attendees from China are seeing their US visa applications rejected, even after they show clear documentation that they will be attending CES. One applicant was reportedly told by industry colleagues “that if you mention you are attending CES, there’s a 90 percent chance you’ll be denied a visa.”  So for those reading in China – it might help at this time to come up with another reason for visiting the U.S.

Chris Pereira, an American businessman who has helped Chinese companies market overseas for two decades via his New York-based company Impact, purports to have seen these widespread visa rejections firsthand. “At a training of 50 different companies, behind those 50 there are probably three or four hundred people applying for visas in our client group, and about half of those people reported having their visa declined,” he told CGTN, a Chinese-based global TV news network. After he wrote a post about it on LinkedIn, he received even more calls from others claiming they were rejected too.

In past years, Pereira claims that visa rejections were far less frequent, usually indicating that an application was filled out incorrectly. But this year is different. “They (the applicants) might have even gone to school in the U.S. in the past, or they went to school in Canada – all have clear records – and for no reason given they’re being told that they're not allowed to visit CES for one week,” he says.

After being contacted by various news sources, organizers at CES issued a statement claiming that they were aware of the issue and urged the U.S. government to expedite and approve visas for individuals who are traveling to the U.S. for legitimate business reasons.

Chinese companies have been attending CES en masse since 1991. In 2018, a record 1,551 firms took part, representing more than a third of all exhibitors. Yet during the pandemic, that number dropped drastically, as just 159 firms attended in 2022. But following US President Biden’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in California in November 2023, 1,114 Chinese companies – out of 4,314 exhibitors – showcased their products.

Liu Pengyu, spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., called CES “an important platform for exchanges and cooperation between Chinese companies and companies from all over the world,” in an email statement to the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong’s largest English language daily. “We hope that the United States will work with China to reduce policy obstacles such as visa and entry, take concrete actions to encourage and support more exchanges between people from business, science and technology and other sectors of the two countries.”  So far, there has been no official response from the U.S. government on this matter. 

Alan Lee, CEO of Masei & Ryland, also urges clients and other Chinese companies to use caution when applying for a US visa at this time. “If you need advice, don’t hesitate to contact us as we are experienced in these matters,” he says. “In addition, we plan to have representatives attend the event too, so reach out to us to make contact, arrange a meeting, and do business. We look forward to seeing you!”