*********************************************************
Following is a written reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Lai Tung-kwok, to a question by the Hon Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee in the Legislative Council today (December 5):
Question:
Under the policy implemented since April 1, 2011, eligible Mainland "overage children" of Hong Kong residents, ie Mainland residents who were under the age of 14 when their natural fathers or mothers obtained their first Hong Kong identity cards on or before November 1, 2001, may apply for One-Way Permits (OWPs) for settlement in Hong Kong so as to reunion with their natural parents. The first batch of applications processed by the Mainland authorities (first phase) were those of overage children whose fathers or mothers are Hong Kong residents who obtained their Hong Kong identity cards on or before December 31, 1979. Starting from May 15, 2012, the Mainland authorities have been processing the second batch of applications (second phase) of overage children whose fathers or mothers are Hong Kong residents who obtained their Hong Kong identity cards on or before December 31, 1980. According to a projection based on the time gap of 13.5 months between the commencement of the two phases, those overage children whose fathers or mothers obtained their Hong Kong identity cards in 2000 must wait for at least 20 years, ie until 2032, to obtain their OWPs for settlement in Hong Kong. Since some of the applicants will be over 40 years old by then, they would encounter greater adaptation problems on arrival in Hong Kong. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether it knows the respective numbers of applications from overage children for settlement in Hong Kong received and approved by the Mainland authorities in the first phase and the second phase so far;
(b) whether it knows the average time required by the Mainland authorities for processing an application and the estimated time required for completing the processing of all the aforesaid two batches of applications; when the third phase is expected to commence;
(c) as the Security Bureau (SB) has stated earlier that the Mainland authorities are further refining the vetting and approval procedures with a view to shortening the vetting and approval time, whether it knows the details of the refinement; and
(d) as SB indicated in 2011 that the consensus between SB and the Mainland authorities was that applications from overage children would be processed by using the previous unused OWP quotas, so as to shorten the waiting time, of the average daily number of unused quotas in the existing daily OWP quota of 150 for Hong Kong; of the current accumulative number of unused OWP quotas and, among them, the percentage of those quotas which are planned to be used for processing applications from overage children?
Reply:
President,
(a) According to information from the Mainland authorities, as at end October 2012, the Mainland authorities have received over 38,000 one-way permit (OWP) applications from overage children, of which initial assessment of over 28,000 has completed with some 23,000 approved to issue OWP. The Mainland authorities did not provide further breakdown.
(b) & (c) The Mainland authorities aim to allow eligible Mainland overage children of Hong Kong residents to reunite as early as possible with their natural parents in Hong Kong in an orderly manner. The Mainland authorities are actively processing the OWP applications from overage children. Depending on progress, the Mainland authorities will announce the arrangement of the next phase in due course.
The processing time of OWP applications from overage children depends on individual circumstances, including availability of documentary proof and involvement of aged records. If the Mainland authorities or the Immigration Department (ImmD) has doubt on the parental relationship between the applicant and his/her parents in Hong Kong, the Mainland authorities will arrange DNA tests and the assessment will take a relatively longer time.
With practical assessment experience, the Mainland authorities have refined the assessment procedures to expedite case processing. Measures taken include: the Mainland authorities and ImmD have taken steps to expedite transmission of documents; the exit and entry administration offices of Guangdong and Fujian provinces have deployed staff to regions with more applicants to take samples for DNA tests; if the applicants' parents in Hong Kong have special difficulties in travelling to the Mainland for DNA tests, the ImmD may in practicable circumstances help the Mainland authorities take samples in Hong Kong and send the analysis results to the Mainland authorities for confirmation, etc.
(d) In the first ten months in 2012, on average 152 Mainland residents (including Mainland overage children of Hong Kong residents) arrived in Hong Kong for settlement on strength of OWP every day. From July 1997 to October 2012, there are some 80,000 unused OWP quota. There is no specific quota for OWP applications from Mainland overage children of Hong Kong residents.
Ends/Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Issued at HKT 14:49
NNNN
