NIA to unveil more exit-entry facilitation measures

Under the pandemic prevention and control new normal, to effectively address exit-entry issues for Chinese and foreign nationals, and better plan for the overall promotion of pandemic prevention and control and socioeconomic development, the National Immigration Administration (NIA) will soon unveil a series of new measures to facilitate exit and entry for both Chinese and foreign travelers.

These new measures will mainly include:

First, provide more application convenience for mainland residents who study or settle abroad. During the pandemic, the requirements for advance renewal of expiring passports are relaxed, from a period of six months to two years for students planning to study abroad. Mainland residents who apply to settle in Hong Kong but will not be accompanied by their relatives in Hong Kong for on-site joint application submission due to the pandemic may apply independently and their relatives in Hong Kong may receive inquiries via a video link.

Second, optimize the certificate application formalities for Chinese citizens living or travelling abroad. During the pandemic, for Hong Kong and Macao residents in a foreign country to apply for renewal or re-issuance of their mainland travel permits, they may entrust relatives or friends in Hong Kong and Macao to submit applications to China Travel Service (Hong Kong) or China Travel Service (Macao). For mainland residents who work, study or live in Taiwan for a long time, in case that their Taiwan travel permits are to expire is less than six months, already expired, lost or damaged, they may entrust relatives or friends in the mainland to submit applications for renewal or re-issuance of their travel permits (excluding endorsements) at the original issuing authority. And if mainland residents in Hong Kong whose permits for travelling to and from Hong Kong and Macao are expired, lost or damaged, when applying for permits to travel back to the mainland, the time for application examination, approval and issuance of the permits is shortened to three working days.

Third, expand the scope of services for online application appointments. Foreigners in China may fill out the application in advance and submit applications to exit-entry administration authority of the public security authority through online appointments, thus improving efficiency and avoiding waiting crowds.

Fourth, improve management of foreigners with long-term residence in China. More efforts will be made in improving information sharing and re-engineering process with relevant departments to further facilitate the "one submission for full services, paralleled processing and approval" for issuance of foreigners' work permits and residence permits. Moreover, resident permit alteration is not required for further education of foreign talents holding work-type residence permits in China.

Fifth, immigration administration authorities at all levels must take proactive measures based on realities to further deepen the reform of immigration administration services, and facilitate Chinese enterprises in going global, customs clearance of goods, and expanding into global markets. Chinese and foreign exit-entry personnel must submit necessary materials and go through relevant procedures in accordance with the law when handling relevant affairs according to the arrangements of the above-mentioned new measures.

According to relevant officials of NIA, the new measures introduced to benefit people are part of the practical actions taken by NIA to fully implement the requirements of the CPC Central Committee on Party history learning and the second batch of requirements on education and overhaul of political and legal affairs worker, and further advance the deployments of serving the people in a practical manner. NIA requires that all relevant measures must be implemented across China by the end of December 2021.

Notice: The English version is only for reference. To learn more, please refer to the authoritative Chinese version.