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Following is a question by the Hon Dennis Kwok and a written reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Lai Tung-kwok, in the Legislative Council today (March 18):
Question:
Recently, quite a number of non-Chinese citizens and their children and Chinese citizens born outside Hong Kong who have acquired Hong Kong permanent resident status have relayed to me that it is more difficult for them to apply for Hong Kong Permanent Identity Cards (HKPICs) than it used to be. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council of the number of persons in the aforesaid categories who applied for HKPICs during the period between 2010 and 2014, and among such persons, the respective numbers of those who were issued HKPICs and those whose applications for HKPICs were rejected, as well as the average number of days taken by the authorities to process the applications concerned (set out in Annex 1)?
Reply:
President,
According to Article 24 of the Basic Law, residents of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) shall include permanent residents and non-permanent residents. The permanent residents of the HKSAR shall have the right of abode in the HKSAR and shall be qualified to obtain, in accordance with the laws of the Region, permanent identity cards (PICs) which state their right of abode. The non-permanent residents of the HKSAR shall be persons who are qualified to obtain Hong Kong identity cards in accordance with the laws of the Region but have no right of abode.
Regulation 22 of the Registration of Persons Regulations (Cap. 177A) stipulates that a valid PIC shall be evidence that the person to whom the card relates enjoys the right of abode in Hong Kong. Persons applying for PIC need to prove that they comply with relevant legal requirements. In general (e.g. where applicants have submitted sufficient documents for the Immigration Department to verify their Hong Kong permanent resident (HKPR) status), the processing time for such identity card applications is about 10 working days.
When persons whose HKPR status has been verified before apply for PIC, if the Registration Officer, having considered the applicants' individual circumstances, considers that there is a need for further verification of their HKPR status in accordance with the provisions of Schedule 1 to the Immigration Ordinance (Cap. 115), the processing time required will depend on the complexity of the applications and whether the required supplementary information and supporting documents have been provided by the applicants in a timely manner.
The annual breakdown of the number of PIC applications where the applicants' HKPR status had been verified before and further verification of their HKPR status was considered necessary and the verification results in each of the past five years are in Annex 2.
Ends/Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Issued at HKT 16:04
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