Responding to inquiries by lawmaker Benson Luk Hon-man, Tang said the Immigration Department has extended the service hours of four Registration of Persons Offices to between 4.30 pm and 10 pm on weekdays, and until 10 pm on Saturday.

The arrangement came as the government acknowledges that some citizens couldn’t collect their new identity cards over the past three years of Covid-19 pandemic, Tang noted.

Tang continued that the six Registration of Persons Offices could handle about 10,000 applications a week. After internal manpower and resources allocation, the number of applications handled by the four offices with the extended service hours can increase by 80 percent to 18,000 a week.

To better convenience citizens to collect their new identity cards, booking for registration of the new identity cards can now be made within the following 96 days since April 12.

Tang stressed that the original identity cards are still valid and pointed out that the cards would usually expire about a year later to ensure citizens won’t be affected.

Tang also said overseas Hongkongers who couldn’t return to Hong Kong to collect the new cards can still enter the SAR as a Hong Kong resident. Yet, the procedures will be more troublesome.

Elderly people with special needs or disabled citizens, upon approval of a registration officer, can be issued a document and exempted from the requirement of collecting a new identity card.