Hong Kong Visas Made Easy

Your Hong Kong Visa Application Status Can Be Checked Online…..Yeah Right!

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Family Visas, Investment Visas, Musing, Special Programmes / 104 responses

This article deals with the option for an applicant to check online their visa application status.

If you’ve made an application for a residence visa here, the Hong Kong Immigration Department provide you with a website URL and login credentials so that you can ‘track’ the progress of your case as it travels its way through the visa labyrinth that is the Immigration Tower.

So goes the theory anyway.

In fact, the experience is a lot more sombre than that.

The journey begins with the Official Receipt for your application which arrives via mail between 7-10 days after you have filed your application.

This snail mail communication invites you to go the online application status check page which, once visited, takes you through a couple of  other pages/disclaimer options before you get to the meat and potatoes of the experience.

Then you input your official Reference Number.

Then the date of birth of the applicant.

The Eldorado that awaits you is one of three status updates:

In progress (= wait some more, we’re still working on it).

Approved (= congratulations and welcome to the wonderful world of Hong Kong residency).

Application closed (= your application has been approved and you’ve already collected your visa label OR  you’ve been refused – for one reason or another – but we haven’t got around to informing you yet).

Of course, this is about all you might expect of this process. It is the government after all.

But given that approvals tend to be faxed out the same day they are finalised, the only 2 things you can expect to learn from the system is that ImmD are still working on the file (which you already knew anyway) or that a visa is not coming your way after all (a bit of shock, no doubt – a bit like learning a loved one has died in a ski-ing accident when you turn on the news).

In fact, this post was prompted by an email exchange I had with a visitor to this Blog just last weekend.

Questioner

“I have checked the application status. Previously it showed as “In progress”. Now it is showing as “Application closed”. Can you tell me what does it mean? Please respond to it ASAP.”

Me
It means the case is either cancelled by ImmD due to lack of response on the part of the applicant, or it has been refused. It does not mean it is approved (unless you have already collected your visa label but in that case you wouldn’t be posing this question of course…).

Questioner

“I have applied for a Hong Kong long term business visa but it was refused. Can I reapply for the same as it is very important for me to travel. My company is applying on behalf of me where I am going to be working.”

Me

You need to apply for a Reconsideration. More information here. Good luck in your appeal.

 

This happened on a Saturday so this poor soul had his weekend ruined by the system.

Of course, he was destined to learn the outcome one way or t’other but you can’t but help conclude from the way that the online status check system is designed that the rationale for this ‘service’ is just to keep applicants from calling their Case Officers to find out if there’s any progress on their cases.

In fact, we hardly ever use the online status update service.

It’s barely any use at all and not worth the time it takes to log-in.

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Do I Need To Work For the Same Employer For 7 Years To Get The Right Of Abode In Hong Kong?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Long Stay & PR, Musing / 7 responses

The Right of Abode in Hong Kong is not (solely) based on the length of employment with a single employer. This entitlement is primarily determined by factors such as continuous ordinary residence in Hong Kong for a period of not less than 7 years and other specific eligibility criteria set by the Hong Kong Immigration Department.

First Published July 20, 2012, still relevant today

7 years to get the Right of Abode in Hong Kong without changing employers in that time? To secure permanent residency in the HKSAR, you need to make an application for the Right of Abode. The Right of Abode, once granted, is manifested in the issue to you of a Permanent Hong Kong Identity Card.

So, you make an application for a Permanent Identity Card, once approved get the Right of Abode and in the process become a permanent resident of the HKSAR.

Under the Basic Law, the test for approvability for the Right of Abode is as follows:

(a) You must have been continuously and ordinarily resident in the HKSAR for not less than 7 years.

(b) Any absences outside of Hong Kong in that time must have been of a merely temporary nature (as evidenced by your intent at the time you made each departure and what you left behind to return back to after each temporary period of time spent abroad).

(c) You must have taken concrete steps towards making Hong Kong your only place of permanent residence.

(d) There must be no security objection.

(e) You must have no outstanding taxation liabilities.

Consequently, the answer to the question posed hinges on whether changing employers during the requisite time frame is activity which could be said to be ‘ordinary’ in the context of 7 years continuous residence.

And, of course, the answer is yes.

People change jobs and careers all the time in the ordinary course of their lives in Hong Kong. They also get married, divorced, have children, lose family members, start (and close down) their own businesses and go on to rejoin the workforce.

All of this is deemed ‘ordinary’ for the purposes of the approvability test for a Permanent Identity Card. None of these things impact on permanent residence eligibility.

The real concern, however, is if you:

(1) Spend more than 6 months outside of Hong Kong in any given year whilst holding a residence visa, or

(2) Have a lengthy and significant break in your residence visa status during the 7 years.

Both of these can conspire to defeat your eligibility for the Right of Abode and will require careful planning if you are able to anticipate them in the expectation of becoming a Permanent Resident in due course.

With good, advance planning, neither scenario need inhibit you from eventually securing the Right of Abode once the 7 year residence milestone has been passed.

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How Easy Is It To Secure A Work Visa Issued Under The Immigration Arrangements For Non-Local Graduates On The Basis Of Freelance Employment?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Long Stay & PR, Musing, Special Programmes, Your Question Answered / 1 response

Can you realistically expect to work for yourself if your employment permissions have been granted under the Immigration Arrangements for Non-local Graduates (IANG)?

QUESTION

Hi Stephen, thanks a lot for answering the questions on this website.

I must say that all the information on visageeza.com is of immense value.

I would like to pose a question regarding the Immigration Arrangement for Non-local Graduates (“IANG”) visa renewal.

Currently I am on an IANG visa which has been sponsored by my current employer.

I would like to know that shortly after the IANG visa has been granted (say few days or weeks after the approval), can I change my job or leave my job for whatever reason and start my own freelance consulting?

Is it really something permissible in the eyes of the immigration?

My second question is linked with my first one.

Let’s say if I leave my job and after leaving my job I cross the seven year mark, what impact would this have on my Right of Abode application?

I would really appreciate your help on this matter.

Thanks a lot.

ANSWER

To maintain your immigration status under the Immigration Arrangements for Non-local Graduates (IANG), each time you present yourself for an extension of stay, you need to have a valid employer, and you need to be able to demonstrate to the Immigration Department that you’re being paid a compensation that’s broadly commensurate with market rates and that you are engaged in that work that’s related in some way to your education and background.

Moreover, the sponsoring employer needs to be suitable and credible, all things considered. So, you can essentially get yourself an extension under the Immigration Arrangements for Non-local Graduates (IANG) sponsored by a current employer, and then you could cease working for that current employer and then conceptually you could start to engage in your own freelance activities.

Whether or not the immigration department would deem your freelance activities to be sufficiently suitable at the time that your next IANG application came up for consideration is another matter, again, because the Immigration Department in those circumstances expect you to have established a sizable business, which for all practical purposes means you need to pass the approvability test to show that you can make a substantial contribution to the economy of Hong Kong.

And in that regard, I’d suggest that you read the information on our websites about the business investment visa, because it’s no small challenge to be able to secure ongoing sponsorship in Hong Kong under the basis of your own, in a sense, freelance activities. So that answers the first part of your question, insofar as the second part of your question goes, let’s set the scene.

For example, let’s say that you’ve been here under continuous residence visa permissions for six and a half years, and that your current IANG visa has just recently been extended and you’ve secured a one year limit of stay, which is then going to take you conceptually to a full seven and a half years worth of continuous ordinary residence in Hong Kong, holding back to back residence visas throughout all of this time.

So at the point of seven years, of course you can make your application for the Right of Abode and at that point you have to show that you have been continuously a resident in Hong Kong for those seven years. There is no inquiry as to what you are doing in relation to your existing employment.

The Immigration Department will want to see that you do have a valid period of stay under employment status and they will typically not look for confirmation as to how you are gainfully spending your time under your twelve months of Immigration Arrangements for Non-local Graduates.

Therefore, conceptually it might be that you can get to seven years by having extended your immigration arrangements for Immigration Arrangements for Non-local Graduates visa and then gone off and freelance for a few months before making the Right of Abode application. And because at the time that you get your Right of Abode application approved, all conditions are lifted as to your continuing residence in Hong Kong.

You would then typically not be called to account for any time that you spent under Immigration Arrangements for Non-local Graduates whilst you were freelancing as such. So that’s the upshot of it and I hope you found that useful.

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Hong Kong Right of Abode for Foreign Nationals – When Does the 7 Year Clock Start Ticking?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Long Stay & PR, Your Question Answered / 10 responses

This question comes up quite often so I’m grateful to this questioner for asking it. The answer is straight forward enough, but in my PodCast below, I set out why the reason it is as it is – and why trying to start your Right of Abode application earlier is essentially an exercise in futulity!

QUESTION

“Hi there – just a quick question.

I know that you need to have lived in Hong Kong for a full 7 years before you can become a PR but actually, when does the 7 years officially begin? The reason I ask is that I lived in Hong Kong for 11 months as a visitor before my first employment visa was granted to me but in all of that time I was properly living here, renting a flat, bank account, my own bills etc. so I just need to know when it makes sense for me to apply for my PR.

Thanks for your help and excellent website!”

ANSWER

The answer to this question is relatively straightforward. Effectively, your continuous ordinary residence in Hong Kong for the purposes of a Right of Abode application commences on the date that you arrived in Hong Kong for the first time and activated your first residence visa. It doesn’t start counting any time prior to that, for example, on the day that your visa label was issued to you.

It doesn’t start counting on the date that your application was submitted. And it doesn’t count, when you first arrive, possibly as a visitor prior to making your application for residence visa subsequently. So the answer to this question means that the months that you spent as a visitor will not count.

So you need to start your application on the basis that seven years commenced once your first employment visa was activated. Now, actually, this is really a matter or a question of current Immigration Department practice because the Basic Law doesn’t actually spell out when residence commences. The basic law refers to the concept of settlement that you need to become settled in Hong Kong for the seven years.

And there is an argument that suggests that you can actually be settled prior to getting your first residence visa. But the way the Immigration Department practice this is, they take the view that just through the passage of time, eventually you will be able to arrive at the seven years complete, continuous residence, from the date that your residence visa was first activated in any time prior to that really should be discounted because of the saving.

Just the passage of time will allow you to secure the full seven years. So any applications that are argued on the strength of a settlement commencing at any time prior to the activation of your first residence visa, those arguments fall on stony ground or deaf ears at the immigration line because they know that in order for you to actually promulgate that argument, if they say no, you’re going to have to litigate, you’re going to have to go to court, and the expense of going to court and the time that it takes to actually cover this missing ground is such that through the passage of time, the problem goes away.

So the only way that you could possibly argue that your settlement commenced prior to your first residence visa being activated is to litigate. And nobody does that. So it tends not to be a practical problem for the British department, nor indeed for those people that are really settled here.

And, in due course, the seven full years will have accrued under an activated residence visit, and then you’ll go on to get your current residency accordingly.

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New Graduate Management Trainee Position – Can You Get A Hong Kong Employment Visa?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Your Question Answered / 1 response

The question of foreign national, fresh graduates taking up employment in Hong Kong is a thorny one and much depends on the identity of the employer offering the role and the profile that employer has as an immigration sponsor in Hong Kong.

QUESTION

First of all, thanks a lot for your helpful tips on this website!

My question is regarding to new graduate management trainee position.

How does the HKID consider a position like this? Is it easy or hard to get Hong Kong working visa for a management trainee position in a big company?

Thanks a lot!

ANSWER

Very interesting question this one, because in the normal scheme of events, new graduates from university are precluded from accessing an employment visa in Hong Kong under the General Employment Policy. That is new undergraduates that are coming into the workforce for the first time and don’t bring with them additional skills and working experience from prior employments.

So, insofar as the availability of an employment visa for a graduate management trainee who is a foreign national in nine times out of ten, the answer is no. Unfortunately the General Employment Policy precludes that from happening. Having said that, it very much depends on the employer.

If you have a very sizable employer, Hong Kong publicly listed concern, for example, or a major multinational here that has an extremely good track record of employing locals, the Immigration Department typically in those circumstances tend not to second guess the staffing patterns of those employers.

Given that, as I say, they typically do have a very good local staffing profile, so much will turn on the experience of the employer and what kind of profile they have with the Immigration Department in that respect. The other thing to consider of course is that if you are a graduate from a local university then, effectively this is a non issue because you are able to join the workforce directly as a freshen non-local graduate under the immigration arrangements for non-local graduates where effectively the Immigration department rubber stamp an application to convert from a student visa through to an employment visa without actually needing to nominate an employer at the time of making that adjustment.

So for the first twelve months after graduating from a local university and converting from a student visa effectively you’ve carte blanche to take up employment with any Hong Kong employer, large or small. And at the end of those first twelve months the extension of your first year limited stay goes through with favourable consideration applied on the basis that you can show that you are now gainfully employed in any position with a local employer.

So that’s it, I’m afraid, I can’t say that the door is totally closed on the possibility of you being able to take up a position as a foreign national, fresh graduate as a management trainee with a sizable organisation in Hong Kong. But it will depend, as I’ve said, on the identity of the employer and what kind of profile they have with the Immigration Department as being a sophisticated employer of locals in Hong Kong.

But in real terms I think the question is best directed at your employer, they will know if they’ve had that experience or not.

I hope this helps.

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How Do Brand New Businesses Establish Their Financial Bona Fides To Be Deemed A Suitable And Credible Sponsor For A Hong Kong Employment Visa?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Your Question Answered / 1 response

Your company is brand new – will ImmD buy into your intentions to sponsor a foreign national to be the first employee? 

QUESTION

As a new company I want to hire a manager who has special talent from overseas?

How can I prove our financial capability as a new company?

ANSWER

In a completely new business situation such as we’ve got before us here, the challenge is to show that you can be a suitable and credible sponsor for the foreign national employee visa permissions so that they can start this business for you in Hong Kong. And as a new business situation, you effectively have two challenges in any kind of application like this.

The first is the normal employment visa  aprovability challenge, which is to show that that particular employee that you’re thinking of bringing in from overseas possesses special skills, knowledge and experience of value to are not readily available in Hong Kong. And that in all the circumstances of the case, those skills can’t reasonably expected to be sourced from within the local workforce.

I won’t go into that in any particular detail for the purposes of this question because it would appear on the face of it that you’ve satisfied yourself that um, this m gentleman or lady indeed are approvable in all of themselves for the work that you’re planning for them to do.

The second challenge is, because it’s a new business situation, the immigration department apply elements of the investment visa approvability test to the application. They look at the new enterprise and go on to ask, well, even if this foreign national employee is suitably qualified to do the job that’s proposed this new business, can it be said to be a suitable and credible sponsor?

Because the investment visa approvability test calls for that enterprise to show that it can make a substantial contribution to the economy of Hong Kong. So it’s a hybrid scenario when you’ve got completely new company and where the first employee is going to be a foreign national sponsored employment visa holder.

So you need to anticipate that sort of proving financial capability as such, is just one facet and that can be readily achieved by obviously showing that you’ve got cash in the bank that you’ve got some sort of legal or financial nexus with another credibly or credible and established enterprise or organisation that’s associated with that new enterprise; and more generally, within the context of the argument for approval as a whole, what I mean by this is that if you’ve got a really good story that’s very compelling, that you can support with documentation, that demonstrates that they’ve got a great reason for a new enterprise being established to support the work, that’s going to be undertaken by this particular individual, then that great story together with cash in the bank and an obvious legal or financial nexus with another enterprise.

Will all be taken together in the round, and the Immigration Department will look at it from a holistic perspective to try to grant the approval that you’re looking for, you see? So, the flip side to this is that certain foreign nationals think that you can just simply establish a limited liability company for 10 or HKD12,000, get a registered office address from your company incorporation services agent, give yourself an employment contract and then truck off down to Immigration Tower and expect the Immigration Department to look at this and say: oh, yeah, great, there is an opportunity to self sponsor yourself for immigration permissions.

Well, consequently, in any new business situation, the Immigration Department are going to look to the whole story and then apply facets of the investment visa aprovability test in addition to the employment visa aprovability test, and look at the whole scenario in the round and make the determination as to whether or not that new business situation gives an opportunity for that enterprise to be deemed a suitable and credible sponsor.

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Do I Really Need An Employment Visa If I Get 6 Months’ Visitor Status Upon Arrival & Intend To Work In Hong Kong For A Maximum Of 2 Weeks?

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

Is it ever legal to work in Hong Kong – especially on a short term basis – with a Visitor Status – without the permission of the Director of Immigration?

QUESTION

I am a UK based one person limited company and have been asked by a major financial services company with a business based in Hong Kong to undertake 10 ~ 15 days consulting work there as a one-off exercise.

I will not be setting up business in Hong Kong and will return to the UK at the end of the visit.

Can I do this work under the visitor visa and do I need anything additional such as a work permit?

ANSWER

This happens frequently enough – you’ve been invited to Hong Kong and you need to undertake a piece of work on a short-term basis.

You get enough status when you arrive as a visitor at the airport, but does the visitor visa status that you get actually make you lawfully employable under any conditions in Hong Kong?

When it comes to undertaking any kind of work in Hong Kong the law is very clear, you can’t take up any kind of employment in the HKSAR without first having secured the consent of the director of Immigration. And whether that employment is for a long or short term duration and whether you’re going to get paid here or whether you’re going to get paid overseas or in fact if you even want to get paid it all.

Work in Hong Kong requires the permission of the Immigration Department. So if this works in practice is that you’d make an application four to six weeks before you’re expecting to arrive to do your couple of weeks’ worth of consulting. The Immigration Department receives the papers from you, It should be sponsored by the party that’s bringing in you to Hong Kong and offering you this opportunity to do the consulting work.

There will be documentation required, it will be straightforward exercise. The Immigration Department understand what it is you’re doing and what you’re trying to achieve through this application for a work permit and therefore you’ll get a work visa that will last for the time that you need to be in Hong Kong to do that work.

So, just because it’s a palava to apply and just because you get a visitor visa upon arrival as a British National that’s going to get you six months may make it practical for you not to bother with the visa but that will not make it legal, and my advice is to make the application, get it sponsored by the party that’s bringing you in, four to six weeks before, you should get the application approved without any difficulty and then it will be completely legal.

Don’t be tempted to break the law, it’s not worth it.

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