TNAG-1349-FCO40-1790-Chinese-visa-office-in-Hong-Kong-1984 — Page 232

1.

HKK 349/1

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY

24 FEB 1984

DESK OFFICER

INDEX

RESTY

PA

A

Taken

SPL SING-NOTE

TİK 1)

(14)

dove. Am. Lego Pl Copy TO FED дезорі

сари пород

(Mr Cont Cpa

pa 349/1.

As Mr ZHAO will know, negotiations have been going on for some time in Peking about the question of privileges and immunities for the Visa Office and about the proposal that the Visa Office should be allowed to issue replacement passports to travellers whose passports are lost, stolen, full or have expired. Agreement is very

close, and as soon as it is reached the legislation necessary to confer on the Visa Office the privileges and immunities under discussion will be drawn up and

introduced.

2.

av

There remains some small practical question on which it would be helpful to have an agreement between this department and the Visa Office. As Mr ZHAO will know, any traveller visiting Hong Kong who is given a replacement passport must obtain from Immigration Department a renewal of the immigration stamp which was endorsed in

his previous passport on arrival in Hong Kong. Without this, the traveller would be unable to leave Hong Kong.

3.

When arrangements are introduced for the issue of replacement passports by the Visa Office, the volume of replacement passports issued is likely to be

quite large. This is a reflection of the large number of People's Republic of China passport holders passing

through Hong Kong each year. It would be most unfortunate if any of these visitors got into difficulties when leaving Hong Kong because they had failed to apply to Immigration Department for renewal of endorsement. In order to eliminate the risk of such unfortunate

incidents and in order to make life generally easier

for the travellers, I should like to propose an arrangement whereby the Visa Office itself would arrange for all replacement passports to be submitted direct to Immigration Department for renewal of endorsement before the passports are issued to the travellers.

23/2

Immigration Department

100 L