Frequently Asked Questions about HKSAR Passports

You are eligible to apply for a HKSAR Passport if you are a Chinese citizen, have the Right of Abode (ROA) in the HKSAR and are holding a valid Hong Kong permanent identity card (PIC).

You are a "Chinese citizen" if you have Chinese nationality under the Chinese Nationality Law as elaborated in " the interpretation of Chinese Nationality Law when applying in the HKSAR" passed by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of the Chinese Government on 15 May 1996. In general, you may have Chinese nationality if you are a Hong Kong resident of Chinese descent and born in Hong Kong or other parts of China, notwithstanding that you hold, or have held Hong Kong British Dependent Territories Citizen passport, British National (Overseas) passport; or any other foreign passport.

Article 4 of the Nationality Law of the People's Republic of China states that any person born in China whose parents are Chinese nationals or one of whose parents is a Chinese national shall have Chinese nationality.

Article 5 of the same Nationality Law states that any person born abroad whose parents are both Chinese nationals or one of whose parents is a Chinese national shall have Chinese nationality. But a person whose parents are both Chinese nationals and have both settled abroad, or one of whose parents is a Chinese national and has settled abroad, and who has acquired foreign nationality at birth shall not have Chinese nationality.

It follows that each case has to be considered individually, taking into account the provisions of the Nationality Law mentioned above.

Yes, you can apply for a HKSAR Passport.

Yes.

If you have returned to settle in Hong Kong and have not declared a change of nationality to the Hong Kong Immigration Department, you remain a Chinese national and are eligible for a HKSAR Passport.

(Please note that "settled", in relation to a person's claim to the right of abode in the HKSAR, means ordinarily resident in Hong Kong and is not subject to any restriction on the period of stay in Hong Kong.)

More about right of abode in the HKSAR
More about Chinese nationality

Yes, you can keep and travel on your foreign passport, which will be regarded in Hong Kong and other parts of China as a travel document only.

More about right of abode in the HKSAR
More about Chinese nationality

The features of the HKSAR Passport are :

• The passport is in machine readable format that will facilitate the holder's immigration clearance at foreign immigration control points equipped with machine reading facilities.
• The passport will contain only the personal particulars of the holder. Children of any age should hold their own passport.
• To tie in with the international trend, the passport is embedded with a contactless chip storing the photo and data which are displayed on the data page.
• The passport is normally valid for 10 years unless otherwise specified; passport for children under 16 years of age is normally valid for 5 years.
• The passport states that the holder has the right to return to HKSAR.
• The passport is valid for all countries.

A person who is a Chinese citizen holding a valid permanent identity card of the HKSAR and has the right of abode (ROA) in the HKSAR is eligible to apply for a HKSAR Passport.

You can submit your HKSAR passport application from Hong Kong or overseas.

Please see the following links for the required documents, fee and photograph to be enclosed:

Local application
Overseas application

By using the appointment booking service, you can shorten the queuing time at Immigration offices for collecting your new HKSAR passport.

You can make an appointment booking starting from the day following the date of issue of the Collection Notice. You can choose a suitable time slot from Monday to Saturday at the chosen collection office. The service is free of charge and group booking for a maximum of four applicants with same collection office shown on their Collection Notices is available.

Yes. You can make the appointment booking both for birth registration and passport application by inputting your travel document number and your child’s date of birth which must match with the birth return record from the hospital.  For HKSAR passport or Re-entry Permit application, the child must show the Hong Kong Birth Certificate if he was born in Hong Kong.  In this regard, please make an appointment for submitting the HKSAR passport/Re-entry Permit application at least 1 hour after the appointment for birth registration, including the time for traveling, whichever is longer.  For example, if you have booked an appointment at Kowloon Birth Registration Office at 0900 hours for birth registration, please make an appointment at 1100 hours at Immigration Office – East Kowloon for submitting the application for HKSAR passport.

Yes. You can make no more than 4 applications in each appointment booking, For example, you can make the appointment booking both for applying HKSAR passport and Re-entry Permit for two children at the same time, making a total number of 4 applications.

You are required to submit your application in person at the Travel Documents and Nationality (Application) Section or one of the Immigration Branch Offices. Upon application, besides the relevant supporting documents (e.g. deed poll), you also have to produce your existing HKSAR passport. As the personal particulars in the passport should be identical to those shown on the Hong Kong permanent identity card, you are required to apply for amendment to the registered particulars at the Registration of Persons Office before submitting the application for amendment to the personal particulars in the passport.

Should the application be approved, the HKSAR Immigration Department will issue a new passport with amended personal particulars to you and the passport will be of the same validity with your existing passport. The application fee is HK$84. Or, you may apply for a new passport with 10-year or 5-year validity (depending on the age of applicant). The application fee for a passport with 10-year validity is HK$370 (32 pages) / HK$460 (48 pages) and 5-year validity is HK$185 (32 pages) / HK$230 (48 pages).

If you have lost your HKSAR passport, you should report the loss to the Immigration Department.

You should complete the application form (ID 645) and submit your replacement application in person at any one of the Immigration Offices that handles travel document applications. You may book an appointment through the telephone booking system at (852) 2598 0888 or online www.gov.hk/tdbooking.

•    Immigration Offices for travel document applications
•    Online appointment booking for applying travel documents

How to apply for the HKSAR travel documents

If you lost your HKSAR passport while travelling abroad, you should immediately report the loss to the local police and request a copy of the police report.  With the documentary proof of the loss, you may contact the Chinese diplomatic and consular mission in that country and request for replacement of travel document.  You may also contact the Assistance to Hong Kong Residents Unit of the Immigration Department through the 24-hour hotline (852) 1868 for assistance.  The Immigration Department will provide you with information and assistance regarding the processing of travel document.

 Chinese Diplomatic and Consular Missions

Guide to Consular Protection and Services Outside Chinese Territory

The HKSAR Immigration Department pledges to complete the process of an application in 10 working days after receiving all necessary documents, application fee and photograph and in 14 working days for children aged under 11 not holding a Hong Kong permanent identity card (Working days denote Monday to Friday excluding General Holidays). In general, you can obtain the new passport on the next working day after the completion of the application process by the Immigration Department. For applications not submitted in person (e.g. via drop-in-box), an extra 2 to 3 working days may be required for handling formalities. The processing time may be longer for passport application due to loss, damage or change of personal particulars. Whether this pledge can be met will also depend on the circumstances of individual applications and the number of applications received at a particular time. If you have any travel plans, please apply early.

If you were born in the Mainland, you should provide the name of the province, municipality or autonomous region (e.g. Guangdong or Shanghai) at which you were born at the "Place of Birth" column. Your passport will show the name of province, municipality or autonomous region you reported. Whilst your child was born overseas, you should provide the country name (e.g. Canada or Thailand) at which your child was born but the name of province or municipality is not required. Your child's passport will only show the name of country he was born.

Application forms and Notes for Guidance are available at all Immigration Branch Offices, district offices and post offices. You may also obtain the application forms by post. Please call (852) 2824 6111 or fax. to (852) 2877 7711 or make your request through email : enquiry@immd.gov.hk.

If you are residing overseas, application forms and Notes for Guidance can also be obtained from the Chinese Diplomatic and Consular Missions or the HKSAR Immigration Department.

No. The passport will contain only the personal particulars of the passport holder. An application should be made for your child for his own HKSAR Passport.

For eligible children under 11 years of age who are not holding PICs, their applications for PICs must be submitted together with their applications for HKSAR Passports. The application form must be signed by a parent or legal guardian. The PIC will be issued together with the HKSAR Passport. For details, please see ID(E)842A "Notes of Guidance for HKSAR Passport application" and ROP(E)149 "Notes for Guidance on Application for a Hong Kong Permanent Identity Card for a Child under 11 years of age in connection with Application for Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Passport".

When you collect your new passport, you should produce your existing passport for cancellation. The cancelled passport will be returned to you.

In case of need, you may upon application for replacement of HKSAR passport, also apply to cross link your existing passport with your new passport. Cross linking of HKSAR Passports means making an endorsement on both the previous and new passports to the effect that the previous passport bears a visa which is still in force. The previous passport will not be physically linked to the new passport but will be returned to you after the endorsement is made. If you wish to apply for cross linking of passports, you have to meet all the following conditions:

(a)  your existing passport is still valid on the date of printing the cross link endorsement;

(b)  your existing passport contains a valid visa, a residence permit or entry permit; and

(c)  your existing passport has at least one blank page for making an endorsement about the cross linking of passports.

To apply for cross linking of passports, you have to complete the application form ID879 and pay a fee of HK$170.  In general, the processing of HKSAR passport takes 10 working days to complete. Any application for cross linking of passports should be made simultaneously when you apply for replacement of passport in order not to cause delay in the processing of passport.

Application for cross linking of HKSAR Passports (Form ID 879)