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Foreigners seeking to renew visas or residence permits will be able to do so online under a trial to start in April.

Chinese people applying for a second time for visas to visit Hong Kong or Macau and Taiwanese seeking visas to visit the mainland will also be able to use the service at www.police.sh.cn.

The trial is part of 12 new measures the Shanghai Public Security Bureau announced yesterday.

The measures involve the police department, the fire control bureau, the traffic department and the entry-exit administration.

Shanghai citizens who want to register a change of residence no longer need to provide ID card photos.

China adopts a residence registration system to record the basic data of its huge population.

Non-Shanghai residents can have their photos taken free at designated sites at the same time they register the permanent status for residence in Shanghai.This year will be a peak time for locals to renew their ID cards which were issued in 1985 or 1995.

Authorities have promised priority for those residents, saying the time taken to issue new cards will be cut from the legal 60 days to 30 days.

There is also good news for drivers as the traffic department says it will have set up 63 traffic information boards, mainly around the elevated roads, before the Lunar New Year.