Five days' work would be reduced to a few minutes and most applications could be submitted electronically under an Immigration Department plan to go digital, legislators heard.
The $437 million scheme to digitise immigration records would also make 159 jobs redundant and save $12.4 million within three years, the Legislative Council's security panel was told yesterday.
The department's records are on paper, microfilm or microfiche - outdated systems costing $20 million a year to maintain - which slows down the processing of applications for visas, travel passes and birth, death and marriage certificates.
The department wants funding to digitise its records and its processes, allowing the public to submit applications for most services electronically.
Legislator Lui Ming-wah asked whether improving the system would result in lower charges for the public. Assistant immigration director Raymond Wong Wai-man said that would depend on the final cost of bringing in the system.
Mr Wong said the public would benefit from the system in that the processing time for applications such as those for foreign domestic helpers - which need about six weeks at present - would be shorten by three to five days.