Passport Law of the People's Republic of China

Passport Law of the People's Republic of China

Order of the President [2006] No. 50

April 29, 2006

The Passport Law of the People's Republic of China, which was adopted at the 21st Session of the Standing Committee of the 10th National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China on April 29, 2006, is hereby promulgated and shall come into force as of January 1, 2007.

President of the People's Republic of China: Hu Jintao

Annex: The Passport Law of the People's Republic of China

(Adopted at the 21st Session of the Standing Committee of the 10th National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China on April 29, 2006)

Article 1 The present law is formulated in order to regulate the application, issuance and management of passports of the People's Republic of China, guarantee the rights and interests of the citizens of the People's Republic of China exiting and entering the People's Republic of China and promote the intercourse with foreign countries.

Article 2 Passports of the People's Republic of China are the certificates, upon which the citizens of the People's Republic of China exit and enter China and prove their nationalities and identities when they are staying abroad.
No organization or individual may forge, alter, transfer, deliberately damage or destroy, or illegally hold or detain any passport.

Article 3 Passports are classified into ordinary passports, diplomatic passports and service passports.
The passport shall be recommended by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to foreign governments through the diplomatic channel.

Article 4 Ordinary passports shall be issued by the exit/entry administrative departments of the Ministry of Public Security or the exit/entry administrative departments of the public security organs of the local people's governments at or above the county level as authorized by the Ministry of Public Security, and the embassies or consulates stationed abroad of the People's Republic of China or other institutions stationed abroad upon the authorization of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Diplomatic passports shall be issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Service passports shall be issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the embassies or consulates stationed abroad of the People's Republic of China or other institutions stationed abroad upon the authorization of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the foreign affair departments of the people's governments of the provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government and districted cities upon the authorization of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Article 5 Where a citizen goes abroad for residence, visiting relatives, study, employment, travel, business activities or other non-official service reasons, he shall file an application with the exit/entry administrative department of the public security organ of the local people's government at the county level or above where his own permanent residence is located.

Article 6 When applying for an ordinary passport, a citizen shall submit his own resident identity certificate, residence register, recent full-face photos without hat and materials related to the reasons for the application.
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