Hong Kong immigration

I HAVE not been to Hong Kong in five years and their immigration procedure upon my arrival in Hong Kong last week surprised me.

I used to advice clients who intend to apply for a United States Tourist Visa to go to Hong Kong, Macau and to Shenzen City in Southern China just to have several immigration arrival and departure stamps on their passports to impress upon the U.S. consul that the visa applicants can afford to travel.

In fact, if the Hong Kong, Shenzen, Hong Kong, Macau and Hong Kong trips are followed, the traveler will have at least twelve immigration stamps on his passport by the time he returns to Manila.
That is not possible anymore.

When I arrived in Hong Kong the immigration officer did not put an arrival stamp on my passport like what they used to. Instead, a small piece of paper with my name and passport number on it was printed out from their computer was clipped to my passport. The paper measures about one inch by two in inches.

When I left Hong Kong there was no stamp also. And when I arrived in Macau, the immigration officer at the Macau counter also clipped a piece of paper similar to the immigration Hong Kong procedure. Just as in the arrival, the departure immigration in Macau also did not put a stamp on my passport.

In short, I arrived back in Manila with only two stamps on my passport — the departure and arrival stamps of Philippine immigration.

This new procedure of China, which controls the immigration policies of Hong Kong and Macau, both being under the Special Administrative Regions (SARs) of mainland China, does not augur well for tourists who intend to get immigration stamps as added proof in their applications for a U.S. visa.

The best way nowadays is to go to Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos to get the stamps needed for a US visa interview. I am sure there must be a strong reason why Hong Kong and Macau do not anymore stamp with the usual rubberstamp-and-ink on the passports of tourists into their countries. There is, however, a great possibility that the small piece of paper would fall off the passport and be lost. When that happens, the tourist has to go the Hong Kong consular office to get a new piece of paper called an arrival slip as the immigration departure will not allow the tourist to leave without that arrival slip. It takes time and effort and more money to do that.

In America, the immigration officer puts an Arrival stamp on the passport of the tourist and writes down the number of days of allowed stay for the tourist. However, there is no immigration desk anymore in the departure area. Yes, there is no U.S. departure office and no stamp of departure is put on the tourist’s passport. The only desk is that of the airline who issues the Boarding Pass for the tourist to leave America.

So, even if a tourist who was given six months of stay by the US immigration officer upon arrival and that tourist overstays for years, still that overstaying tourist can leave America at any time as there is no immigration departure control officer. Getting back to US later would be an entirely different story.

Thus, a tourist to Hong Kong and Macau will just be enjoying the sights and the food, the shopping and the rides, and nothing else. The desired immigration stamps are not a part of the package anymore.

E-mail: joepallugna@yahoo.com