BEIJING: Exit and Entry Administration centers nationwide were busy on Monday, the first working day after the country resumed issuing passports and travel permits for Chinese residents on the mainland.
The centers resumed full operations after the issuing of travel documents for tourism and nonemergency purposes was stopped on July 30, 2021, due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Monday, there was strong demand for passports and other services from mainland residents as well as foreigners seeking residence permits and visas, immigration officials said, adding that demand for services is expected to continue to rise.
Even though all service counters at the Beijing Exit and Entry Administration Service Center were open on Monday, applicants for travel documents still had to wait for short periods.
Liu Jing, an officer of the Exit and Entry Administration Bureau of Beijing Municipal Public Security, said the number of people visiting the center in the morning was similar to pre-COVID levels.
“As Exit and Entry Administration service centers around the country are dealing with a surge in applications, I strongly recommend people to make an appointment online first to avoid long waiting times,” Liu said. Management of COVID-19 was downgraded from Class A to Class B on Sunday. The next day, authorities resumed issuing passports for Chinese mainland residents for tourism purposes abroad as well as processing endorsements for Chinese mainland residents to visit the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
A Beijing resident surnamed Gong said her passport expired in 2022 and she urgently needed to renew it.
“I loved traveling around the world before the pandemic, and now I can continue doing that,” said the 66-year-old while flipping through the pages of her old passport, which contains immigration stamps from many countries. It took Gong and her husband, who also renewed his passport, about an hour to complete the renewal process.
–The Dialy Mail-China Daily news exchange item
