Hong Kong residents can now go to mainland China with expired papers in bid to cut permit renewal queues, until year end
- Immigration authority says mainland travel permits for Hong Kong residents that expired between January 1, 2020, and December 30, 2023, now valid until year’s end
- ‘Considering the surge in demand to travel back and forth to the mainland, the National Immigration Administration has decided to extend those permits’, it adds
Hongkongers can travel to mainland China using their expired documents until the end of this year, as the central government has announced an extension to their papers starting from next month in a bid to cut long waiting queues for renewal of their home return permits.
The National Immigration Administration on Friday said mainland travel permits, also known as home return permits, for Hong Kong and Macau residents that originally expired between January 1, 2020, and December 30, 2023 would remain valid until December 31 of this year.
“Since the pandemic outbreak in 2020, some of the Hong Kong and Macau residents could not arrange their renewal of documents on time … there was a long waiting time for booking slots in some of those offices,” the country’s immigration authority said.
“Considering the surge in demand to travel back and forth to the mainland, the National Immigration Administration has decided to extend those permits that expired between January 1, 2020, and December 30, 2023.”
The authority said document holders from May 8 could simply use their expired permits to cross the border. Residents can also choose to renew their documents at a nearby government office after they cross the border.
