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Visa office to open in Shenzhen for migrant residents

Paggie Leung

A new visa office will be opened in Shenzhen this year for the city's migrants to apply for permits to travel to Hong Kong.

This was disclosed by China Travel Service (Holdings) Hong Kong assistant general manager Wang Fu-gang yesterday, a week after the announcement of a pilot scheme to bring in tourists from among Shenzhen's estimated 12 million migrants.

'The new office is located in a very convenient area in Shenzhen, in the Lo Wu district. It will handle non-Guangdong residents' visa applications - by collecting applications and transferring them to the mainland authorities - as well as accepting their enrolments for group tours to Hong Kong,' Mr Wang said.

The pilot scheme is part of the package for closer economic co-operation between Hong Kong and Guangdong, which was signed last Tuesday.

It will allow China Travel Service, a mainland-sanctioned Hong Kong travel company, to organise group tours for non-Guangdong residents who have lived and worked in Shenzhen for at least a year to visit Hong Kong.

China Travel Service was recruiting about 30 staff for the new office, Mr Wang said. Depending on market demand, it may expand the visa centre or open more offices in Shenzhen.

Asked if the company would open other visa offices outside Shenzhen or if the new office would handle visa applications from mainlanders from other provinces, Mr Wang said this would depend on whether the central government extended the scheme to other mainland cities.

Apart from Disneyland - a compulsory destination under the pilot scheme - Mr Wang said other popular tourist locations such as Ocean Park, the Lantau cable car, Avenue of Stars and The Peak would also be included depending on clients' demands.

'The group tours will be three days and two nights long,' he said. 'Since not many locations can be included in such a short period of time, we can't include all of them, but we are going to design different routes for our customers to choose.'

The first group would arrive later this year, Mr Wang said, adding that migrant workers in Shenzhen had welcomed the new policy. Migrants living and working in the city currently have to return to their home provinces to obtain travel permits.

Group visit

Three or four tour groups are expected to visit Hong Kong daily in the beginning

The size of each group is likely to range from 20 to 40

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