Chinese passport

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

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

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 China:

• 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 National Immigration 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.

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).

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. The launch date of biometric ordinary passports was May 15, 2012.

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. 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. The rate had dropped to 39% by 2002. 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. Chinese regulations require public affairs passports to be kept in the possession of the holder's work unit, and they must be surrendered by the individual within one month of returning to China.

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 border cities and valid for only 3 months or after returning to China. It was released to the general public in May 2012. The passport contains 48 pages.

Ordinary Passport - Inside

Version "1982"

The Form "1982" ordinary Chinese passport is a hand-written passport and issued in 1982. Chinese, French and English are used in all pages.

Version "1992"

The Form "1992" ordinary Chinese passport is not a machine-readable passport, and issued in 1992.

Version "1997-1"

Version "1997-2"

The Form "97-2" ordinary Chinese passport is a machine-readable passport, and issued in February 1997. In "97-2", personal data is on the inside front cover along with a coloured photo printed with inkjet printer, with a protective film covering most of the data page. Details include:

• Passport code (P)
• Country Code (CHN)
• Passport number (G########) - consists of one letter indicating passport type (G = ordinary), followed by eight digits
• Surname
• Given Names
• Sex (M/F)
• Date of birth (DD.MMM.YYYY)
• Date of issue (DD.MMM.YYYY)
• Place of birth (Province, or city/province/state if born abroad)
• Place of issue (Province, or city/province/state of diplomatic/consular authority if issued abroad)
• Date of expiry (DD.MMM.YYYY)
• Authority ("National Immigration Administration, PRC" for single travel or "Exit & Entry Administration, Ministry of Public Security" or the Chinese diplomatic and consular mission)
• Machine Readable Code

Biometric passport

In the biometric Passport, the personal data page was moved to a separate sheet of paper, and the design of personal data page has been amended significantly, adding the full name of PRC in Simplified Chinese and English on top along with an e-passport symbol printed with optically variable ink. New security features include a second ghost image of the holder and additional holographic graphs including the PRC emblem and the laser-printed world map. The details included are as follows:

• Passport code (P)
• Country Code (CHN)
• Passport number (E########) - consists of one letter indicating passport type (E = e-passport), followed by eight digits. As of April 2017, over 100 million ordinary biometric passports had been issued and old E+8 digits type passport numbers had been used up. So the number format has been extended by using the second digit and replacing it with the English letters in order (except I, O) the third digit is still Arabic numerals, and the total number of digits is still 9. New passport numbers started with EA0000001 (two letters with seven digits).
• Name (Chinese characters on top, Pinyin transcription on bottom, a comma separates surname and given names in Pinyin only)
• Sex (M/F)
• Nationality (Chinese)
• Date of birth (DD.MMM.YYYY)
• Place of birth (Province with romanized transcription, or the country code if born abroad, along with Chinese abbreviation of the country)
• Date of issue (DD.MMM.YYYY, month is transcribed into Arabic numerals)
• Place of issue (Province, or city of diplomatic/consular authority if issued abroad)
• Date of expiry (DD.MMM.YYYY, month is transcribed into Arabic numerals)
• Authority ("National Immigration Administration, PRC" or the full name of the Chinese diplomatic/consular authority, if issuing in mainland China before June 2019 it may be "MPS Exit & Entry Administration")
• Bearer's signature
• Machine Readable Code

Languages

All information is printed in Simplified Chinese and English, except for the "Attentions" page, which is only printed in Simplified Chinese.

Passport Note

• In Simplified Chinese:

中华人民共和国外交部请各国军政机关对持照人予以通行的便利和必要的协助。

• In English:

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China requests all civil and military authorities of foreign countries to allow the bearer of this passport to pass freely and afford assistance in case of need.

• In French (1982 version only):

Le Ministère des Affaires étrangères de la République populaire de Chine prie les autorités civiles et militaires des pays étrangers de laisser passer librement le titulaire de ce passeport et de lui prêter aide et assistance en cas de besoin.

Inner pages

In the biometric version, selected natural landmarks and famous sights from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan are printed on the inner pages. Each page also features a transparent watermark depicting another landmark from the same region.

Last page

The last page has the notes for the passport. For e-passport, inside the backcover, a caution for the biometric chip is written in both Chinese and English:

本护照内置敏感电子元件。为保持最佳性能，请不要将护照折弯、打孔或者暴露在极端温湿度环境。
This passport contains sensitive electronics. For best performance, please do not bend, perforate or expose to extreme temperatures or excess moisture.
请勿在此盖印 DO NOT STAMP HERE