Legal Research On Visa Inspection System Of Destination Countries

On July 1st, 2013, the Exit-Entry Administration Law of P.R.C.(hereinafter refered to as the Law) officially took effect. The promulgation of the Law is not only a “uniform legislation” and comprehensive update of current exit-entry administrative laws and regulations in our country in terms of legal status, but a result of drawing on common immigration-legislation experience in the international community, setting unequivocal rules in regard to some matters such as the system of destination country visa inspection which used to fall out of the bounds of laws or regulations. It helps build a whole set of relatively scientific and elaborate exit-entry administrative systems.The Law consists of regulations on a series of matters including: Chinese nationals should apply for destination country visas, the exit and entry immigration inspection authority should inspect exiting Chinese nationals for valid international travel documents and should stop personnel in possess of invalid international travel documents from exiting, etc. It is considered the principle legal basis for destination country visa inspection system in practice. However, it is still necessary for us to further probe on a number of issues such as whether the Law runs against jurisprudence, whether it violates Chinese citizens’ just right to exit the country, whether it infringes on other countries’ sovereignty, etc. In actual practice, there are also different views on some issues such as whether the destination country visa inspection system has other functions, whether it restricts clearance efficiency at ports of entry, etc.To begin with, therefore, the author endeavors to discuss the visa system and citizens’ exit-entry right, compares international treatises with relevant laws and regulations on exit-entry administration and immigration, discourses on the legality and necessity of current destination country visa inspection systems in our country, make in-depth analysis of the conflict between such systems and Chinese citizens’ right to exit and draws the conclusion that the practice of comprehensively inspecting destination country visas infringes on Chinese citizens’ just right to exit. Meanwhile, the author proposes the use of sovereignty transference as a means for the exit-entry inspection authority to attain the right to inspect visas from specific countries, improve its port management capacities by way of meta-data screening and obtaining information on key figures in advance, enhance its cooperative relationship with other domestic organizations and government departments, in an effort to transform the current comprehensive destination country visa inspection system into one of targeting personnel from key parts of the country and personnel going to key parts of the world. Through restructuring, the current destination country visa inspection system will continue to serve its functions in areas of anti-terrorism and anti-illegal immigration at ports of entry on the premise of compliance with jurisprudence, international treatises and practice. In the meantime, it will further simplify the exit procedures for Chinese citizens, improve clearance efficiency, relieve the policing pressure and continuously push forward the process of marching our exit-entry immigration inspection system towards higher level of legalization and the international standards.