Originally Posted by
Chaosmax
just to round this up.
Did today the ultimate test and the machine just cares about the sticker on the back of the passport.
1st try with passport cover (which covered the sticker) I placed the passport with picture side on the scanner- that didn't work
2nd try I placed the closed passport without cover on the scanner so only the sticker was readable - worked
I went through yesterday as well, at the airport. Let me add to what I said previously and what others have said:
- The instructions on the machine that are displayed on the video screen clearly state that the proper thing to do is to insert the opened passport with the data page face down. They show an example of a passport's data page, highlight the OCR character block at the bottom, and show the passport being inserted into the machine with that section face down in order to be scanned. There is no doubt or ambiguity about these instructions.
- In addition to the above, the machine will also accept a scan of the Hong Kong Immigration issued barcode, if the passport is inserted closed with the barcode face down.
I was unable to get my data page to scan, trying several times on two machines, even though there is no visible damage to my OCR section and it's worked before. The Immigration officer came over and showed me how to scan the barcode. I asked about the data page method that was shown on the machine itself, and he said that either method was valid.
So, that now fully answers the question as far as I'm concerned: either method is valid, and the barcode method is probably more convenient and more reliable.