Hukou move aids travel

People without local permanent residency permits can apply for passports and other travel documents in six major cities since Saturday.

The cities are Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Previously, applicants had to go to the place where their hukou, or permanent residency permits, were issued.

A resident, who does not hold a Beijing hukou, or permanent residency permit, applies for a passport at a Beijing Municipal Exit and Entry Administration working hall on Monday. Cao Boyuan / for China Daily

Up to the early morning of Monday, Beijing's Exit and Entry Administration, under the capital's Public Security Bureau, had received 3,000 online applications, including more than 1,300 applications for passports, according to the latest data.

Residents in Beijing must make an appointment via the Internet. Successful applicants can then go to their local exit and entry administration to process the registration, the municipal authority said after the regulation was published.

All applications in 18 working halls covering Beijing have gone smoothly and there have been no crowds in any location, Yang Liu, a publicity officer at the administration, said on Monday.

"Most eligible applicants followed our online registration rules, and many students are busy with the new term, so we didn't see long waiting lines during the weekend," Yang said.

Su Jialing, deputy director of Chongqing’s Exit and Entry Administration, said that they have received many inquiries and online appointments since Saturday, and that people coming to the administration to process their registrations are sticking to the rules.

Li Feng, a publicity official at the Shanghai Public Security Bureau's Exit and Entry Administration, said that they didn’t have a huge number of people processing applications so far.

By 2:40 pm on Monday, a total of 285 people without the Shanghai hukou had gone to the administration to apply for travel documents, and 76 of them took the online reservation.

Five out of 30 service windows in the administration were dedicated to those applicants.

Registering for the appointment online is mandatory only in Beijing.

Fan Yougan, 27, whose hukou belongs to Jiangsu province, but who now lives in Shanghai, got a Hong Kong and Macao pass on Monday afternoon.

"It was quite convenient and fast," she said.

Under the regulation, applicants in the pilot areas should show their hukou, ID cards and temporary residence permits when they apply.

Those employed need a statement from the city’s social security bureau to confirm that they have paid social insurance in the previous year, while students need a statement from their schools confirming their enrollment.

Contact the writers at caoyin@chinadaily.com.cn and shiyingying@chinadaily.com.cn

Ma Yiyun in Shanghai and Xu Wei in Chongqing contributed to this story.