Hi everyone, one of the countries for which I need to provide a COC for a citizenship application is Hong Kong. I am not a resident there since 2007.
Going through some online posts, its clear that
they need a letter from the embassy that outlines the need for the same
they will send it only to the embassy and not to the applicant
Has anyone gone through this process and let me know how to get this initial letter from the embassy and also how the process works - does the embassy finally send us the COC stamped by them?
I have been through the process a couple of times, the last time very recently. For a resident of HK, it’s quite simple:
Contact Portuguese consulate in Macau (via email) and they will provide you with a formal request letter via email.
Use this to apply for the CNCC online with the HK police and make appointment for fingerprint collection.
Attend HK police station for fingerprint collection.
The police will issue the certificate a week or two later and send it to the consulate in Macau.
You need to collect it physically from there, or have someone with a POA collect it physically from there for you. Specifically:
“Applicants must collect their CNCC in person, or in alternative, by third party with power of attorney (Original POA notarized by Notary).”
The consulate charges MOP 943 (~EUR100).
If you’re not in HK, the police allow you to get the fingerprints done at a consulate in the country you reside in. But…just looking on the police website site now, it seems there’s a new policy from 30-March-2026 stating that you may not need to provide fingerprints if can use the iAM Smart app, but you’d likely need to hold a permanent resident card, not sure if you do.
All the info is here:
and here:
Add: The consulate contact details are here. You need the email for notary matters:
I wrote to the Macau Embassy and they have asked me to submit a few documents. But they have not outlined how much they charge to stamp the document and to send it to me by courier (or even if they will).
Thanks for the links. For the HKG police, I need to fill the form to see if I need to submit fingerprints. The exceptions are not very clear…
Unless something has changed, I’m reasonably sure that they wont send it. It must be collected. So you’d need to pay a third party to collect it and send it to you and they’d need an original POA from you notarized etc.
But of course check with them as things may have changed.
Okay. You’ve got a mission ahead of you assuming you’re not still resident in HK.
Book a flight to London and make an appointment with the Met Police for the fingerprints. It costs around £100. The PT police and the Chinese consulate in Lisbon will not do them.
Get a PT lawyer to write to the PT Consulate in Macau requesting the letter to the HK police. They’re unlikely to reply to you as a private citizen.
Create an account and apply for the PCC online with this letter and courier them your fingerprints. Wait.
After the Macau consulate has your PCC they will translate and stamp it.
Contact a lawyer in Macau and send them a signed and apostiled Power of Attorney to retrieve the PCC from the PT Consulate.
This lawyer will courier it to you.
So, there you have it. We’re doing this at the moment. Just try Thailand and Vietnam. They’re even worse.
Thanks RG and Tim. I was getting a feeling the Embasssy wasn’t exactly very supportive and I also don’t understand why HK can’t release the COC to the applicant - they are a party to the Hague convention on Apostille and it would have been a simple process.