FAQ – APEC Business Travel Card

With your Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Business Travel Card (ABTC), you can travel more conveniently into APEC economies for short-term to promote business within the region.  An ABTC with a 5-years validity.  It allows entry to fully participating economies for multiple short-term business visits of up to 60 or 90 days without a visa.  You may also use the special service lanes at selected control points and go through fast track immigration processing at their major international airports.  (In Hong Kong, card holders are allowed to use “resident” counters where available.)

Currently, there are 19 fully participating members : Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, China, Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, the Russian Federation, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, and Vietnam.  Besides, Canada and the United States are also transitional members offering fast-track immigration lanes at participating airports.

You must possess a Hong Kong permanent identity card and a valid national passport.  There must be a genuine need for frequent short-term business travel within the APEC region.  You must not have been denied entry to any participating economies or convicted of any criminal offence. The ABTC arrangement does not apply to Chinese citizens of Hong Kong for entry into mainland China or Chinese Taipei.

This is no need for a visa to travel to a fully participating member economy.  However, ABTC is not intended to replace a passport.  You still need a valid passport traveling to/from a participating economy.

Travelling to a transitional member economy, you will need necessary documents, such as a passport and visa.

An application must be reviewed by all fully participating members for preclearance approval.  Therefore, it will take at least two to three months to process.