Starting January 1, 2007, China will put its Passport Law into action.
According to the new passport law, there will be two kinds of passports: one with a five-year validity, and the other a ten-year validity.
The former will be issued to citizens under 16 years old and the latter for older citizens. Both kinds of passport can not be extended once they expire, and the bearer must apply for a new passport.
Under the new law, the time for applying for a visa will be greatly shortened–it will only take about 5 days to get a passport in Beijing.
In addition, the passport law redefines visa refusal saying that those who do not have a Chinese nationality, can not prove their identity and those who provide false documents during the application process shall not obtain a passport.
The application fee for the passport will be priced and published by the Pricing Department of the State Council by the end of this year, and all the income from passport applications shall be given to the national treasury.
