Zhejiang opens Saturday ‘fast-track’ passport and permit counters as demand for overseas travel surges

Facing a summer spike in outbound travel applications, Zhejiang Provincial Exit-Entry Administration launched special Saturday service windows on 13 June across 58 offices in its 11 prefecture-level cities. The initiative—branded “Convenience Saturdays”—will repeat on 27 June and 4 July, allowing residents to lodge or renew ordinary passports, Home Return Permits (for Hong Kong/Macau), and Mainland-to-Taiwan Travel Permits without taking time off work. Applicants can book slots via the National Immigration Administration (NIA) app, reducing counter waiting times to an estimated 20 minutes. For tech-savvy residents of Hangzhou, Ningbo and Jiaxing aged 16 or above, a fully online renewal path—“zero-visit processing”—is also available for lost-or-expired documents, with delivery in seven working days. Emergency five-day issuance remains in place for compassionate or urgent business travel, pending supporting evidence. Zhejiang recorded a 38 percent year-on-year jump in passport requests in Q1 2026, fuelled by the province’s booming private-sector outbound investment—especially in Southeast Asia—and the post-pandemic resumption of student exchanges. The Saturday extension is expected to add 25,000 daily processing slots, clearing a backlog ahead of the July–August peak. For corporate mobility managers, the change means employees can complete paperwork outside office hours, shortening overall assignment lead-times. HR teams should, however, remind staff that newly issued travel documents must still undergo destination-country visa or eTA processes; the Saturday windows cover Chinese documents only.



For travellers who secure their documents on these Convenience Saturdays but still need visas for onward destinations, VisaHQ can streamline the next step. Through its China portal (https://www.visahq.com/china/), the platform provides up-to-date requirements, digital application tools, and courier-assisted submissions for more than 200 countries—helping Zhejiang residents move from passport collection to approved entry visas without extra trips to consulates.

Foreign residents in Zhejiang should note that the weekend sessions do not handle residence-permit extensions, which continue to require weekday appointments. Zhejiang’s move echoes similar after-hours pilots in Guangdong and Shanghai and aligns with the NIA’s 2025-2027 plan to digitise 80 percent of routine exit-entry services. Observers expect other provinces to copy the model if application volumes remain elevated through the end of the year.