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Q: Can I go to Hong Kong while my RP is being renewed?
Hey, got a real question for a change. My residence permit is going to be renewed this afternoon so I need to give up my passport for a few days while they do it. During this time, if I want to go to Hong Kong is that possible?
This has never come up before, but I think i'll be passportless for at least a week, but they give you some kind of paper to hang on to. But I doubt I can use that for entry exit.
Am I screwed if I want to go anywhere right now?
8 years 27 weeks ago in Visa & Legalities - China
The little slip of paper they give you with collection date etc... acts as a temporary passport. So in theory you can use this to travel inside China, go on trains, plains, stay in hotels etc... I have only tried it once and it turned out to be more trouble than its worth as most people don't know what it is and wont accept it.
I seriously doubt you could use the paper to travel internationally. Even if they let you into Honk Kong with it (which I don't think they would), it doesn't contain any of your visa information so you wont be able to get back into China.
estern:
Thinking about it some more, that little slip would be so easy to forge so I'm sure you can't use it to leave China.
expatlife26:
yeah, but there must be a process to do this.
If it's too much trouble I won't do it obviously, but the official position can't be "No! you're stuck here you foreign citizen working legally!"
What if there is a real emergency and not just me wanting to do something?
estern:
In a real emergency I think you can go and get your passport back at any time. Of course you wont get the visa you applied for, but if it's that big an emergency that probably doesn't matter.
Obviously I doubt anyone could provide a definite answer to that, but on the principle that your passport needs to be stamped whenever you go in and out, I doubt they would let you go unrecorded.
And this is for the "out of mainland" part. For Honk Kong immigration, I also doubt they would have direct access to the PSB records allowing to authentify your passport, ID and biometric reads. Very, very highly improbable.
For your question about real emergency, I guess you could claim access to your passport at anytime, that's actually why they remain the property of your country of origin... but then they could choose to make your RP renewals a real pain in the ass, so it's up to you to define "real emergency".
expatlife26:
yeah...i'm not gonna f**k around with claiming an emergency that'd be crazy.
friend of mine from college gonna be there a couple days figured i'd jet down but s**t timing with my RP being up.
So it goes.
Definite answer is no. You can't travel outside mainland China with the receipt from the entry exit bureau.
I am in a similar situation.... and it just seems to drag on and on and on...had to get a new passpoort and that was supposed to take 20 working days, then came the typhoon where I am and then the Chinese holidays ....so I got my new passport just the other day, and handed it over to China..... now another 10 days (pretty sure it was 5 days, 2 years ago) and the Canton Fair makes Guangzhou a place that I do not want to be. This has been a very troubling experience for me this time.... bad timing...passport and visa issues are a pain in the ass. A lot of it is my own fault, for not reading and believing and understanding the rules and regulations..... but I really think they have to be made simpler and more people friendly .....I will work on that, thank me later. wish me luck, and hope I don't get thrown out of the country for my opinion.
answer to the question.....I would not try it
