21 Dec 2015
Under the existing arrangement, if a Hong Kong resident loses his or her passport/travel document/Hong Kong identity document used to enter Macau and has no other document for departure, he or she should proceed in person to the Immigration Department Office Building in Taipa, Macau, to report the loss and apply for the Declaration of Loss of Document. If the loss involves a criminal act (e.g. the document is stolen), the applicant is required to report in person to the police first to obtain a Report Testimonial or a Complaint Notification. The applicant can then approach the aforementioned Immigration Department Office Building to complete the formality before presenting for departure clearance via Macau's Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal or the Taipa Ferry Terminal.
In addition, if the applicant has enrolled for the automated clearance service of Macau, the relevant Macau authority will conduct identify verification through its computer system with the applicant's consent. If the applicant has not enrolled for the automated clearance service of Macau, the relevant authority will conduct identity verification with the Hong Kong Immigration Department.
Under the new arrangement, the procedures to report loss of travel document and to present for subsequent departure for Hong Kong residents will be further streamlined and the processing time will also be shortened. The applicant may proceed directly to Macau's Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal or the Taipa Ferry Terminal for departure formalities, other than proceeding to the Immigration Department Office Building in Taipa for reporting the loss and applying for the Declaration of Loss of Document as usual. The applicant may present for departure clearance after identity verification. This arrangement will streamline the process of dealing with the formalities in different departments by the applicant. However, if the loss involves a criminal act, the applicant is still required to report the case to the police. Moreover, if the case requires verification of identity with the counterpart departments, the Hong Kong and Macau authorities have agreed to further speed up the procedures by shortening the processing time by at least 30 minutes.
Reciprocally, after the implementation of the new arrangement, if a Macau resident loses his or her passport/travel document/Macau identity document used to enter Hong Kong and has no other document for departure, he or she can proceed directly to the Macau Ferry Terminal in Sheung Wan or the China Ferry Terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui to report the loss and present for departure clearance in one go. If the Macau resident has already enrolled for the automated clearance service, the Hong Kong Immigration Department can speed up the process through the checking system to verify the identity with the Macau resident's consent. Further verification of identity with the Macau authority will not be required.
At present, there are about 1.5 million Hong Kong residents enrolled for the automated clearance service of Macau and the number of Macau residents who have enrolled for the automated clearance service of Hong Kong is about 220 000.
The enhanced arrangement will be implemented simultaneously in both Hong Kong and Macau in the first quarter of 2016.