[excited41]

Hi All

I'm on an Australian passport and am in HK on a tourist visa. I've been in and out of HK a number of times over the years always by air and through HK airport. Each time I have had a black 3 month tourist visa stamped in my passport. Last month I went to Shenzhen for a day trip as I was nearing the end of my 3 month stay. On re-entry immigration questioned why I was spending so much time in HK. They eventually let me re-enter but stamped a red 3 month tourist visa in my passport.

Does anyone know whether the red stamp is because they now have me on their radar or is it the colour of stamp they use at the Shenzhen boarder? FYI I haven't been working here just spending time with my girlfriend.

[jimbo]

Well Black and Green are the usual colours and Red probably means a warning to the next immigration official to maybe probe a bit deeper next time you re-enter.

[PDLM]

Add purple to the list if you come in from Macao...

[excited41]

Thanks. So is it correct to say that different entry ports into HK use different coloured tourists visa stamps? And that Shenzhen uses red? Or do you know if red is reserved for those being tracked by immigration?

[jaykay]

Didn't even notice the different colour stamps on my passport! But yes all my returns from Shenzhen are red, those from the airport are black and the ones from Macau are green, probably because I use TST.

[excited41]

Cool. Thanks for the confirmatuion Jaykay. Only problem now is whether I risk doing a day trip again given I've done it a few times before.

[KnowItAll]

Send a discrete email to enquiry@immd.gov.hk and ask them

[Boris]

I wouldn't wory about it. I have just checked my passport and I have red AND black stamps.
I am here on work visa , have HKID and everything. I think its just the ink colour they have open at the time.

I am sure there is a thread somewhere ( i have seen it many times but mot recent ) that says the immigration puts an intial annotation on the stamp. Just to flag up your a " day tripper " one too many times. If you had that then you might worry, otherwise don't lose sleep.

[excited41]

Cool. Thanks. Yeah I think I saw a thread on here that said something a SLC was hand written and that person was only 7 days. Thankfully nothing similar to that in my passport.

[cerberus]

the only reason they'd worry about daytripping or frequent re-entries is if you're a smuggler or something. otherwise i was never told by any officials that there's a problem with coming and going.