Visitors to Hong Kong will no longer have their passports stamped by border control officers from next month, the Immigration Department said on Friday, reported local media.They will be issued a small slip of paper explaining the conditions of their stay in the city, reported the South China Morning Post.The new paper HK$30 million system will save each visitor, on average, three seconds at the border when entering the city, Assistant Immigration Director (Information Systems) Corrado Chow said, reported the newspaper."Three seconds may seem very short. But considering there were 47 million visitors last year ߪ [much] time will be saved," he said.A computer-generated slip will carry the visitor's name, travel document number, arrival date and the date the visitor permitted to remain until. It will be stapled to the visitor's passport.If visitors lose the slip they will still be able to leave Hong Kong when they present their travel documents, because their information has been stored in the computer.Each slip will carry its own serial number and security features that use ultraviolet technology.Under the current system, Immigration Director Eric Chan Kwok-ki said, officers need to stamp two to three chops on average in each visitor's passport, creating the chance of making mistakes.
HK to to end visitor passport stamps
