August 13, 2022
Do you know what's another perk of living in a fast-growing country? Everything is digital and high-tech that makes transactions faster and easier. This gives convenience to our daily lives as well. We don't need to rush for things, but rather wait for the right time. We don't need to manually process transactions as digital machines will do the work.
It was more than four years ago when I created my Hong Kong ID and a few months ago, I learned from a friend that HK residents need to renew their IDs, and schedules of renewal are based on their year of birth. I had no plan to renew mine back then since I was about to end my contract, so there's no point in renewing it. But unforeseen circumstances happened that made me stay in this country for another few years.
This information slipped my mind due to busyness as well. And the said schedule for those born in 1989 was supposed to be the 23rd of July. When I remembered this back, it was a few days before the deadline so I thought I could make it on time. Unfortunately, the booking for that day was already unavailable and the available schedule starts in August. I should have done the online booking ahead of time.
Yet, there are still chances to renew IDs even if it's out of the said schedule. We just have to give a valid reason. And what was mine? "Unaware about the ID renewal." Too clever, playing safe, lol.
August 13 was the scheduled date I chose so I don't need to rush things. My boss usually goes to this office at 9 in the morning, so I took the opportunity to get a free ride, lol. Why not? I could save for the fare. Besides, I was unfamiliar with the place so I let him drive me to the immigration center I had chosen. When I got there, the place was actually familiar to me, lol, and it's just so near to where I usually go before.
Back on track...
I thought the process would be the same as when I first applied for an HK ID card. But this time surprised me as I finished the transaction in less than 15 minutes. As I entered the building, we were required, of course, to scan for Leave Home Safe for Covid contact tracing and to check if we are positive or not.
As I stepped into the immigration center, what caught my attention was digital facilities management. This process could eradicate a long queue since transactions are all made digitally, fast and easy.
After giving my old ID to the staff, she scanned it and gave it back to me along with my application number. I waited for a few minutes for my number to appear on the screen so I could proceed to the next transaction.
(I wanted to take photos of every transaction, but I was hesitant as it might not be allowed since supervising staff was everywhere. I just took some when the staff wasn't looking, lol)
I was advised to go to the cubicle with several self-service registration kiosks lining up and I looked for my designated kiosk number. My registration number appeared on the screen and I just pressed the start and switched it to the English version.
The transaction has six procedures to follow. There was no need of inputting necessary information as they were all submitted during the online booking.
After inserting my Smart ID Card, it was then followed by scanning my fingerprints.
My application data appeared that needed some verification. I made some changes to my document number as I inputted the wrong one during my online application. If I'm not mistaken, that was the contract number that I supplied, lol. Then the application form was printed and collected.
The staff advised me to sit down for a moment and wait for my number to appear on the monitor. It wasn't even a minute that mine was called by the AI voice and told to proceed to the designated booth for the final process.
I located booth number 47 and a lady in her mid-30s greeted me and asked for my ID and application number. She noticed that my application was late and that should be on July 23rd and I was asked to write down the reason. That's when I said the aforementioned reason, "Unaware about the ID renewal." But the truth was, I have forgotten about it, lol. It was followed by fingerprint verification, taking a new photo for the ID, and lastly, the signature. All were done in a matter of a minute or two.
A printout of the notice of collection was given to me and I was told to pick up my ID on the 23rd of August, and the collection period has one month span until the 23rd of September. And that's all. I was done in less than 15 minutes. I left the building right after.
While walking in the area in the photo above, I can't keep myself from praising the cleanliness and orderliness of the facility. There were a lot of booths and kiosk machines that make the transactions even faster to avoid long queues of applicants. It's an advantage not only to applicants but also to the faculty members. I can't keep myself as well from comparing it to government offices in our country. In some offices, one day isn't enough to process a transaction, lol.
After renewing my ID, I roamed a little in Mong Kong city while heading to the train station. It's been a while since I walked around and I kind of missed the feeling. It's been two months now that I didn't go on a trip and I guess I need to plan for this, with or without a buddy.
It seemed that there were lesser passengers this day as trains weren't that occupied compared to Sundays. I directly went to the Kowloon City market to buy something for my lunch.
I visited a store as I craved corned beef like in our country (I thought I have rice at home) but I wasn't able to find one. I saw vegetarian minced meat in a can and I was curious about its taste so I grabbed one.
I was torn between buying a snack or not, some cookies, chips, or oreo maybe, but the thought of having a gluten intolerance was frustrating, so I opted to leave the place after paying for the canned good I chose.
Since lunch was quite approaching, I opted to visit the kitchen, only to find out that I have no rice for myself, lol. It would take a longer time to cook one, so I opted to cook noodles instead and mixed it with the canned minced meat I bought and some leftover pork last night. I don't waste food anyway.
And that's how my Saturday went and I went back to work after eating lunch. Going back to reality is always saddening, lol. Can we just relax for a day or two consecutively without minding other stuff? It's easy, but we can't.
Anyway, thanks for stopping by, and happy weekend.
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madalian lang talaga diyan no...sana ganito rin satin