How does time spent living and working in China impact on your eligibility for the right of abode in Hong Kong?
QUESTION OF THE WEEK
I am a Canadian citizen. I worked and lived in Hong Kong from 2005 to 2007 and then was transferred to Shanghai by my employer which is a Hong Kong company.
I live and work in Shanghai now for the last 6 years but keep my Hong Kong employment visa and my Hong Kong ID card.
I have just received a short piece of footage from the organisers Profectional where, in the 3 hour presentation, I give an example of how the Hong Kong Immigration Department were prepared to offer an employment visa to an 18 year old high school graduate who’s only skill in life was to do with eels!
The whole 5 mins is educational but the story begins at 1.45.
Phil and I had a good old chat about how Wanchai’s finest are the toast of immigration agencies worldwide yesterday and also a discussion on how things are tightening up down at Immigration Tower.
Phil’s dulcet tones, great interviewing technique and blend of listen-worthy tunes can be found every day here on his Morning Brew Facebook page which I recommend you check out and Like.
I have been practicing in Hong Kong immigration advisory matters since 1993.
All down those years, I have been asked countless times “is Immigration getting harder?’ and unflinchingly I have answered ‘no’.
It has always been my experience that if you have an approvable case situation in hand, the likelihood of ImmD arriving at the right result is a certainty – you can almost bank on it.
Actually, in this regard, the Immigration Department are still very much on the ball. If your case warrants an approval, you’re going to get it.
But recently, I have seen enough evidence of a general tightening up across the board to make me conclude that certain applicants are now going to have work harder for their approvals.
For example:
1. It appears now that all new business investment visa approvals are subject to Business Review when they come up for extension at the expiry of their first limit of stay.
2.Overstaying visitors – even those who have gone on to secure a residence visa whilst they inadvertently overstayed – are being subjected to formal investigation with a view to prosecution.
3. Investment visa holders who have been subjected to repeat Business Reviews for their marginal businesses are not being granted much leeway in the business review extension exercise the closer they get towards 7 years.
4. Qualified company audit reports can now lead to investment visa refusals or delays in the extension process with increased ongoing scrutiny and business performance oversight.
5. It’s no longer sufficient just to have the capital to undertake your business and a decent business plan for an investment visa approval – ImmD are expecting you to have actually invested / expended some of that capital at the point of finalizing your application.
6. The runway to the creation of local jobs is getting shorter (if you say you are going to create jobs you really need to think about getting started on recruiting prior to application finalisation).
7.Investment visas are now a 6 month process, not 4 months – sure ImmD are busier than ever, but they are also scrutinizing applications much more closely too.
There is plenty of other anecdotal evidence that things are getting harder – this list is by no means exhaustive.
It’s taken me 21 years to conclude this for myself, but I really now do believe its true.
The day after I wrote this piece, I spoke at length about it on RTHK Radio 3. Listen here.
As you may recall, late last year Martyn and I established Video Cha Cha.
This investment on our part is intended to empower us to significantly improve the quality of our video content – thereby further helping to solve your immigration problems, answer your questions and, all things considered, to make our internet proposition that much more compelling for you, the users of our websites.
I undertook the week-long training course with client and all-round good guy Jason Black of Empire Media.
We had a ball – and learned so much.
We were trained by seasoned TV presenters, producers and directors with significant BBC, ITV and Channel 4 experience.
There were 8 in our class in total which took in talk to camera pieces, interviewing, ‘morning-show’ type productions and a full day in London on location practicing everything that we had learned all throughout the week.
On location in London – April 11, 2014
I am just about to head off to Heathrow now for the flight back to Hong Kong.
Some very interesting things are in the pipeline for the rest of this year so stay tuned for Visa Geeza TV!
On June 6th, 2013 I was interviewed by five law students from the Chinese University of Hong Kong about my experiences practicing immigration here over the last 20 years.
We covered a great deal of ground in the 90 minutes we spent together and over the next few weeks I will be posting the interview broken down into 31 different segments, covering almost every Hong Kong related visa and immigration topic there is.
We Have 20,000 Vacancies in the F+B Industry But We Don’t Have People to Fill These Jobs – What Are the Hong Kong Immigration Department Doing About It?
My friends and colleagues over at Astus Services Group very kindly hosted us in their facilities in Central for this interview.
Other Questions Asked During the Session
How has the experience of Hong Kong immigration policy changed over the last 20 years?
Do you personally find Hong Kong an attractive place to live, work and do business?
How has Hong Kong’s attractiveness changed for you over the last 27 years?
Do your clients typically find Hong Kong’s attractiveness today as it was to you 27 years ago?
Do you think that the Immigration Department suitably promote and encourage participation in the various schemes designed to attract foreign national talent to Hong Kong?
We hypothesize that while the influx of non-residents into Hong Kong may benefit the economy in the short-term, the long-term negative impacts outweigh any short-term positives. Do you agree with this statement?
Do you think that there is preferential treatment to non-resident workers?
What do you think is the most difficult challenge facing Hong Kong now, when it comes to competing for foreign talents and workers? (i.e. as compared to the 3 other Asian Tigers)
What’s your view on Hong Kong’s liberal visitor visa arrangements, especially regarding the large numbers of Mainlanders who come here now?
So we have 20,000 vacancies in the F+B industry but we don’t have people to fill these spots – what are ImmD doing about it?
What about the possibility of a graduate management trainee visa for a foreign national applicant?
How well does ImmD respond to the lack of skills in Hong Kong through adjustments to the General Employment Policy from time to time?
Do you think any improvements could be made on the entry schemes? If so, how?
What do you think is the biggest problem in dealing with ImmD as an organisation tasked with the dual role of providing a public service yet serving as the gatekeeper to Hong Kong?
