2019 Major adjustments to the Chinese citizen passport policy! These changes are closely related to you

Heavy Bomb!

Starting 1 January 2019, the process of Chinese citizen passport policy has been greatly amended.

  
Recently Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Consular Division stated:
 
The passport policy for overseas Chinese citizens will be greatly adjusted, the scope of accepted applications will be expanded, and the requirements for application materials will be loosed. The relevant policy adjustments will be officially implemented on January 1, 2019.
The adjustment of this policy is significant, and the people who benefited from it are more broaden. Let's take a look at some of the new changes.
 
Expand the acceptance scope of passport processing
Before the adjustment: Chinese citizen who has already had passport must, in principle, be the one who is living in foreign countries in long term basic if he/she renews his/her passport abroad.
After adjustment: Overseas Chinese citizen renews his/her passport will no longer require to live abroad in long term basic.
 
This means, except in the circumstance that cannot be issued by laws and regulations, Chinese citizens who travel abroad even in a short period of time, they may renew their passports if their passport is going to be expired or the pages of the passport has been used up.
 
The requirements for application materials will be loosed
Before the adjustment: When applying for a passport in the embassy or consulate of foreign countries, you must provide a valid local residence permit or visa, and sometimes you need to go to a local third party institution to issue certificate to prove your nationality.
After the adjustment: Introduce to the international standard of nationality status declaration system.  The application materials are loosed, and no third-party agency was required to issue the certificate. The applicant of passport makes a declaration regard to his or her nationality and is responsible for the content of the declaration and legal responsibility.
 
It is easier for minors to apply for passport
Only one legal guardian is reqired to present during the minor’s application for giving consent.
According to relevant Chinese laws and regulations, a legal guardian must be present to give the consent when a minor applies for a passport.
Before adjustment: Both parents must be present at the same time.
 
However, with the era development, the mobility of people has increased, the pace of work has accelerated, and it has become increasingly difficult for both parents to present at the same time. For example, if the mother takes the child to study abroad whilst the father stays in his own country for earning money, it is really difficult for both parents to be present at the same time.
After adjustment: When minors apply for passports and travel permits in China embassies and consulates of foreign countries, only one legal guardian (parent/legal guardian) is required to be presented and gives his/her consent for the application.
 
The New policy also unifies the materials required for minors apply for travel permits
Before the adjustment: According to the different situations of different countries, when the China embassies and consulates in foreign countries accept the application for the minor travel permit, the materials requested are not the same.
Application for travel permits in different embassies and consulates of foreign countries, the preparation of the relevant materials in advance is different, which makes many applicants confused.
 
After the adjustment: The embassies and consulates of foreign countries will implement the “global standard” to unify the standard of the materials required. Other than the first application, in principle, it should be handled by the Chinese embassy or consulate of the country where the applicant born whilst the rest may submit to any embassy or consulate of China abroad or the Commissioner's Office of China's Foreign Ministry in the Hong Kong or Macau.
 
Upgrade online reservation system
The “Overseas Chinese Citizen Passport Online Booking System” (website: https://ppt.mfa.gov.cn), which was launched in 2016, has also been upgraded recently, adding “passport process progress inquiry” and “collection consular service evaluation” such new features.

The function -“passport processing progress inquiry” means that the applicant can obtain the real-time processing progress in the reservation system, and the system can also automatically send the processing progress to the e-mail address registered by the applicant.
 
“By optimizing the process, the time to collection has been greatly reduced – from the previous 15 working days to around a week.”
 
In addition, the system also adds the function of “collecting consular service evaluation”. After the applicant has completed the application, the applicant can conduct star rating for consular counter service, business handling and environment of the embassy and consulate, and make comments and suggestions.
 
In the past, the oversea Chinese citizens were mainly overseas Chinese, and the passport work of China embassies and consulates abroad mainly served the overseas Chinese. In recent years, more and more Chinese have gone abroad, and the upgrade of passport service will be better undoubtedly to meet the needs of overseas Chinese citizens.