A mainland student spoke to The Macau Post Daily yesterday about the frustrating experience of renewing his travel permit and authorisation to stay in Macau.
The interview was conducted online.
The interviewee surnamed Wang is a mainland male student who studies at a local university as a master’s degree student. His second-year course starts next month, and he has been staying in Macau for further studies during this summer holiday, but now he faces difficulties in renewing his travel permit and authorisation to stay.
“Both the authorisation and the travel permit are going to expire on August 1, and both are necessary for me to stay in Macau,” Wang said, adding: “My university has done nothing to help us [fellow students in the same situation]. They did not remind us that the documents are expiring, and when I phoned the university staff they just said it was none of their business.”
Wang did not wish to reveal the university involved.
Wang said that since June 20, the day after the current COVID-19 outbreak was announced by the government, he has been unable to travel to the mainland to update his travel permit without having to go into quarantine.
He said that the other choice was to request the travel permit to be renewed through the China Travel Service in Macau, but the company is currently closed due to Macau’s special COVID-19 control and prevention measures. Besides, he pointed out, the China Travel Service would only help if the travel permit was expiring within a few days.
Meanwhile, Wang said that he went to the Pac On Immigration Department in Taipa several times this month trying to update his authorisation to stay, but the security guards told him that currently the department only handles non-resident workers’ (NRWs) application at the moment due to the government’s special COVID-19 control and prevention measures and asked him to return after the measures are eased, despite his authorisation of stay expiring soon.
“If the predicament persists, I will book a quarantine hotel guestroom which would cost me a lot for nothing, because I have to return to Macau next month for the semester. In addition, I may need to book another quarantine hotel in Macau when I return, given the rising cases in Zhuhai.
“I think the crux of the problem is the lack of communication between the government and the mainland students, since it is hard for us to obtain updated information. I hope that in the future the mainland students can be more well-informed so that we can plan everything earlier,” Wang said.
According to a Public Security Police (PSP) statement, non-local students face a fine of 500 patacas each day after their authorisation of stay expires. Students could be barred from entering Macau if the fine was not paid, or if they overstayed for over 30 days, or if their authorisation of stay expired twice during the enrolment in a local tertiary education institution.
