Chinese passport - Wiki slovník

People's Republic of China Passport
中华人民共和国护照
People's Republic of China Passport; 中华人民共和国护照
	Front cover of the current Chinese passport (with chip ), issued since May 2012
	Personal data page of the current Chinese biometric passport
Type	Passport
Issued by	National Immigration Administration
First issued	1949
Purpose	Identification
Eligibility	Chinese nationals with Hukou residing in Mainland China, or Chinese nationals residing abroad who do not qualify for travel documents issued by Hong Kong SAR or Macau SAR.; Chinese nationals who are permanent residents of Macau or Permanent residents of Hong Kong are eligible for a MSAR passport or HKSAR passport instead.
Expiration	10 years after acquisition for adults aged 16 or over, 5 for children or non-ordinary passport; 3 months for single group travel
Cost	¥120 for first passport ; ¥120 for renewed passport

The People's Republic of China Passport (Chinese: 中华人民共和国护照; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó hùzhào), commonly referred to as the Chinese passport, is a passport issued to citizens of the People's Republic of China (PRC) for the purpose of international travel, and entitles its bearer to the protection of China's consular officials overseas.

On 1 July 2011, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China launched a trial issuance of e-passports for individuals conducting public affairs work overseas on behalf of the Chinese government.^[3]^[4] The face, fingerprints, and other biometric features of the passport holder is digitized and stored in pre-installed contactless smart chip,^[5]^[6] along with "the passport owner's name, sex and personal photo as well as the passport's term of validity and digital certificate of the chip".^[7] Ordinary biometric passports were introduced by the Ministry of Public Security on 15 May 2012.^[8] As of January 2015, all new passports issued by China are biometric e-passports, and non-biometric passports are no longer issued.^[7]

In 2012, over 38 million Chinese citizens held ordinary passports, comprising only 2.86 percent of the total population at the time.^[9] In 2014, China issued 16 million passports, ranking first in the world, surpassing the United States (14 million) and India (10 million).^[10] The number of ordinary passports in circulation rose to 120 million by October 2016, which was approximately 8.7 percent of the population.^[11] As of April 2017 to date, China had issued over 100 million biometric ordinary passports.^[12]

Overview and contents

Types

Articles 3, 4, 5 and 8 of the Passport Law of the People's Republic of China, which went into effect in 2007, declares three types of passports issued in Mainland China:^[13]

Ordinary passports (普通护照) are issued to citizens who intend to go abroad for non-official purposes, such as taking up residence in other countries, visiting relatives, studying, working, travelling or engaging in business activities. They are issued by the Exit & Entry Administration of the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), the foreign missions of the People's Republic of China, or other missions overseas authorized to do so by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Diplomatic passports (外交护照) are issued to diplomats, consuls and their spouses or children who are minor, as well as to diplomatic couriers. They are issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).
Service passports (公务护照) are issued to employees who are dispatched by the Chinese government to work for Chinese foreign missions, the United Nations or its special commissions, or other international organizations, as well as their spouses or minor children. They are issued by the MFA, foreign missions of the People's Republic of China, other missions overseas authorized by the MFA, or the Foreign Affairs Offices under the governments of provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government and cities divided into districts authorized by the MFA.
- A special variation of the service passport, called the Passport for Public Affairs (Chinese: 公务普通护照; lit. 'ordinary service passport'), is issued to public servants who "lead divisions or equivalents" of county or state-owned companies, and employees of state-controlled companies.^[14]

Article 9 of the Law states that the "issuing scope of diplomatic passports and service passports, the measures for issue of such passports, their terms of validity and the specific categories of service passports shall be prescribed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs".

The ordinary passport is considered a passport "for private affairs" (因私护照), while service (including for public affairs passports) and diplomatic passports are passports "for public affairs" (因公护照).^[15]

The passports for Macau and Hong Kong SARs are issued and regulated by the governments of these regions, and are therefore not covered by this law.

In July 2011 the Chinese government began to issue biometric diplomatic passports, service passports and passports for public affairs.^[14] The launch date of biometric ordinary passports was May 15, 2012.

Diplomatic e-passport
Service e-passport
Public Affairs e-passport
Ordinary e-passport

Passport for public affairs

A different passport for public affairs (Chinese: 因公普通护照; lit. 'ordinary passport for public affairs') was issued until 2006. Unlike the current version, it was classified as a variation of ordinary passport. The abuse of the use of document resulted in its subsequent cancellation. Unlike other passports, it was issued by the provincial or municipal Foreign Affairs Offices, rather than the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the Ministry of Public Security.^[16] Chinese ordinary passport for public affairs was used at the end of the 1980s and the 1990s. The passport information was written by hand, and these ordinary passports were usually valid for 2 or 5 years.

In 1996, 77% of persons exiting China held a passport for public affairs.^[17] The rate had dropped to 39% by 2002.^[18] The reason for the high rate of usage was because the passport for public affairs offered more visa-free countries, such as Russia, than the ordinary passport.^[16] Chinese regulations require public affairs passports to be kept in the possession of the holder's work unit,^[19] and they must be surrendered by the individual within one month of returning to China.^[20]

Validity

The passport previously had an across-the-board 5-year period of validity. Since 2007, ordinary passports are valid for 10 years for bearers above 16 years of age, and for 5 years for bearers below 16 years of age, and diplomatic or service passports are valid for 4 years. According to the 2006 Passport Law of the People's Republic of China, renewal of previously issued passports ended on January 1, 2007. However, passports renewed before 2007 remained valid until expiry.

Format

The newest version of the regular Chinese passport is the biometric version, which replaced its predecessors "Form 92", "Form 97-1" and "Form 97-2", but Form "97-2" passport is still being issued for single group tourism to Russia in some Sino-Russia broder cities and valid for only 3 months or after returning to China.^[2] It was released to the general public in May 2012. The passport contains 48 pages.