Hong Kong Visas Made Easy

Startup Grind – Intrepid Entrepreneur Jong Lee Shares His Wisdom On Doing Business in Hong Kong

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Investment Visas, Musing / No responses

My ‘other’ business Video Cha Cha proudly sponsors Startup Grind here in Hong Kong.

Jong Lee is the Managing Director of RGL Holdings Limited and has spent over 15 years building businesses in various roles, ranging from private equity, to venture capital and angel investment, and entrepreneurship. Jong specializes in technology, media, traditional industries, and special purpose real estate. His prior portfolio companies include Nexon, Starbucks Beijing, MTV Japan, Good Morning Securities (Korea), Berghaus Japan and SMIC (China).

In Hong Kong, Jong has led RGL’s founding of Hong Kong Commons, a leading accelerator and co-work platform, Bonham Strand, a bespoke apparel social enterprise reaching out to disenfranchised master tailors, displaced garment workers and youth fighting drug addiction, and Lots Of Buttons, winner of TechInAsia’s Startup Arena 2013 in Singapore.

Jong is a graduate of Columbia Law School where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, recipient of the Parker School Certificate of Achievement in International Law, With Honors and Founding Editor in Chief, Columbia Journal of Asian Law.

As a licensed New York attorney, he practiced as an international private equity and leveraged buy-out attorney on Wall Street with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.

(Intro pinched from YouTube)

***Startup Grind is an event series and website designed to help educate, inspire, and connect local entrepreneurs. Each month we welcome an amazing speaker who shares their story with our community and tells us what worked, what didn’t, and what they’ll do differently next time. It’s an amazing opportunity to learn from the best, network with other members of the startup community, and improve your chances of entrepreneurial success

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Top Secret! If You Really Want to Know How the Hong Kong Visa Centre Business Model Works, Here It Is, All Laid Out!

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Musing / 8 responses

This work of Rand Fishkin of Moz.com is seminal.

Martyn and I knew this stuff back in 1996 when the first version of the Hong Kong Visa Handbook was placed on the internet for free (at a time when HSBC still only had dial-up email accounts.)

We have been developing our websites and service offerings to this model for the last three years now, yet this is the first time I have ever seen anyone else articulate the strategy.

The question is…

If you are a business owner in Hong Kong (and now that you know how it all works) what are YOU going to do about it?

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QOTW: Can You Get PR in Hong Kong if You Have Actually Been Living & Working in China?

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

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.

 Can I apply for permanent residence?

Do I have a case for the 7 year continuous ordinary residence?

 Thank you very much!

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From Eel Farms to Chicken Sexing – All In a Day’s Work for the Hong Kong Visa Geeza!

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Case Study, Employment Visas / 2 responses

Last month I delivered a CPD Course on Business Immigration to Hong Kong.

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.

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Sneak Peek: Footage of Me Practicing My TV Presenter Technique at Pinewood Studios Last Week

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Musing, Visa Geeza TV / No responses

This was a script I wrote for an autocue talk-to-camera piece.

The training at Pinewood was excellent and highly recommended for anyone thinking about telling stories via the internet in a direct and engaging way.

The Visa Geeza on RTHK Radio Three – April 2014

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Family Visas, Investment Visas, Long Stay & PR, Musing, Refusals & Appeals, Special Programmes, Visitor Visas / 2 responses

Back with Mr Whelan at RTHK Radio 3 yesterday…

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.

You can listen to our complete discussion here.

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.

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Can the company you have just left contact immigration & make your visa expire immediately?

Is there such an animal as a ‘flexible working visa’ for Hong Kong?

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Can I use the impending expiry of my Hong Kong work visa as a way to force the early termination of my employment contract?

How can I prove to the Hong Kong Immigration Department my last day of work for my previous employer as part of my change of employment visa sponsorship application?

Does the Hong Kong employment visa change of sponsorship process expressly disclose to my new employer the reason for me leaving my previous job?

 

Listen To The Show

Podcast: Play in new window

The Hong Kong Immigration Department Really Are Getting Tougher Across the Board Now…

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Family Visas, Investment Visas, Long Stay & PR, Musing, Refusals & Appeals, Special Programmes, Visitor Visas / 3 responses

It has taken me 21 years to make this claim…

 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.

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