Passport to a more efficient system

Residents of six major cities, with household registration elsewhere, will be able to apply for travel documents without first returning to their home area.

Currently, people wishing to apply for passports, or travel documents for Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, have to go through the exit and entry bureau in the location covered by their household registration.

From Sept 1, the floating population and university students in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen will be able to apply to the local authority, the Ministry of Public Security announced on Wednesday.

"With China's rapid economic and social development, these six cities have become the prime choice for people wanting to study or work and all have large floating populations," Zheng Baigang, director of the ministry's exit and entry administration, said.

"Workers and students want to apply for travel permits near where they live and work."

Residents in the pilot areas will be required to present their household registration certificate, ID card and temporary residence permit, while employed people will need a statement from the city's social security bureau to confirm they have paid contributions for at least a year, according to the ministry. Students will need a statement from their place of education confirming their enrollment.

According to the ministry, exit and entry bureaus in the six cities will receive applications and then send them, through police channels, to agencies in the applicant's hometown for approval.

They will get the issued certificates within 30 days of an application.

"If applicants are turned down, they have the right to an appeal or can contact the police authority covering their household registration," Zheng said, adding that authorities will severely punish applicants who use fake documents to cheat.

"This policy enables the floating population to enjoy the public services as native residents," he said.

Ma Yuqiang, 26, from Shandong province, has been working in Beijing for three years, and he welcomed the initiative.

"I really wanted to go overseas to work when I graduated in Beijing, but getting a passport was a problem," said Ma, who had an opportunity to work in South Africa three years ago, but turned it down because of complicated procedures.

Passport: Workload set to increase

"I had a job in Beijing at that time, so I had to return home at weekends to apply for the passport. It cost me a lot of time and money," he said. 

Wen Xiaohuan, a 26-year-old art major at Sichuan International Studies University in Chongqing, welcomed the move as she was planning a trip back to her hometown in Henan province to apply for a passport.

"It will save me lot of trouble although I hope procedures can be further simplified."

However, officials with exit and entry administrations in the six cities raised some issues.

Checking the identities of potentially millions of new applicants was a prime concern for Chen Yangding, director of the exit and entry documents service center under Guangdong's public security department.

"There are almost 33 million members of the floating population with temporary residence permits in Guangdong, and after the new measure is introduced, there will be at least a 30 percent increase in our workload," he said, adding they urgently need to increase manpower.

"We will have to pay particularly close attention to applicants to avoid suspects in major economic or other crimes fleeing the country through these ports," he said.

Lin Song, an officer at Beijing exit and entry administration department under the capital's public security bureau, said on Wednesday that discussions are currently being held to ensure efficiency.

"On Sept 1, I guess, more people will apply for passports which will pose a challenge.

"We're negotiating with departments, such as the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, to enforce the new regulation more efficiently."