Description

Purchase a Hong Kong Passport Online!

The ranking of the Hong Kong passport in comparison to other global passports is determined by tallying the number of countries that permit entry for Hong Kong passport holders without a visa (visa-free countries) alongside those that allow entry through a visa on arrival (visa-on-arrival countries) or an electronic travel authorization (eTA). Currently, there are 139 countries that offer visa-free access, 31 countries that provide visa-on-arrival options, and 5 destinations that require an eTA for Hong Kong passport holders.

In total, holders of the Hong Kong passport can access 175 destinations—either visa-free, via a visa on arrival, or through an eTA. Consequently, the Hong Kong passport is ranked 17th globally.

Hong Kong Passport

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Passport (Chinese: 香港特別行政區護照) is exclusively issued to permanent residents of Hong Kong who also possess Chinese citizenship. Following the transfer of sovereignty on July 1, 1997, the passport has been issued by the Immigration Department of the Hong Kong Government, authorized by the Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China, in accordance with the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Given that the official languages of Hong Kong are Chinese and English, the passport is printed in both languages, utilizing traditional Chinese characters.

Name
In English, the passport is often referred to by its full title as it appears on the cover (i.e., the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region People’s Republic of China passport – a direct translation of the Chinese title 中華人民共和國香港特別行政區護照). It is also commonly known as the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region passport (Chinese: 香港特別行政區護照). The legislative ordinance governing the passport is titled the “Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Passports Ordinance (Chapter 539).”

The authorities of the Republic of China (commonly known as “Taiwan”) refer to the Hong Kong SAR passport as the “Hong Kong passport” because the ROC government tries to avoid references to the political status of Hong Kong as a SAR of the People’s Republic of China. While the Brazilian Consulate-General in Hong Kong uses the term “Hong Kong passport” in reference to both the Hong Kong SAR and British National (Overseas) passports.

Eligibility and application

The eligibility criteria for application for a Hong Kong SAR passport are as following:

Chinese citizenship;

Permanent residency in the Hong Kong SAR, and;
A valid Hong Kong permanent identity card.
In comparison with the British National (Overseas) passport, the Hong Kong SAR passport’s application fees are lower. When applying in Hong Kong, a British National (Overseas) passport costs £83 (32 pages), and £53 (child) from April 2014. In comparison with other Chinese passports, when applying from Hong Kong, the People’s Republic of China passport
Hong Kong permanent residents without Chinese citizenship cannot be issued HKSAR passports and must obtain passports from their country of origin, or they may obtain a Hong Kong Document of Identity for Visa Purposes if they are stateless.

Chinese citizens residing Hong Kong who are not yet Hong Kong permanent residents are not eligible for this passport but may also obtain Hong Kong Document of Identity in lieu of HKSAR passports.

Physical appearance
Since the issuing of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region passport commenced on 1 July 1997 following the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong, the passport has undergone three different changes, each with security enhancements. In February 2007, the first ePassport was introduced. The design conforms with the document design recommendations of the International Civil Aviation Organization. The new ePassport featured in the 2008 Stockholm Challenge Event and was a finalist for the Stockholm Challenge Award in the Public Administration category. The Hong Kong SAR ePassport design was praised on account of the “multiple state-of-the-art technologies [which] are seamlessly integrated in the sophisticated Electronic Passport System (e-Passport System)”. The cover of the new biometric passport remains essentially the same as that of previous versions, with the addition of the bio-metric passport logo at the bottom.

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Current version (bio-metric passport)
The Immigration Department said in 2006 that Unihub Limited, a PCCW subsidiary that led a group of suppliers that included Keycorp, had won the contract to supply the technology needed to create biometric passports. The first ePassport was released in February 2007. The new biometric passport has a cover that is nearly identical to earlier iterations. At the bottom, beneath the phrase “PASSPORT,” is the biometric passport emblem EPassport logo.svg. The interior pages’ layout, however, has undergone significant alteration.

HongKong Passport