New permit policy 'facilitates cross-border travel'
Would-be travellers and lawmakers on Friday reacted positively to a move by mainland authorities allowing holders of home return permits that have expired or are about to to head across the border. Mainland authorities announced that from May 8, the home return permit for Hong Kong and Macau residents with an expiry date between January 1, 2020, and December 30, 2023, would be considered valid until the end of the year. A man voiced support for the new policy. "Some people are in a hurry to visit their elderly relatives, so this is the right thing to do,” he told RTHK. Another would-be visitor also welcomed the policy but said it should have been implemented sooner. “Of course, everyone hopes that it could be implemented for Labour Day. It would be great if people could travel for a holiday immediately after," she said. Chief Secretary Eric Chan said he was very grateful to mainland authorities for making the decision to allow the use of expired permits. "This is actually unprecedented. Very rarely you see an expired document is allowed to stay effective until the end of the year," he told reporters during a visit to Beijing. "Everyone should understand that this practice makes things greatly convenient for the people of Hong Kong, for going in and out of the mainland."  National People's Congress Standing Committee member and DAB lawmaker Starry Lee said the new policy is an “important and special measure” to cope with demand. “Based on the information from the CTS (China Travel Service), we understand there may be more than one million people who can benefit from this policy. Therefore we would like to express our deep gratitude and thanks for all people involved in facilitating this from happening,” she told reporters. Authorities also said travellers can renew their permit after arriving in the mainland, and lawmaker Gary Zhang said people should consider taking advantage of the arrangement. He said an estimated two million permits have expired since 2020, and the CTS can only process 6,000 renewals a day.  “Based on a very rough calculation, if we only rely on Hong Kong capacity, we will probably need another one year to clear all the backlog. But now they can apply in mainland centres, so I think extending it to the end of this year will greatly resolve this situation,” he said. Federation of Trade Unions lawmaker Joephy Chan said people can book appointments for renewal using WeChat after they cross the border. “We learned that to do the processing you can actually go on the WeChat app and there are 11 centres. The nearest offices will be based in Shenzhen so it’s quite convenient for local Hong Kong residents,” she said.