Passport and Visa

Yesterday, I got my very first electronic passport! Malaysia introduced the electronic passport for quite sometime already but we could never get one done in Hong Kong, until now that is. And since we never had time when we were back, we always had the traditional one.


What is the difference? Not much to us, other than it looks slightly different and when we return to Malaysia we get to use a different immigration lane (something like the e-channel in HK). But I think there is more of a diference to the immigration officers. They didn't have to do so much typing! I once had a Chinese immigraiton officer asked me why I am still on the old passport - meaning he had to type all my personal detials insteads of scan......

In addition, I also got my first 3-year China visa. Theoretically, once I am a permanent resident in Hong Kong, I can apply for a 3-year visa instead of the usual 6-month one. But they would never grant me one. After much enquiry, I found out that the reason for the rejection was (get this): in the column "Country of Residence", my old passport stated "Hong Kong"! The correct answer should be: Hong Kong, CHINA!!! Duh......