Immigration
The Immigration Department controls the movement of people into and out of Hong Kong. It also issues HKSAR passports and other travel documents, visas and identity cards, and handles nationality matters and the registration of births, deaths and marriages.
Thanks to the hard work of Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office (London) staff and Immigration Department officers, Katherine Chan, an Imperial College student, is returning to Hong Kong from London to spend Christmas with her family.
Recounting her experience of being stranded in London, she told news.gov.hk she is taking a masters-degree course in the British capital and booked a flight to Hong Kong to be home for the festive season. However, her flight scheduled for December 19 was cancelled due to the heavy snow across Europe.
She went to Heathrow Airport to search for other flights to Hong Kong but could not secure a flight until December 26.
Feeling disappointed she may miss out on sharing the holidays with her family, she was told by her mother to seek help from the Hong Kong Government support team in London.
Upon arrival at Heathrow she found the team providing temporary shelter and supplies to stranded students at a nearby hotel. They registered Katherine's particulars and arranged a seat for her on a flight to Hong Kong from Manchester on December 22. She will arrive in Hong Kong tomorrow.
“I sincerely thanked the London office staff and Hong Kong immigration staff for their arrangement. I would have felt helpless if they were not there. I was impressed by their hard work. It is really hard for them because they had to comfort young kids and cater for the needs of other furious students from Hong Kong,” she said.
