My girlfriend and I went to Hong Kong this week to get new tourist visas.   I have a USA passport, she has a Laos passport.   The visa office is located at Fairmont House next to Admiralty MTR station (exit B).      

 

My Passport: 

2x existing visa exempt entries (extended at immigration 30 days)

1x existing tourist visa (extended at immigration for 30 days)   

 

Her Passport:

Many thai visas and visa exempt entries extending back 2.5 years back to back

 

Office opens at 9:30.  Not many people were there.   If we had filled out the application beforehand we would have been in and out in 5 minutes dropping off the application.  Paid HK $300 for each visa (currently comes out to be about 1,300THB)  and we were told to come back the next day.   The next day we went as soon as the office opened.   Waited in line for about 5-6 minutes.   Received our passports and left. 

 

I brought bank statements, proof of return airfare, etc, but they didn't want any of that.    The just wanted a 3.5x4.5 photo, a copy of our passport photo pages + a copy of our Hong Kong immigration slip that they gave us at the airport (you can put both of these on one piece of paper).   The whole process was simple and pleasantly uneventful. 

Yes, Hong Kong seems every bit as good as Vientiane or Penang for tourist visas. The only remaining question is how many visas from Hong Kong will they issue?

No idea.   I prefer it to Vientiane because there aren't a million people telling you that you need them to fill out the application,  there's no waiting, and application + collections happen simultaneously at the same time every day. 

2 minutes ago, pjthefey said:

No idea.   I prefer it to Vientiane because there aren't a million people telling you that you need them to fill out the application,  there's no waiting, and application + collections happen simultaneously at the same time every day. 

 

Agreed on all counts. Those trying to get a new visa at minimum cost would possibly prefer Vientiane. However, I was able to get a combined flight + 3 nights hotel deal to HK recently for 6,750 baht. (Admittedly, I was very lucky and chose a cheap single room.) At these prices, with no visa needed for entry into HK, the total cost of the trip including visa would be only about 9,000 baht.