Starting this month, Chinese passport holders will be required to show their flight ticket (showing their seat booking) at the Zhuhai checkpoints in order to pass through Macau, as well as a visa to their destination country.
The new regulation stipulates that in order to travel to the SARs, mainland residents must possess an Exit-Entry Permit for Travelling to and from Hong Kong and Macau, as well as an Exit Endorsement. Those documents are issued by the mainland immigration authorities.
Meanwhile, Chinese passport holders are permitted to enter the SARs as transit passengers and stay in the territory for up to five days given they possess a valid visa to another country and claim to depart within the granted period of stay.
Outside the Gongbei Port, many travel agencies have been advertising and providing services that help mainland travellers apply for a visa to Cambodia or Thailand and to obtain it quickly.
In 2013, the Zhuhai checkpoints recorded a total of 2 million people entering Macau with a Chinese passport who didn’t actually depart for another country.
This year a CCTV report revealed that around a million people are estimated to have entered Macau last year using a travel loophole. Travel agencies in Shenzhen and Zhuhai “helped” clients enter Macau and Hong Kong via non-legitimate visas and flight tickets.
Following the report and ensuing controversy, an amendment to the regulation was announced. Mainland Chinese passport holders transiting in Macau to and from another country or territory were granted a maximum stay of five days, instead of the previous seven.
The Gongbei Checkpoint announced on its official Wechat account on Monday that mainland residents who intend to enter Macau as transit passengers are required to show a flight ticket with their booked seat, in addition to the existing requirements. Accordingly, the checkpoint has set up a dedicated channel for Chinese passport holders.
Nevertheless, travellers who hold an entry permit issued by the HK authorities or a long-term stay permit for their destination country are exempt from the new requirement.
In-transit mainlanders need to show flight ticket to enter MSAR
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