8 January 2016
The Immigration Department announced today (January 8) that the enhanced new arrangement for processing cases of loss of entry identification documents relating to returning Hong Kong and Macau residents will be implemented on Monday (January 11).
Under the new 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 may proceed directly to Macau's Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal or the Taipa Ferry Terminal for departure formalities once his/her identity is verified, 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. This arrangement will streamline the process of dealing with the formalities in different departments. However, if the loss involves a criminal act (e.g. the document is stolen), the applicant is still required to report the case to the police. 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 written consent. Moreover, if the case requires verification of identity with the counterpart departments, the Hong Kong and Macau authorities have agreed to speed up the relevant procedures.
Reciprocally, after 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 Hong Kong-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 verify the identity through the checking system with the Macau resident's written consent. Further verification of identity with the Macau authority will not be required.
After the implementation, the procedures to report loss of travel document and to present for subsequent departure will be further streamlined and the processing time will also be shortened.
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. In 2015, there were, on average, 50 cases per month relating to the loss of entry identification documents for returning Hong Kong residents and four cases per month for returning Macau residents.
Enquiries about the new enhanced arrangement can be made by calling the Macau Terminal Section of the Hong Kong Immigration Department (Tel: (852) 2547 5265) or the headquarters of the Macau Immigration Department (Tel: (853) 2872 5488).