NPC member to call for quicker travel permit renewals
A Hong Kong delegate to the National People's Congress (NPC) says he will ask authorities to speed up home return permit renewals, to help Hongkongers who are waiting months to get new documents. Speaking to reporters on Friday before heading to Beijing for an upcoming NPC meeting, Rock Chen said all appointment slots for applying for the mainland travel permit are booked up for the next two months. "Recently I've received quite many requests for assistance from people who are applying for mainland travel permits. People need to wait for a long time now, until May that is... because a large number of people need to go to the mainland for various reasons after the border was mostly closed for three years," he said. "I'll tell mainland departments about the situation, and hope both mainland and Hong Kong authorities will think of ways to expedite the application process." The online booking system showed that, as of noon on Friday, the earliest slots available for people applying for a permit for the first time were in late April, while people looking to renew their permit would need to wait another month. Meanwhile, NPC delegate Eileen Tsui said she will propose allowing more young people from Hong Kong to take up jobs at public institutions on the mainland. "I hope public utilities on the mainland or the civil servant [system] there can offer more positions for them to achieve upward [social] mobility... and learn more about the situation on the mainland," the businesswoman said. The NPC meeting is to begin on Sunday.