[Elfin safety]

" P " indicates that the holder's date of first registration for their ID card is later than they normally should have i.e. at age 11. You can think of it as 'postponed' registration; or first registration date outside what is expected of someone born and bred in HK.

Therefore, it would indicate, for example, that you were living overseas at the time. E.g. children who emigrated with their parents, and did not first register until years later after their due date, when they returned to HK. Or adult immigrants.

The usual letter is " C ".

[HKChigger]

Originally Posted by Elfin safety

" P " indicates that the holder's date of first registration for their ID card is later than they normally should have i.e. at age 11. You can think of it as 'postponed' registration; or first registration date outside what is expected of someone born and bred in HK.

Therefore, it would indicate, for example, that you were living overseas at the time. E.g. children who emigrated with their parents, and did not first register until years later after their due date, when they returned to HK. Or adult immigrants.

The usual letter is " C ".

Source?

Why don't I have a P?

[PDLM]

Indeed - and why was a dependant visa that I know about issued a few months ago as an R?

[jim5130]

i recently got an R too.. for my dependant visa..

[Elfin safety]

Originally Posted by HKChigger

Source?

Why don't I have a P?

Source: Ming Pao in an extensive article on ID cards in 1996

The first letter is to do with time of first applcation/registration relative to the 'norm'

I'll just quote a snippet from it (text is Chinese, obviously):

"???*???????*?????????, ????*????????......"

The other meaning, it goes on to explain, is to do with denoting certain categories of people.

Hope that helps.


edit: not sure how to get the post to display Chinese characters. May have to mess about with page view encodings.

[Elfin safety]

Originally Posted by PDLM

Indeed - and why was a dependant visa that I know about issued a few months ago as an R?

Because the other use of the English alphabetical letter in the ID card number is to denote certain categories of people.

[PDLM]

I feel you are speculating just as much as everyone else here unless you can produce some firm evidence (an 11 year old Ming Pao article is hardly current...)

The only firm data from ImmD is that W means foreign worker or DH.

[Elfin safety]

Originally Posted by PDLM

I feel you are speculating just as much as everyone else here unless you can produce some firm evidence (an 11 year old Ming Pao article is hardly current...)

The only firm data from ImmD is that W means foreign worker or DH.

It doesn't matter that the article is 11 years old. It is still relevant, as you keep the same ID card number for life. (And I am sure many, perhaps most, will have ID cards first issued pre-97. They may occasionally revise or reallocate the use of letters, but the basis remains.

Of course, older ID cards dating from the 60s and before did not have any English letter prefix.

I am not speculating (i.e. making things up). I am simply relaying the information that was provided by a major HK Chinese newspaper. They wouldn't publish false information that would be read by everyone including government officials, would they...?

Anyways, I am just trying to contribute. I have a bunch of articles about HKID cards but I am not going to go through them and scan them and upload them to prove a point. I appreciate your skepticism - it is generally a good thing - and if people prefer to think I am making things up then it doesn't bother me

[Aritaurus]

I got mine last year with the Right to land status. My ID Card also begins with an "R". I think PDLM is right. Everyone who is 11 and older who applies now will get an HKID beginning with the letter "R" regardless of status, except for people who are designated to get the "W" card.

[Elfin safety]

On the current Smartcard, they have tidied away some symbols that used to be on the previous laminated ID card.

For example the "Y" denoting verification of birth details (e.g in ***AMZY). And is now simply, to use the same example, ***AZ.

The other thing to mention is the short letter/number symbol that used to appear under the *** on the previous version of the ID card. (e.g. H1, K2, etc).
That coding indicates which immigration department office it was that handled your application and issued your card. Again, if people think that I am speculating and making that up too, they are free to be skeptical.