How can you extend your Hong Kong work visaif your passport has only a very limited amount of time remaining on it before it expires?
QUESTION
Hello,
My passport is currently being renewed but my Hong Kong work visa runs out very soon.
However I cannot start the visa extension application process without a new passport.
I am worried my visa will expire before the application is complete.
Does immigration allow special extensions for such circumstances?
ANSWER
This situation would occur a lot more frequently than you might imagine and the Immigration Department have a very straightforward way of dealing with it; essentially, what you do is that you start your extension application with your old passport details – the application should be submitted within 30 days of the expiry of your current Hong Kong employment visa limit of stay, and at the same time, you submit proof of your new passport application to the Immigration Department as part of that extension exercise.
This inputs the Immigration Department that there is a new travel document in process and they will wait until the issue of your new passport in order to finalise your new extension that will go into your new passport.
I hope you find this useful!
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
So, what are the immigration implications of getting married and then having children in Hong Kong if you are a temporary resident presently holding an employment visa?
QUESTION
Hi,
Can you please help with a few questions?
1. I am getting married next month and would like to cancel my employment visa through my employer, and change to a dependent visa through my spouse. I would like to remain with the same employer. Is that possible? Would I still require an employment contract with my office (same employer) or would I no longer need an employment contract.
2. If we are married in the US and have a US marriage license, how do I register that in Hong Kong?
3. If two US citizens, living in Hong Kong on employment visas, have their baby in Hong Kong, is that baby now a Hong Kong citizen, or does his/her status follow the visa status of the parents?
ANSWER
If you are an employment visa holder in Hong Kong and you then subsequently find yourself married to another employment visa holder in Hong Kong, it’s perfectly possible and indeed reasonable to adjust your immigration status from sponsored employment visa through to a dependent visa now sponsored by your Hong Kong resident spouse. Therefore, you are able to, as you would say, cancel your employment visa and do make that application on a change of category basis to become a dependent visa holder.
Moreover, the interesting thing about that is that once you become a dependent visa holder now sponsored by your spouse, you’re actually lawfully employable with any particular employer without needing to consider the immigration implications of taking up an alternate employment. So yes, without a doubt that’s probably a very good idea.
In terms of the employment contract, one would assume that if you are continuing to work for the same employer then while you go through the process of adjusting your status from sponsored employment through to legal dependence there will be no disruption to your employment relationship with your employer and so whatever term of employment that you had in place with them will continue notwithstanding any adjustment in your immigration status underlying your ability to do that work in Hong Kong in the first place. So the question of an employment contract is really moot in this instance. It really just doesn’t raise its head because having an employment contract per se doesn’t involve any part of the dependent visa application process.
Now, insofar as having a US marriage licence and registering it in Hong Kong, my understanding is the marriage licence is really just the state’s official permission for you to get married in the United States. Insofar as the marriage that results from you executing that marriage licence and undergoing the ceremony, you will then get a marriage certificate and it’s the marriage certificate that is the requisite proof of legal marriage for the purposes of you going on to get a dependent visa in Hong Kong. So there’s no formal requirement to register any marriage licence. Effectively you go off the US, you get married, you bring your marriage certificate back to Hong Kong with you and that forms the anchor of your application for independent visa subsequently.
Turning finally to part three of your question – no, there is no concept such that if you’re a temporary resident in Hong Kong and your child is born here automatically that child becomes a permanent resident of Hong Kong or indeed a Chinese national by virtue of birth. In large part as you’ve identified the child will effectively follow the temporary resident status of its parents. So if you’re both here as one is an employment visa holder and the other is a sponsored dependent visa holder, then the child will then become sponsored as for a dependent visa by the employment visa holding parent and effectively that status will remain the same until the child has been continuously an ordinarily resident in Hong Kong for a full seven years. And thereafter you can apply to have the child’s eligibility for a permanent identity card issued to it once the child is over the age of eleven and securing the right of abode in the process becoming a permanent resident. So no, if you’re both still temporary residents while your child is born in Hong Kong, your child will by operation of the wall be a temporary resident at the point of a child being granted dependent visa sponsored by the employment visa holding parent. Okay, I hope you find that useful.
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
Employment law and immigration law are often overlapping but must be dealt with separately…this post talks about what can be done if someone’s employment contract ends on the same day as their Hong Kong work visa, but they need to stay in Hong Kong for a while longer to sort out their affairs.
What can I do If my employment contract ends on the same day as my Hong Kong work visa and I need to stay here a while longer to sort out my affairs?
QUESTION
I am in a fix with a difficult-to-deal-with local company.
My 2 year contract with them expires this October 20. My work visa expires on the same day.
Is my employer legally required to serve a one month notice?
If the HR Department mention nothing to me, is my last day at work October 20, and am I required to leave the country? I am Canadian.
Is my employer required to contact the Immigration Department and notify them of my employment ending? At what date?
If I leave Hong Kong on the 20th of October to Macau for the night and return on the 21st, can I come in on a 3 month visitor visa so I can pack up the house?
Or is it better to go to the Immigration Department on the 18th/19th and apply for an extension to pack up my things and leave Hong Kong?
ANSWER
Whilst I’m not an employment lawyer, I’m not really qualified to discuss matters of employment law, it does seem to me that if you have a fixed term employment contract which is going to expire in your case as of October the 20th, then you need to look to your contract to see if there is any arrangement that speaks to an extension of that employment contract and if there is a specific notice period that the employer will need to give you in order to advise you of the termination of your employment as at the date of your contract termination too.
So look to the contract to see what that’s all about. But, in any event, all of that notwithstanding the question of your ongoing employment visa is tied directly to your ongoing employment. Therefore, if your employer has not yet indicated the possibility of an extension to your employment contract it will be the case that come October 20, when your current employment visa expires, effectively you will no longer be lawfully employable in Hong Kong.
I understand your challenge insomuch as well if you’re no longer going to be working in Hong Kong after October the 20th, you can’t just, in a sense, stop working and then mystically, magically wonderfully, before midnight that day head off back to Canada.
You’re going to need to have some time in order to manage your affairs here in the wake of your intending departure. So there are two things that you can do. One which is recommended, one which I would suggest you avoid.
The first thing that you can do is to go down to the immigration department on the 21st and explain effectively what your situation is and ask them to give you an extension.
You may find that they will give you a temporary extension for perhaps a week, maybe two at the most in your circumstances. And that is barely recommended because of the way that the immigration officers in immigration tower usually consider these applications.
The second option that you have, which is the one that I recommend, is that on the 20 October, you take the 11:00 p.m. ferry to Macau, and then after you’ve arrived in Macau, immediately jump back on the 01:00 a.m. ferry on the 21 October back to Hong Kong, and then the immigration officer upon arrival will admit you as a Canadian national for 90 days as a visitor, and that three months will then give you all the time that you need to finalise your affairs and make your exit from Hong Kong to return home. So, that’s what I would suggest you do.
I hope you find this useful.
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
Every now and again the question of criminal convictionsand the impact they have on the Hong Kong visa process raises its head. Hadley here waxes lyrical on this subject and surprisingly, has quite a lot to say!
Criminal Record Impact On Your Application For A Hong Kong Residence Visa – Is Your Conviction Already Spent?
Of course, the million dollar question right now is will the existence of a prior criminal conviction automatically disqualify an applicant? If not, what is the threshold? Will ‘spent’ convictions need to be disclosed?
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
This question mainly relates to business rather than immigration law but is still an important question nonetheless…
QUESTION
Hello
I have a Hong Kong dependant visa that gives me the right to work in Hong Kong. I have been offered a Regional Asia role based out of Hong Kong by a Canadian company.
This company is not registered in Hong Kong.
Can I work for them as sole proprietor under my Hong Kong dependant visa ? Or do they need to register as a limited company?
If they register here can I work for them on my Hong Kong dependant visa?
Appreciate your help.
ANSWER
Strictly speaking, from an immigration perspective, there is no preclusion to you taking up employment with any party in Hong Kong, because the legal dependent visa effectively gives you carte blanche approval to engage in any kind of activity in Hong Kong so long as it’s lawful and as long as you continue to remain under the sponsorship of your spouse – the principal employment visa holder.
The issue really here is the question of how you go about ensuring that you personally and the activity that you engage in is lawful from the perspective of your income, because you do need to be reporting the results of your work activity to the Inland Revenue Department.
And normally, if you’re an out and out employee, your employer is registered as a business here, and the act of registering as a business allows the Inland Revenue Department to be put on notice that you should be sent a tax assessment for the work that you do working for that registered business in Hong Kong, and given that your proposed employer doesn’t have a registered business in Hong Kong, the question is begged as to how you will be able to ensure that your income is reported to the Inland Revenue Department so that you are compliant with revenue law. And as you’ve alluded to in your question, registering as a sole proprietorship is the way forward, simply because there is no other way for the Inland Revenue department to understand, essentially how you’ve been earning your living, and by registering as a sole proprietor, getting a business registration certificate, the money that you receive from that overseas entity will be recorded in your hands as income, and after due allowances have been made for expenses as a registered sole proprietor, then you’ll have at the end of the exercise an accessible income to tax and you’ll pay a tax on that.
But insofar as the registration requirements of the proposed employer in this regard, as long as they are not going to be carrying on a business here and the work that you do will be as an independent contractor representing the interests of that foreign business, then there is no preclusion or issue at all in terms of how you will be working for them so long as you yourself is registered as a sole proprietor, and you report your income to the Inland Revenue Department in that fashion. I hope you found that useful.
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
Remain in Hong Kong under an Employment Visa sponsored by an ex-Employer? Unusual set of facts in this case and a question never posed to me in this fashion previously…
QUESTION
I have been in Hong Kong since 2011 under an employment visa but have recently quit my job.
The last time my visa was renewed it was extended until November 2018 and I understand I still have the privilege to reside in Hong Kong until then even if my employment has ended.
I now have a consultancy agreement with a firm based in Singapore for which I provide services independently.
The fieldwork (which represents 80% of the work) takes place outside of Hong Kong, I only write up my reports from home in Hong Kong.
I have registered a sole proprietorship business to report the consultancy income for tax purposes.
However, I guess I am not supposed to work under the current conditions of my stay.
My questions are:
(1) Could the fact of reporting that income to the tax authorities actually trigger some issues on the immigration side?
(2) If I was to apply for a business investment visa as an entrepreneur and it was rejected, could that trigger the Immigration Department to cancel my current permission of stay until November 2018?
What is in your opinion the best thing to do?
ANSWER
The employment visa that you have presently has been granted to you on the strength that you are permitted to work in Hong Kong for your nominated employer and your nominated employer alone. As you’ve correctly understood, even though you have a valid limit of stay that stretches all the way through to 2018, you’re privileged to work for anybody in Hong Kong other than yourself.
Given that you have established a business – which you’ve done through the establishment of your sole proprietorship, essentially you’ve breached your conditions of stay at that point, and given that you’re spending 80% of your time on field work outside of Hong Kong, engaging in employment activities outside of Hong Kong doesn’t mitigate the fact that you will spend the 20% of the remainder of your time in Hong Kong actually undertaking employment activities for your own sole proprietorship business.
So, clearly, in the circumstances that you find yourself right now, you are breaching your conditions of stay as a result of you not merely residing in Hong Kong but having established a business here. So, clearly you’ve got to think about bringing your circumstances into compliance as soon as you possibly can.
Additionally, the fact that you have established a sole proprietorship certainly could alert the Immigration Department to the fact of you having established that business, as the Immigration Department and Inland Revenue Department are able to exchange information if they so wish; whether that’s an automatic exchange of information or whether it’s done on specific query or not is question that remains open being part of the Security Bureau; clearly I don’t have privileged access to how those government departments work but, nevertheless, my best advice to you is to make an application to adjust your status from sponsored employment through to business investment in your own right. I won’t go into the details of how you go about satisfying the approvability test for that business investment visa, because I’ve dealt with that quite extensively elsewhere on the site.
In terms of the Immigration Department potentially refusing any such business investment visa application as an entrepreneur and then yanking, as it were, the rug from under your feet and then giving you a shorter limit of stay, I suspect that that’s probably not going to happen to you; it doesn’t appear to be the Immigration Department standard practice in those circumstances. If they say no to business investment, it means that they are not satisfied that you can make a substantial contribution to the economy of Hong Kong on the basis of your business plan and the other information that you have put forward. So, if you do get denied, you do have an opportunity to have another go at it on the basis of a reconsideration, and if you get it right the second time, then you are on your way.
So, just to wrap it all up – yes, you are not permitted to actually engage in the activities that you’ve presently configured yourself for, given that you’ve left your employment of your previous sponsor.
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
How important is sponsor-profitability, especially for start up businesses less than 12 months old?
QUESTION
I have been recruited by a newly established company (12 months old as of this week).
They have never hired a foreigner and have tasked me with completing the visa forms, both employee and employer versions.
The Employer-side application requires “proof of financial standing.”
Although registered one year ago, the company has only recently begun making sales, which do not amount to much.
Will the companies lack of profit negatively affect my chances at being approved under this Hong Kong work visa application?
If so, is there anything that can be done to mitigate this?
Thank you in advance for your reply.
ANSWER
Whenever the Immigration Department are asked to ascribe a suitable and credible sponsorship status to a newly established enterprise, the Immigration Department will look at a number of different factors when taking into account a good financial standing of the business. As a newly established company with no history of trading, that will not come as a surprise to the Immigration Department if only just turning revenue now, that’s okay.
They’ll look to see for a set of management accounts – I appreciate you won’t have an audited management account at this point, but certainly up-to-date management accounts that shows the balance sheet and the profit and loss so that the Immigration Department can see what’s going on now, that will be beneficial to the application.
The fact that there are no revenues, as you say, then what does the bank balance look like, and what the extent of the funding available to be used for the business. As long as all of that stacks up, it will not stand in the way of you getting your approval because you’ll satisfy the financial bona fides accordingly.
I hope you found that useful.
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
