as38

I could not find a thread to explain what happens when you arrive at HKIA so I thought I would share my experience. This was as of 20 June 2022, for a fully vaccinated passenger from UK. The official government website is here for ease of reference. These were the things which happened after I got off the plane:

1. Train ride to another section of the airport.
2. Scan QR code from health declaration form. (You can complete at the airport, but I would recommend you pre-fill the health declaration form).
3. Given a lanyard with a barcode which you have to wear, and a specimen collection bag.
4. Go to specimen collection area where a nurse takes two samples - one is for a RAT/LFT test, the other is for a PCR test
5. Go to the "desk" area, where someone checks all your documents - health declaration form, your vaccination record and your quarantine hotel booking. This is where you get issued with your quarantine order and your vaccination qr code which can be scanned into the VaccinePass app (this allows you to go to restaurants etc)
6. Get sent to a waiting area, where you sit in rows of 10. After about 5 mins, they let each group of 10 go. At the exit, they scan your lanyard and allow you through based (I assume) on the results of the RAT/LFT test.
7. Train ride to immigration
8. Collect baggage
9. Go to bus area. There is a desk where you collect baggage tags to mark which hotel you are going. They allocate you to a particular queue (there were 14 different queues), based on location of your hotel.
10. Mini bus takes you to your hotel.

Total time from deboarding to hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui: 2.5 hours

Some general tips/info

• Pre fill the health declaration form. It can only be done online, but HKIA wifi is free and speedy
• Although I saw a lot of people showing documents on their phone, I would bring printed hard copies. That way, you just give everything to the members of staff and it is a lot quicker.
• Your lanyard, health declaration form and your quarantine order get scanned multiple times (at every stage, something gets scanned) so keep them handy, rather than placing in your bag
• There is a lot of walking, so wear comfy shoes. The tensa barriers show you the way, so it is impossible to get lost
• Depending on time/length of your flight, bring something to drink and a small snack. I saw some YouTube videos saying you get given a bottle of water and a sandwich. I think that was when you had to wait 4+ hours for your PCR results. But this does not seem to be the case anymore as the process is a lot quicker
• Make sure you have a mobile phone number which can receive SMS messages. You will get lots of SMS messages with various bits of info such as your PCR test results
• You get some important documents through the stages (quarantine order, vaccination qr code etc). Bring some kind of document holder to keep everything safe (I had a paper wallet folder which had all my pre-printed documents)
• The only time when I had to wait more than 5 minutes was for the bus. Therefore, if you need to take a bathroom break, do so when you collect your luggage, before you join the queues for the buses

Overall, I have to say I was super impressed with how efficient and quick the process was. I understand from friends and family that it may not have always been the case. But for me, the experience was quick and painless. I was even amazed that at baggage collection, all the bags were off the carousel and my two bags were grouped together, a far cry from the UK airport baggage experience.

Anyway, hope this information is helpful for anyone arriving into HK.

EDIT: the VaccinePass app is actually called LeaveHomeSafe. The official website is here

889

There was also a counter where they called your mobile and wanted to hear it ring.

Will second the suggestion to have printouts of everything.

Lots and lots of walking involved. With the waiting at various stages it's really tiring. They did have bottles of water right before the wait-for-test-results area, but they were easy to miss; you're dazed going through the process.

Oh, there's also a guy who sprays your stuff with disinfectant right before you board the bus.

as38

Yes, I heard about the mobile check but that did not happen for me.

I did not notice the water , but you are totally right, I was totally dazed through the process and just followed the route

pettifog

Thanks. Can any one share experience with transit through HKG? Are the lounges/restaurants open?

travelinmanS

Sounds positively wonderful! A smashing arrival experience into “Asia’s World City”. Rivaling only what goes on a bit further north for absurdity.

Pickles

I know Cantonese-accented English can be hard to parse, but I think you misheard. It's "Asia's Walled City."

gaobest

3 hours sounds ok. Some normal immigration pre-Covid can already be over an hour or was for me without fast track in LHR.
and thankfully nobody has to fly to HK so now if they feel that they must go, they have tips based on a June 2022 experience :-)

as38

Just to clarify, the amount of time from alighting from the plane to landside was approximately 1.5 hours. The remaining hour related to transportation - 40 mins minibus ride from airport to Tsim Sha Tsui and 20 mins waiting for the minibus/other administrative tasks (document checking, baggage tagging and loading).

Obviously people have different experiences and consequently have different expectations. In comparison to pre-COVID, it was possible to get from the plane to landside with your luggage in under 30 mins, so the new process does increase the time substantially. However, my reference points are airports which I have used in the last 6 months which are all in the UK and Europe where it has generally taken me over 2 hours to get landside on international flights. So, imho, 1.5 hours is still "quick".

gaobest I feel your pain. I am a UK citizen and still had to queue over an hour recently to get through immigration at LHR