Preparing with my Chinese wife for travel to USA next year, I discovered this new requirement, which goes into effect 2016-11-29.

Chinese tourists going to USA must have (1) B1/B2, B1, or B2 visa, and (2) EVUS registration starting November 29, 2016.

EVUS = Electronic Visa Update System.

This only applies to Chinese travelers with the mentioned visa types that are valid for 10 years.

Other types of visa do not require registration.

For B1/B2, B1 and B2 visa travelers, if the EVUS registration is lacking, the Chinese citizen will not be allowed to board aircraft for USA.

EVUS registration is completed at www.evus.gov.

See also www.cbp.gov/EVUS for more information.

Registration is supposed to take twenty minutes in most cases.

This new requirement is part of the reciprocal agreement between China and USA allowing citizens to obtain a ten-year travel visa.

The EVUS registration must be completed every two years in order to visit the USA.

Again, if the Chinese traveler has not registered, or the registration is older than two years, the traveler will be denied boarding flight to USA. At this time, EVUS registration only applies to Chinese citizens with ten-year B1/B2, B1 and B2 visas, although it is expected to be extended to other countries in the future.

There is also no registration fee at present, but there may be one in future.

According to the EVUS website, information to be entered as part of registration:
1. Primary email address
2. Secondary email address
3. Home telephone number
4. Cell phone number
5. Work phone number
6. Home address
7. Emergency point of contact
8. Are you in transit? “Yes” or “No” [i.e., to another country]
9. U.S. Point of Contact
10. Address in the U.S.
11. Do you have a current or previous employer? 'Yes' or 'No'
12. Employer name, address, telephone number, and title

Thank you for posting this very clearly and well documented article.

As with most US laws - EVUS most probably circumvents the spirit and intent of the 10 year travel visa reciprocal agreement. EVUS is burdensome, annoying, but not impossible, and as mentioned, is free for now, while they work out the bugs, at your expense and convenience.

As a result of this additional EVUS requirement - we should expect China to reciprocate with an equally bureaucratic requirement and process, shortly.

The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) FAQ site:

www.cbp.gov/[...]

My wife successfully enrolled in EVUS just now.

Entering the required information took forty minutes.

I helped her understand what to enter in each field.

I was surprised they ask for parent's names (required field).

Some data must be entered in both English and Chinese.

After all the data was entered, she submitted the form and received a successful enrollment response in one minute.

Her enrollment is good now for two years.