Canton Fair registration 2026: buyer badge and invitation letter

The four steps

1. Create an account. On the official site, choose Buyer, then Register (the system is called the Buyer Service System; older pages call it BEST). Use an email you check, because approval, the invitation letter and every later notice go there.
2. Fill in the profile. Personal details exactly as in your passport, a portrait photo, passport data page scan, company name, address, your title, the product categories you buy, phone number. Tick the box to request an invitation letter if you need one for a visa.
3. Wait for approval. A few working days. You get an email, and the badge approval with its QR code appears in your account and in the app. If you asked for the e-invitation it is a PDF in the same place.
4. Collect the physical badge. Show your passport and the QR code at any registration office. Airport and hotel collection points exist so you are not in the queue at the complex on the first morning.

Registration is open all year, so there is no deadline as such. The practical deadline is your visa: if you need an M visa, register at least six to eight weeks before you fly so that the letter is in hand when you apply. See the visa guide for who needs one.

What you need before you start

• A passport with at least six months’ validity (the visa rule; the fair itself does not care) and a clear scan or phone photo of the data page.
• A head-and-shoulders photo on a plain background. A phone photo against a white wall is accepted; the system rejects blurry ones and ones with sunglasses.
• Your company name, address and website, and a job title. Small companies should write their real title, not “CEO” of a one-person firm; nobody checks, but it sets the tone with exhibitors who scan your badge.
• An idea of the product sections you buy in. This feeds the exhibitor matching and the app’s recommendations, both of which are better than they look.

The buyer badge: collecting it, keeping it

The badge is a plastic card with your photo, your company and a QR code. It is scanned at every hall entrance and by exhibitors who want your details (that is how the emails start arriving a week later). Three things people get wrong:

• It is a multi-session card. Keep it after the fair. Next session you update your profile online and bring the same card; no queue. A replacement has cost RMB 200 in recent sessions.
• Collect it away from the complex. The registration office at Baiyun Airport arrivals, the one at Guangzhou South railway station and the designated hotels are quiet. The complex offices on the first morning of Phase 2 are not. If you come through Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Representative Office issues badges all year round.
• Bring the passport you registered with. A photo of it on your phone is not accepted for collection, and a second passport with a different number is a new registration.

The invitation letter and what it is for

The invitation is issued by the organiser, the China Foreign Trade Centre, and states that you are an expected overseas buyer for the session. Its only job is to support a business (M) visa application at a Chinese embassy, consulate or visa application centre. You can ask for it in the same form as the badge (first-timers) or later from the Invitation Letter menu (returning buyers). The e-invitation is a PDF you print; a paper original can be posted for a fee but is rarely needed now.

Two things it does not do. It does not guarantee a visa: the consulate decides, and your own company letter, itinerary and hotel bookings matter as much. And it does not replace the badge: you still collect the card.

If you are from a country that can enter China visa-free (most of Europe, the UK and Canada from February 2026, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, the Gulf states, several Latin American countries), you do not need the letter to travel. Ask for it anyway; the border officer who asks about the purpose of your visit likes to see it.

Fees, and how to pay none of them

Colleagues, interpreters and Chinese companions

Every person entering the halls needs their own badge. Two colleagues from the same company each register; the company details can be identical. A foreign-passport interpreter registers as a buyer like anyone else.

Chinese nationals are a different case. A Chinese friend, driver or freelance interpreter cannot enter on your badge and cannot register as an overseas buyer. They register as an accompanying person, and the organisers have charged RMB 300 per person per day for that, plus a small fee for the card. The way round it is the official interpretation service, whose interpreters are badged, or a sourcing agent who holds a domestic buyer badge. Our interpreter guide has the prices.

Mistakes that cost people a morning

• Registering with a name in a different order from the passport (family name first on one, last on the other). The badge is checked against the passport at collection.
• Uploading a passport scan with glare across the machine-readable zone. It is rejected, silently, and you find out at the airport office.
• Assuming a badge from a colleague who did not come will work for you. The photo is on it.
• Leaving the badge in the hotel. It is the only way in; the registration office will issue a replacement, at the price above.
• Arriving on a change-over day expecting to register and walk in. The offices are open; the halls are not. Check the dates.