Hong Kong Visas Made Easy

I Lived In Hong Kong For 11 Years – And Have Been Gone For The Last 7 – Can I Still Get Permanent Residency?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Long Stay & PR, Your Question Answered / 2 responses

It happens a lot more often that you might imagine. You’d think that the many early years in Hong Kong ought to count towards your right of abode but all too often disappointment is in the offing…

QUESTION

Thank you very much for this informative website! I hope you’ll be able to answer my question, I’m not sure if its a common scenario or not.

I was born in Singapore and I lived in Hong Kong from 1994 – 2005 (11 years) and moved when I was nearly 11 because of my father’s job, and it has now been 7 years since I left to go and live in Thailand.

My mother has a Hong Kong Permanent Identity Card (and was working for an airline there) but I do not. I had a dependant visa endorsed in my passport at the time I left with my parents.

This usually wouldn’t be a problem after leaving Hong Kong, however there are two education sponsorship programmes that I would like to apply for in Hong Kong which requires you to have a permanent HKID.

I have gone to the immigration office about three times in the past 7 years as we do go back quite often, and every time we ask an officer, he says “if you are living in Hong Kong, you can apply for permanent residency.”

Is this true?

Seeing as I have already clocked up 11 years in Hong Kong, all I am missing in the application form is the current residency card.

Does this mean that if I go to university in Hong Kong starting August this year, that I could get my residency card, and then with that, apply for my permanent residency?

The way I see it, although I have been away for a considerably long time, but I am coming back, so this would technically be my 11th year total living in Hong Kong (and I have proof of having been there for 7 years ‘ordinarily’ with my school records, etc.)

I hope my question was clear enough and thank you very much in advance!

ANSWER

This is a very interesting question, and it does strike a chord with quite a number of people in Hong Kong who find themselves in your situation. So I’m grateful to you for having raised the question and hopefully I can shed some light on the situation and how your present immigration status in Hong Kong is affected by your life circumstances.

Your mother is a permanent Hong Kong identity card holder and on the basis that you had been born in Hong Kong and your mother had been a permanent identity card holder at that time, then at the point of your birth, your eligibility for a permanent identity card would have been established and effectively in the wake of that there could have been a very good opportunity for you to continue to argue now, many years later that you are a permanent resident of Hong Kong.

However, that’s theoretical and hypothetical in this situation because you weren’t born in Hong Kong, you were born in Singapore; so consequently your eligibility for a permanent identity card wasn’t established at the time of your birthday. And consequently it meant that the immigration status that was available to you when you came back to Hong Kong with your mother was that of a dependent visa.

And as you stated in your question, you held the dependent visa all the way through to the age of eleven, and then effectively, you left Hong Kong. Now the interesting thing is that after you had been in Hong Kong as a dependent visa holder, just after your 7th, possibly your 8th birthday, you could have, or your parents could have, made an application to have your eligibility for a permanent identity card verified, at the age of eight years of age, on the strength that you had been ordinarily resident in Hong Kong with your parents for a minimum of seven, and at that point you would have effectively been in the driving seat for a permanent identity card.

Subsequently, once you got to the age of eleven years, when the identity card is issued to you, and had that been, if that had occurred, in fact, then effectively at the age of eleven, you would have had your identity card issued to you possibly before you left Hong Kong.

And then on the basis that you have been back in Hong Kong on at least one occasion every three years thereafter, your permanent identity card status, your Right of Abode, in fact, would have been maintained. And uh, uh, effectively the question that, uh, uh, you’re asking today would have been answered in the affirmative.

However, unfortunately, because you only held a dependent visa for the first eleven years of your life in Hong Kong, at the time that you left with your parents to go off to Thailand, effectively you abandoned your continuous ordinary residence at that time; and what that means is that when you come back to Hong Kong in the future, you’re going to have to get a student visa.

The first eleven years of your life in Hong Kong effectively would have been lost. So, it’s unfortunate. It’s certainly not going to assist you with the sponsorship programmes that you’re lining up to make an application for. But if it is any kind of consolation, effectively what will happen in terms of your life going forward is you’ll come back to Hong Kong as a student.

One would assume that you’ll spend three years here as a student, you’ll graduate,you’ll be able to join the workforce straight away, if you start working for a Hong Kong employer within six months of you having graduated from university, because the Immigration Arrangements for Non-Local Graduates give you those privileges.

So that’s effectively going to take you to three and a half years. One assumes that a three to a four year working career in Hong Kong will have seen you continuously know an old resident in Hong Kong again for the requisite seven years and then you’ll be able to go on to secure the Right of Abode as an adult in your own right.

But unfortunately, in light of the facts that we’ve got in your question at the moment,  you’re not going to be able to secure the Right of Abode at this point in time.

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Long Term Business Visit To Hong Kong – Do I Need An Employment Visa?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Visitor Visas, Your Question Answered / 2 responses

Business visit to Hong Kong? With Hong Kong having such a liberal visa-upon-arrival regime (with more than 160 nationalities being granted permission to visit for between 7 and 180 days – depending on which passport you carry), it is understandable that there is confusion as to what is permitted activity if you are a ‘business visitor’ in the HKSAR.

This question provides an opportunity to get to the heart of this issue once and for all.

QUESTION

“Hi, Your websites are really informative. Thanks for making all this information available for free. I do have one question which I would like to have an answer for though.

I co-own and manage a small company in the UK (6 staff altogether) and we do a lot of business with one company in Hong Kong especially. Due to a contract we have just signed, I need to transfer myself to HK for up to one year in total, although I will probably travel to and from the UK several times in that period. I am trying to understand if I need to get an employment visa for Hong Kong. My business will carry on as normal in the UK (my brother and I run it together) but for all practical purposes I will be based out of Hong Kong for those 12 months.

Any advice you can offer would be really appreciated. Thank you!”

ANSWER

If you come to Hong Kong as a business visitor, the question is begged as to what is permitted activity under that immigration status. And typically business visitors must generally contain their activities to for example, attending business meetings or fact-finding discussions or this type of activity that gets to the heart of the possibility of some kind of transaction, with your counterparties in Hong Kong.

You can come for example to make sales calls to potential business partners clients, as long as whilst you’re making those sales calls you’re working for an entity that’s established outside of Hong Kong. You can come to sign contracts or conclude contracts indeed, submit formal tender proposals, and support the submission exercise through the delivery of presentations and supporting representations; you can participate in overall product orientation, you can attend short term seminars, you can oversee the installation or the packaging of goods, but you can’t actually be responsible that is, go hands on in relation to the installation or the packaging of those goods.

Likewise, it’s permitted activity to participate in exhibitions or trade fairs although it is not permitted activity to roll your sleeves up and start, for example, building the booth within the trade fair. You could assemble from a kit that you brought with you. That’s natural. But if you had to order timber locally and you needed to interact with local contractors and take responsibility for the formal building of your stand, you would need work authorisations for that. Ah, and it’s perfectly okay to come and participate in for example, litigation if you’re going to suing somebody or you’re being sued and you need to give evidence.

So in all things considered, business visits allow you to do all the kind of activities that are peripheral to commercial activity and where it can be said that you’re actually getting involved in the provision of services or your implementing activities in relation to the commercial endeavour that brought you into Hong Kong in the first place.

You’re going to need an employment visa, and this really sort of translates itself into a sort of common sense understanding, if you’re going to come for or four months at a time and you are a UK citizen and you get 180 days as a visitor, and during those three or four months you’re living in some service department and at 09:00 in the morning you’re reporting to your counterparty’s office and you’ve got a dedicated desk and you’re sitting there and you’re on the telephone and you’re preparing paperwork and you’re doing the kind of activities that actually go towards the implementation of the commercial aspect of what brought you to Hong Kong in the first place. That’s really work.

If it walks like a duck and it talks like a duck, in actual fact it’s quacking its head off, you are in fact a duck, therefore you need to have an employment visa. So, whilst there are some differences between the activities which are permitted by regulation and those that are allowed in practise, if you are going to be discharging your employment duties in Hong Kong, the type of things that you would ordinarily be doing back in the UK, albeit it’s more practical for you to be in Hong Kong on the ground doing that stuff, you need to have an employment visa.

Therefore my advice in this situation would be to not rely on the business visit category. Even though you’re going to get 180 day period of state each time you present yourself at the border, make an application for an employment visa. The Immigration Department will take into consideration all the circumstances of your case and if you’ve got a genuine contract and you’ve got a business back home that is going to continue and in fact is supporting the activities that have brought you to Hong Kong in the first place, the Immigration Department will undoubtedly grant you the employment visa.

So, make that application and don’t be tempted just to rely on the business visit category simply because practically you get it underneath a day each time you present yourself in Hong Kong at the border.

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Training, Employment Or Working Holiday – What’s The Best Hong Kong Visa Option For A Recently Graduated British National?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Special Programmes, Your Question Answered / No responses

What’s the Best Hong Kong Visa Option for a Recently Graduated British National?

 

QUESTION

Hi Stephen,

From  May through November 2013 I was employed in a well known and large company in Hong Kong under the training visa for a period of 6 months.

During the end of this tenure the company decided to offer me a permanent position however I had to apply for this job under the employment visa.

Unfortunately this was rejected, as the Immigration Department feel this is a job that can be taken up locally.

I’m 23 years old with one years work experience after graduating from university but really want to stay in Hong Kong now I have embedded myself within the team I was working in and learning all the appropriate skills and practices for the role I was undertaking.

I have now become a highly valued member of my working team.

I want to ask whether already having a training visa then having a working visa rejected would affect my chances of  getting a working holiday visa?

I also have the option to move to Dubai where I have been granted a visa which can be used as a stop gap to get more experience then look to re-apply in Hong Kong.

But as my primary desire is to stay in Hong Kong can I use the working holiday visa as an additional years experience until the time comes that I need to re-apply for a working visa next year?

And how should I re-apply for that differently?

Can you kindly advise what is the best course of action?

Thanks

ANSWER

In the vast majority of circumstances, whenever you have been able to secure a training visa, usually for six months, sometimes for a maximum of twelve months, depending on the nature of the training that you’re due to receive, it is almost impossible to swap from a training visa through to an employment visa because the issue of the training visa was done on the basis that you would acquire the training and then you would leave.

So it’s natural in many instances where you have undergone that period of training, you’ve inculcated yourself into the working fabric of your team there and clearly your manager at the end of the training, doesn’t want to lose you, recognises your talent, wants you to remain in Hong Kong to work full time, and so you make an application for an employment visa.

Now, two challenges associated with that stated is that as part of your training visa application, there is an undertaking that you will leave Hong Kong at the end of the period of training. And the second challenge is that, to actually convert to an employment visa, you have to pass the employment visa provability test, which is you need to show you possess special skills, knowledge and experience of value to and not readily available in Hong Kong.

And normally this requires, at a very minimum, for you to be a university graduate with two years post graduation working experience in a supervisor in a managerial capacity. And normally if you’re in a training visa situation, by implication you’re not managing anybody or supervising anybody. Quite the contrary, you’re on the receiving end of such management and such supervision.

So when you do make that application to a justice status from training visa to employment visa, uh, in your circumstances, it’s quite, uh, normal to expect that you will be, um, refused in that application. So now the question is begged as to how can you continue to remain in Hong Kong so that you can do the things that you’re doing now.

Fortunately, because of the introduction of british nationals to the list of, uh, qualifying nationals under the working holiday scheme, as of December 2013, you can apply for a working holiday visa which will give you a twelve month limit of staying, uh, and you’ll be able to work for any single employer for twelve months.

So the fact that you’ve had a prior employment visa refused and the fact that you’ve previously held a training visa should not, in normal circumstances, preclude you from accessing the working holiday visa on the basis that you do qualify for the working holiday visa in your own right, which is that you’re under 30 years of age, you’ve got about HKD20,000 in your bank account and you’ve got the necessary medical insurance to cover your staying as a working visa holder in Hong Kong.

And that there’s still a quota available to you. That is that a lot of other British nationals haven’t gotten ahead of you and stolen your opportunity to acquire one of those visas because of the number that are issued each year. So have no fear that you can’t get a working holiday visa so long as there’s quota available and you can meet the conditions.

And then once you’ve got your working holiday visa, you can certainly rejoin your working team, and away you go, so that will then take you twelve months down the road. And then the issue is, well, how do you then get from a working holiday visa through to an employment visa again. And will, in all the circumstances, the time that you spent in Hong Kong as a training visa holder and the twelve months that you had as a working holiday visa holder, will all of that again qualify you, ostensibly for the minimum two years post graduation working experience in managerial or supervisory capacity. That’s a question that can really only be answered at the time that you make your next application, depending on effectively what’s gone on in, in all the time that you were holding the working holiday visa. And frankly, whether or not even one year hence, you’ll be able to argue to the Immigration Department that your skills can’t be found locally, because it may well be that the work that you do there could clearly be a ready pool of local employees, potential local employees, new graduates from university or others that have the necessary skills in the industry that you’re working in department might not be persuaded in any event, that given the nature of the work that you do, that work can’t be uptaken by somebody from within the local workforce.

So that’s always a risk and it’s not something that I can give you any concrete advice upon at this stage in the game. All that I can suggest is that once your working holiday visa expires, go back to the immigration department with a new application for an employment visa and argue your case stridently and forthrightly and see what they make of it as another option.

Given that you do seem to have the ability to go off, in this instance to Dubai, to what I assume is a group company to work there, if all else fails, you could  secure employment in Dubai and go spend maybe a year or two in Dubai working for that group company, building up your knowledge, building up your experience, ensure that experience is gained in managing and supervising others and then at the end of that period, you make an application again to transfer back to Hong Kong from that Dubai Group company on an intercompany transferee basis.

And nine times out of ten, if it is a straightforward intercompany transferee application for an employment visa where you clearly now have the necessary post graduation working experience and that given the nature of the work that you’ve been doing for the group company in Dubai, it’s clear that a local person can’t be expected to uptake that work, then you stand an improved chance of approval next time around on the basis that you have been an intercompany transferee.

So all of this sounds really quite long and convoluted and complex, but, strategically, you do have a pathway to your ultimate end game, which is to be working full time, lawfully, for your proposed employer in Hong Kong, doing the work that you clearly love to do; but, you’ve still got a few sort of months ahead of you and a few applications ahead of you before,  you get the security and comfort of knowing that finally, the Immigration Department deem you professional for the purpose of the general employment policy.

And you’ve created the circumstances where you can definitively argue that the work that you’re going to be doing in Hong Kong can’t be taken up by somebody locally. Okay, I hope you found that useful.

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Can You Use The Foreign Domestic Helper Visa To Employ Your Mother In Hong Kong?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Musing, Special Programmes, Your Question Answered / 2 responses

The Hong Kong Immigration Department are not especially receptive to what can appear to be family reunion via the back door…

Can you use the Foreign Domestic Helper visa to employ your mother in Hong Kong?

QUESTION

Hello,

My wife and I are on work visas in Hong Kong and are expecting a baby in the Autumn.

My wife would like to keep working, and wants to bring her mother over (she is from Central America) to look after the baby, possibly for up to a year.

Her mother would only be eligible for a 30-day visitor visa.

Could we employ her as a domestic helper?

Do we have any other options?

Thanks!

ANSWER

Whilst it’s a perfectly logical conclusion to draw that it would make sense to employ your mother or your mother in law as a foreign domestic helper sponsored by you in Hong Kong, unfortunately such an approach won’t hold water with the Immigration Department for a number of reasons. One set of reasons that are specific to the nature of the foreign domestic helper visa and the second reason relates to the nationality of your mother dealing with the nationality issue.

First, the foreign domestic helper visa has been constructed in Hong Kong by the Immigration Department as a result of a series of bilateral negotiations between a variety of different countries that are prepared to allow their nationals to come to Hong Kong to work under very strict conditions as foreign domestic helpers. And principally in this regard strict conditions are relating to the protection of  the interests of the nationals that are going to be coming to do the work under foreign domestic helper visas. So, if you’re from, or your wife’s mother is from a country that does not have such a bilaterally negotiated arrangements in place, then citizens of that country cannot participate in the foreign domestic helper programme, unfortunately.

So given that there are no countries in Central America today that have got a bilaterally negotiated arrangement in place, the foreign domestic helper visa will not be available to her, end of story, unfortunately. But in terms of what the Immigration Department do when they receive applications from very close relatives, effectively they look at these applications with a very let’s say cynical set of eyes because whilst it makes perfect sense to want to have a mother or a mother in law in Hong Kong taking care of a new grandchild, especially during the first year, effectively the Immigration Department will see this as an application for family reunion by the back door because there’s non-permanent residents seeking to have their mother, or a parent physically present in Hong Kong with them, that means that you precluded from  sponsoring such a dependent visa for that would be the visa type that you would normally use because the dependent visa for a parent normally requires the sponsor to be a permanent identity card holder and the parent to be over 60 years of age and with clear proof of dependency.

And in your circumstances this is obviously not going to apply. So the Immigration Department, for another reason are not going to be receptive to an application for a foreign domestic helper visa notwithstanding the fact that there is an expectation that there is going to be an arm’s length commercial arrangement between the two parties in relation to the provision of employment services. Clearly, where you have a family member that’s going to be providing those services, then this is not going to be a typical arm’s length commercial arrangement. So now that we’ve kind of sort of buried the idea that the foreign domestic help of visa might work for you in your circumstances, what are the other options that are available to you?

Well, you could make, and I would suggest that you do this in any event, make an application for an entry visa for your mother in law to come and join you for an extended period of time on the strength of the fact that you are having a child, and it would be exceptionally useful to you to be able to have your mother physically present in Hong Kong for a few months at least to be able to help out with the new child rearing duties. And you do this by making a visitor visa application, as I say, on an entry visa that is not relying on the 30 days that you are granted upon arrival at the airport, but actually setting out in detail all the circumstances that are giving rise to you seeking to sponsor an extended visitor visa for your mother in law.

You may get a three-month limit of stay depending on how the Immigration Department respond to the application. Additionally, you could conceptually make such an entra visa application for her let her arrive and enter on that perhaps, 60 or 90 day limit of stay, depending what the immigration department give you.

And then at the end of that limit of stay, she could make an exit and then reenter again and get another 30 days, and in that intervening period you could make another application for another entry visa, and again get another 60 or another 90 days, and at the end of that limit of stay you could make another exit and possibly do that twice more before you get to the kind of magic number that the immigration department hold to be quite dear.

And that is, a visitor should not be spending more than half of their time in Hong Kong over the course of a twelve month given period. So I think you’re probably going to be able to finagle possibly six or seven months as visitor visa status for your mother in law in those circumstances.

Not exactly twelve months I appreciate, but if you work the system in a good and logical way and set out all the facts surrounding the need for the need for extended visitor status for your mother and the fact that you’re clearly going to be responsible for her health and welfare while she’s here, I think you’ll find that you’ll end up getting a reasonable amount of time that will allow you to be together during these important months, whether you get a full year or not.

Difficult to say, I would suspect probably not. You’ll be testing the Immigration Department’s patience somewhat, if you made a third or a fourth application for an intra visa on that basis; but you know, the Immigration Department appreciate that this is an important time for you and wonder, actually, what’s wrong with having your mother in Hong Kong, helping you raise your new grandchild in the early months of his or her arrival in Hong Kong.

It’s just a matter of working the process, setting out all the facts, allowing the Immigration Department to understand what the reasons are for this extended period of stay in Hong Kong as a visitor, and I think you’ll find that, all things considered, as far as they’re able to help you, they probably will do so.

Okay, I’ve appended the link to the visitor visa information on the Hong Kong visa handbook that will help you navigate the labyrinth of the visitor visa application process that you’ll no doubt be going through. And also, I hope you found this useful.

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Can You Claim Right Of Abode In Hong Kong If Your Deceased Spouse Had PR Here But You Didn’t Live With Him At The Time Of His Death?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Long Stay & PR, Your Question Answered / No responses

Is the Right of Abode in Hong Kong passed along to the spouse of a permanent resident such that is claimable after the death of your PR holding husband..?

First Published November 20 2013 – Still of Interest Today

QUESTION

This query is for  my cousin who is an adult.

She was born in Pakistan and got married to a Hong Kong non-Chinese permanent resident.

She has been in Hong Kong many times first after her marriage in 1994 then various times up to  2003.

She has two children one of which was born in Hong Kong.

She currently resides in Pakistan.

She was in Pakistan with her 2 children when she found out her husband passed away in Hong Kong.

She returned once to Hong Kong to verify this,but then came back to Pakistan with her children who were infants at the time.

She now feels able to cope with life in Hong Kong without her husband now that he children are older.

My query: Is there any basis or chance that she may be able to gain right of abode?

I would be grateful if you could help.

ANSWER

As a foreign national seeking to become a permanent resident of Hong Kong, there is a very defined way to go about procuring permanent residency status and unfortunately it doesn’t transfer to the spouse of a deceased permanent resident by virtue of the fact of death, as the Right of Abode in Hong Kong is directly tied to having been continuously an ordinary resident in Hong Kong for a period of not less than seven years immediately before you apply for the status.

So if we look at your cousin’s immigration profile in Hong Kong, it would appear that sometime after 1994 when she got married, assumingly to a person who subsequently went on to become a parent resident of Hong Kong, after 1997 she would have during her time together with her husband have had a dependent visa sponsored by him.

So from the period after 1997, if she did not live continuously in Hong Kong for at least seven years in her own right, then she at best would have at the time that she made her last departure in 2003 have been merely a dependent visa holder, and if that dependent visa on the one hand was not extended whilst she was in Pakistan, and two, even if it had been extended, if she was not having residence in Hong Kong with her husband and indeed her children at that time, it would be very difficult to sustain the idea that she was continuously an early resident in Hong Kong after 2003.

But I don’t have any specific instructions as to what her immigration status was at that point in time, so I will just make the assumption that as of 2003 she was not a permanent resident, and that she would not be entitled to apply for permanent residency by virtue of the fact that she was not resident in Hong Kong. She was indeed at all times after 2003 resident in Pakistan.

So given that her husband subsequently died holding permanent residency for Hong Kong, unfortunately in her own right, notwithstanding her marriage to an individual with that status, if she’s not in Hong Kong herself holding a dependent visa, she can’t claim ordinary residence. So she’ll never be able to qualify for the Rights of Abode. So, unfortunately that closes the avenue in relation to her husband.

You also make the point that one of her two children was born in Hong Kong again without any evidence as to the immigration status of the child; it’s difficult to advise whether this would apply to her or not, but I will make an assumption that one of the children did secure, or at least have the eligibility for the Right of Abode established at the time of his or her birth. And on the basis that, until he’s 21, he can show that he’s been settled in Hong Kong, he will at the age of 21 be able to become a permanent resident in his/her own right.

And on the basis that, your cousin is then over 60 years of age, and this child who is holding the Rights of Abode can show to the Immigration Department that he’s settled in Hong Kong rather than being settled in Pakistan, then that child will be able to sponsor its mother who will be over 60 years of age for dependent visa permissions as a dependent elderly parent.

But thats a couple of  initiatives sort of down the track, as it were. But that would appear to me an option going forward.

It’s not sufficient just to have the status at the age of 21 as a child. You need to have been settled in Hong Kong to be able to be a valid sponsor for elderly parents, dependent visa permissions and then assuming that your cousin comes to Hong Kong, lives in Hong Kong continuously for seven years as a dependent elderly parent sponsored by a permanent resident child who settled in Hong Kong, she will be able to then go on to secure Rights of Abode subsequently. But she won’t be able to do it while she’s living in Pakistan. She’ll have to be in Hong Kong.

I hope you found this useful.

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Will Performance-Based Equity Compensation Suffice Instead Of A Cash Salary For A Hong Kong Employment Visa?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Investment Visas, Your Question Answered / 2 responses

To what extend the salary can be replaced with performance-based equity compensation in case of a Hong Kong employment visa?

No one has asked me this type of question about compensation for employees for about 17 years now so I’m grateful to the questioner for raising it as she did.

QUESTION

I have successfully registered a business and been awarded an investment visa in Hong Kong.

The company is a start up with limited capital but big plans.

I have identified an individual I’d like to employ, have no doubt he would pass the approvability test, and don’t expect to have issues around quotas.

However my business cannot yet afford to pay a meaningful salary.

I’d like to compensate the individual with equity until such time as the business is generating enough revenue to pay market salaries – a situation both parties are completely happy with.

Is there any ability to sponsor an employment visa given this arrangement?

ANSWER

What a truly excellent question. And I’m sure that most entrepreneurs that have successfully secured an investment visa might at some stage look for the assistance of a third party foreign national to come into Hong Kong to assist them in their plans, and are obviously looking at an equity for compensation arrangement if that will in fact pass muster with the immigration department.

So the essential answer to the question is that yes, it is possible to have equity as a component for the compensation instead of salary, but it must not replace the salary under the General Employment Policy. The approvability test is effectively meaning that the Immigration Department are looking for a basic salary, and that basic salary should come in at the minimum levels, give or take HKD16,000 a month.

So if the value of this time is to be compensated in such a way that anything over the HKD16,000 a month is going to be reflected in an equity grant, then the Immigration Department should buy into that. So probably without too many questions asked on the basis that it’s properly documented and for all practical purposes, the party that’s receiving the equity grant is being compensated ostensibly for the professional nature of the contribution that he’s making.

So ensure that there’s a basic salary and anything above that compensated with equity grant should be fine. Of course, hanging above all of this writ larger were is what the Immigration Department will make of the application when it comes in. Given that, you’ve, I assume, just recently had an investment visa approved, did the potential for this engagement of this foreign national was it reflected in the representations that were made to the Immigration Department as part of your investment visa application? So will this come as a surprise to them or was it anticipated at all times? And how far along have you actually been able to progress your business since the fact of your investment visa approval in accordance with what the Immigration Department were expecting of you when they granted your approval.

So you need to look at where you are in the business,in addition to the individual special skills, knowledge and experience of Elliot and not really available in home to understand how the Immigration Department might respond to this questions such as, you know, have you recruited anybody else locally or is in fact this your first employee?

And as I say, if it is your first employee, was it anticipated in the business plan that the department saw from you originally? So take his application in the round when you’re considering structuring your argument, but also anticipate that as long as he’s getting the basic salary of about HKD16,000 a month with, the balance of his compensation being reflected in an equity grant it should be fine. I don’t imagine that you have too many problems. Okay.

I hope this helps.

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Is There A Minimum Number Of Days You Need To Be In Hong Kong In Order To Maintain Your Investment Visa Status?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Family Visas, Investment Visas, Long Stay & PR, Special Programmes, Your Question Answered / 4 responses

Hong Kong is a small place with borders on our doorstep so how much time do you need to be physically in Hong Kong to retain your Hong Kong investment visa?

QUESTION

I would like to know, if I am able to hold a visa in Hong Kong, then what is the minimum time per year I need to stay in Hong Kong to still qualify as a resident?

I travel a lot, but am looking to set up a business in Hong Kong and would like to become a resident in Hong Kong but am afraid I might be out of the country in large periods of time.

Thanks

ANSWER

Really good question, this one. And I think you might be surprised at the answer in actual fact. As part of an application to secure a residence visa, in order to establish a business in Hong Kong, you need to go through the processes of showing you can make a substantial contribution to the economy of Hong Kong and get yourself a business investment visa.

And, at the time that you make the application, there’s no need to disclose to the Immigration Department exactly how much time you think you will be spending inside Hong Kong and how much time you think you’ll be spending away from Hong Kong. So the emphasis at the point of application should be on passing the approvability test.

Therefore, assuming you get approved, if you then go on to spend the majority of your time outside of Hong Kong, this doesn’t need to be a preclusion to getting your extensions. As you go through the one, two to three year pattern extension process after your initial approval, so long as you’ve got a really good business reason for being away from Hong Kong, as long as you have been.

Upon any review of your business undertaken as part of the investment visa extension exercise, you can clearly demonstrate to the Immigration Department’s satisfaction that you are indeed making a substantial contribution to the economy of Hong Kong. So, with the investment visa, indeed, for that matter, all residence visas, you must demonstrate that you have a need for the visa, and that is that you intend to be genuinely resident in Hong Kong. And if you can satisfy the Immigration Department about your genuine need, the question of time spent inside and also away from Hong Kong will really only present itself as an issue for you for deep consideration at the seven year mark when you’ve been continuously an ordinary resident in Hong Kong for not less than seven years, when you make your application for permanent residency, seeking to secure the right of abode, because the test for the right of abode says that any absences from Hong Kong in that seven years, either of a longer or short duration, must have been of a merely temporary nature, as evidenced by what you leave behind to return back to at the end of each temporary stay abroad.

So typically, so long as you’ve got a genuine need to be resident and you’ve got a really good excuse or reason for why you’re spending a lot of time away and you’re maintaining the qualifying criteria all throughout the seven years that you, in this case, hold your investment visa, the time spent away shouldn’t represent itself as a problem.

However, come time to secure permanent residency, you will probably have a lot to answer for; and whilst it doesn’t suggest that automatically you might not get permanent residency, the analysis of what you’ve been doing while you spent all that time away from Hong Kong during those seven years will very much come into play.

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