Prior to 1999, those permits were named Home-visiting Certificate for Compatriots from Hong Kong and Macau and was a passport-like booklet. These booklets were considered inconvenient, because they were relatively cumbersome to carry around. Furthermore, the booklets were also found to be inefficient because they could only be used at manned border crossing checkpoints where an entry stamp would be placed by an immigration official. Frequent border crossing residents, such as lorry drivers, were required to replace the booklet every few months due to the lack of pages for entry and exit stamps. The booklets were eventually phased out.