Hong Kong Visas Made Easy

How To Apply for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong – Without Any Professional Help – Security Objections & Outstanding Taxation Liabilities

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Long Stay & PR, Musing / 3 responses

10 Must Have Resources for A Successful Hong Kong Right of Abode Application

Some foreign national applicants for permanent residency are extremely concerned that certain transgressions of the law during their time in Hong Kong could serve as a barrier to them qualifying for the right of abode here.

Namely, will a criminal conviction in Hong Kong automatically preclude your eligibility for permanent residency in the HKSAR?

Whilst the Immigration Department refuse to discuss any matter relating to security as part of the right of abode consideration exercise and so no specific body of knowledge or experience can serve as a guide in any particular application outcome, the general rule of thumb is that if you have been convicted in Hong Kong of a single offence not entailing imprisonment AND an application for an extension of stay in the wake of that conviction was approved by ImmD subsequently, then it is a fair assumption that such a criminal conviction will not represent any security objection and you can then go on to make Hong Kong your permanent home.

However, ImmD hold all the cards in this regard so it should never be taken as given that such a conviction  will not be held against you.

The Right of Abode is, after all, a question of State when all is said and done.

Moreover, if you have any outstanding taxation liabilities at the point of applying for your PR, arrangements will have to be made to clear these up before you can go on to have your eligibility approved – and this is a hard and fast rule, so best get your taxation arrears all sorted prior to submitting your application.

More In This Series

1. How To Apply for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong – Without Any Professional Help – Introduction

2. How To Apply for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong – Without Any Professional Help – Relax, No Need To Takes Notes!

3. How To Apply for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong – Without Any Professional Help – Order of Business

4. How To Apply for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong – Without Any Professional Help – Must Have Resources

5. How To Apply for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong – Without Any Professional Help – Are You a Foreign National?

6. How to Apply for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong – Without Any Professional Help – The Approvability Test

7.  How to Apply for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong – Without Any Professional Help – Continuous Ordinary Residence

8. How to Apply for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong – Without Any Professional Help – 7 Years? Starting When?

9. How to Apply for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong – Without Any Professional Help – What is “Qualifying Residence”?

10. How to Apply for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong – Without Any Professional Help – Are You Truly Settled in Hong Kong?

11.  How to Apply for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong – Without Any Professional Help – Is Hong Kong Your Only Place of Permanent Residence?

12.  How to Apply for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong – Without Any Professional Help – Security Objections & Outstanding Taxation Liabilities

13.  How to Apply for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong – Without Any Professional Help – Paperwork, Process, Patience

14.  How to Apply for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong – Without Any Professional Help – Losing It!

15.  How to Apply for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong – Without Any Professional Help – Documents Required

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Interview: Is the Hong Kong Immigration Department Website Actually Fit For Purpose?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Family Visas, Investment Visas, Long Stay & PR, Musing, Refusals & Appeals, Special Programmes, Visitor Visas / 16 responses

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.

The students were: Dickens Roy Ken Lam, Sunny Wong, Toby Yip, Margaret Wo and the lady who asked most of the questions and organised the session on behalf of the group, Jacqueline Cheng.

In this segment the question posed was:

How effective is the Hong Kong Immigration Department website in educating and promoting Hong Kong for the outside world as a place to live and work and do business?

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 Mainlanders typically enjoy the same kind of immigration experience as other foreign nationals do in Hong Kong?

In what ways do you think the different entry schemes may affect Hong Kong’s socio-economic development?

Do you think the relatively low number of foreigners coming to live and work in Hong Kong is due to it being hard to get a visa? 

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?

How effective is the Hong Kong Immigration Department website in educating and promoting Hong Kong to the outside world as a place to live and work and do business?

In the last 20 years which visa type has been most in demand and easiest to anticipate an approval for?

Has Hong Kong’s effort to forge a particular social fabric through the constructs of its immigration policy been successful do you think?

In real terms what is the difference between the General Employment Policy and the Admission of Mainland Talents & Professionals Scheme?

Has there been any demographic change since the introduction of the Admission of Mainland Talents and Quality Migrant Admission Schemes?

What do you think about the Immigration Arrangement for Non-local graduates?

Do you think that IANG actually allows a loophole for foreign graduates to game the immigration system here?

Has Hong Kong ever been used as a kind of stepping stone into another immigration jurisdiction?

Do you think the special programmes designed  for Mainland residents are as attractive now as they were when they were first introduced?

Is there a threshold to attaining a visa under the General Employment Policy?

What’s actually involved in getting a Hong Kong investment visa approved?

Can it be said ImmD are sometimes lax in enforcing immigration policy? 

Which visa program would be most beneficial for Hong Kong’s society?

What was it like being an immigration consultant in Hong Kong during the time of SARS?

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?

SSo 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?

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The Visa Geeza on RTHK Radio Three – August 2013

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Investment Visas, Long Stay & PR, Musing / 1 response

 

Phil Whelan was on holiday in Bali  last week when we coordinated my visit to him on his Morning Brew show over at RTHK Radio 3 yesterday.

It was clear that he’d been thinking about a few things visa and immigration related whilst sunning himself by the pool as no sooner had I sat down in the hot seat did he lay into me about a whole barrage of  topics, not least how hard it is for F&B venues to secure employment visas under the General Employment Policy for foreign national staff  in Hong Kong.

You can listen to our discussion here.

Jason Black, celebrity chef (and all round good guy) will talking more about the dire state of Hong Kong visa approvals for foreign national F&B staff on Morning Brew this coming Friday, August 9, 2013  at 10:10 am. 

Even if you’re nowhere near a radio at that time, you can listen in via the web here. This is RTHK’ Radio 3’s live web feed (and Phil is always there from 9~1 every week day).

Definitely worth a listen.

Also, check out the Morning Brew Facebook page. This is an ongoing record of part of the social fabric of Hong Kong. Support it – for posterity’s sake!

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Listen To The Show

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The Anatomy of a Capital Investment Entrant Scheme Pathway to a HKSAR Passport for a Chinese National Resident on the Mainland

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Case Study, Investment Visas, Long Stay & PR / 4 responses

 

 Image: SCMP

Mr Chen, his wife and 8 year old son are from Shanghai.

Mr Chen is a manufacturer of specialist molded rubber components used exclusively in the mobile phone industry and wished to relocate himself to Hong Kong.

For several good reasons.

Hong Kong’s is a convenient local tax haven for rich Chinese nationals resident on the mainland (think Monaco to France, Jersey to the UK).

If a mainlander can secure residency in Hong Kong, as Chinese citizens, they can go on to secure PR and a HKSAR passport – a first class travel documents – after 7 years of continuous ordinary residence here.

By spending no more than 183 days each year in China and choosing to pay themselves in Hong Kong, mainlanders can escape the tax net in China yet still be close enough to their businesses in China for it not to have a major impact on their ability to generate wealth.

So, for Mr Chen and his family to relocate to Hong Kong they need to participate in the Capital Investment Entrant Scheme (“CIES”).

This immigration programme commenced in October 2003 with the objective of allowing well-heeled people to take up residence in Hong Kong without them needing to join in or establish an operating business.

The programme rules are reviewed regularly and at this time the funds required are HKD10 million with qualifying investments now excluding Hong Kong real property.

Mainlanders can participate in the Scheme directly from their homes in China so long as they can demonstrate to the Hong Kong Immigration Department that they have acquired permanent residency in a third country before applying under the CIES programme.

This third country can be anywhere – so Mr Chen chose The Gambia, a small West African country which offers a simple “PR for Cash” scheme with a cash payment and which took just 3 weeks to finalise.

There was no need  for him nor his family to travel to Gambia – all that was required was the completion of a form, two photographs of each family member, copies of their passports and the requisite payment.

Once the Gambia PR was finalized Mr Chen’s application for a CIES visa was prepared.

This involved completing the application form ID967, furnishing a financial referee from Hong Kong CPA, setting out Mr Chen’s net worth, with the form indicating how he intended to invest at least HKD10 million into qualifying investments.

Certain documents were also provided as part of the application, including:

(1) Photographs of all family members affixed to the form.
(2) Copy passport details for Mr Chen and all included family members.
(3) Copy up-to-date CV for Mr Chen.
(4) Photocopy of Mr Chen’s graduation certificates/proof of academic qualifications.
(5) Copies of documents which showed Mr Chen’s prior employment and business record for the past 5 years.
(6) Report of Hong Kong CPA  confirming Mr Chen’s net worth for the last 2 years showing that he had beneficially owned absolutely the HKD10 million he was investing into Hong King under the Capital Investment programme.
(7) A confirmation letter signed by Mr Chen confirming that he would be responsible for meeting his dependant’s financial needs in Hong Kong.
(8) Family photos evidencing Mr Chen and his dependants’ relationship.
(9) Copies of birth (for son) and marriage certificates (for his wife).

The application was submitted to the Hong Kong Immigration Department and a 6 month process commenced en route to approval.

During the application, the normal background checks which the HKID undertake did not reveal any security objection to Mr Chan and his family becoming resident in Hong Kong, and after 6.5 months they issued him with an Approval in Principle.

With this, Mr Chen and his family were granted three month visitor visas to allow them to relocate to Hong Kong to buy a home, find a school for their son and for Mr Chen to complete his investment of HKD10 million which he did with The Bank of China CIES Special Fund.

Once the documents proving the investment with the Bank of China had been been completed (it took 3 weeks), the Hong Kong Immigration Department granted the family a 2 year residence visa and they were issued their Hong Kong Identity Cards.

Every 2 years. Mr Chen and his family received an extension for a further 2 years as they were able to satisfy the portfolio maintenance requirements of the HKD10 million remaining invested in Hong Kong with the Bank of China and Mr Chen entered into a specific Undertaking in respect of continuing beneficial ownership of the HKD 10 million which, if breached, will have lead to loss of status when their most recent current period of stay expired.

As this situation prevailed for a minimum of 7 years and as the whole family were able to show that they had been continuously and ordinarily resident in  Hong Kong throughout all this time (son was educated in Hong Kong, wife stayed at home in Hong Kong to care for their son and Mr Chen himself only visited the Mainland, didn’t full time live there) they went on to qualify for the Right of Abode and secured Hong Kong Permanent Residency (along with a HKSAR Passport)

Throughout this entire exercise, including service fees, Hong Kong Immigration Department fees and Gambia government fees the whole exercise cost Mr Chen less than HKD300,000 in professional immigration related service fee expenses.

More Stuff You May Find Useful or Interesting

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How To Apply for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong – Without Any Professional Help – Is Hong Kong Your Only Place of Permanent Residence?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Long Stay & PR, Musing / 11 responses

10 Must Have Resources for A Successful Hong Kong Right of Abode Application

In determining how to implement the provisions of the Basic Law relating to right of abode for long stay foreign nationals in 1997, ImmD adopted a pragmatic approach to determining if Hong Kong has indeed become your only place of permanent residence.

In completing the preparations for your application to verify your eligibility for a permanent identity card, you are required to make a Declaration on form ROP 146 that you have taken Hong Kong as your only place of permanent residence.

And this Declaration, along with the evidence of your settlement in Hong Kong, is all that is required to demonstrate to the Right of Abode Officer that you have indeed taken Hong Kong as your only place of permanent residence.

This is a neat solution to what could have been a major issue for many foreign nationals who carry the citizenship of one country, yet may have acquired PR in other countries prior to relocating to Hong Kong.

Under the current arrangements, you can in fact hold a legacy PR in another country and still qualify for the right of abode in Hong Kong without needing to expressly divest yourself of that third country PR first.

On the other hand, if you have been running a dual track third country PR strategy in tandem with your Hong Kong residency the fact of your recently acquired PR in a third country (say just prior to making your application for the right of abode in Hong Kong) could work against your Declaration to the effect that you have take Hong Kong as your ONLY place of permanent residency.

So care needs to be taken in respect of your overall immigration objectives to ensure that you do not fall afoul of Hong Kong’s very generous arrangements in satisfying the conditions to verify your eligibility for PR here.

More In This Series

1. How To Apply for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong – Without Any Professional Help – Introduction

2. How To Apply for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong – Without Any Professional Help – Relax, No Need To Takes Notes!

3. How To Apply for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong – Without Any Professional Help – Order of Business

4. How To Apply for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong – Without Any Professional Help – Must Have Resources

5. How To Apply for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong – Without Any Professional Help – Are You a Foreign National?

6. How to Apply for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong – Without Any Professional Help – The Approvability Test

7.  How to Apply for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong – Without Any Professional Help – Continuous Ordinary Residence

8. How to Apply for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong – Without Any Professional Help – 7 Years? Starting When?

9. How to Apply for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong – Without Any Professional Help – What is “Qualifying Residence”?

10. How to Apply for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong – Without Any Professional Help – Are You Truly Settled in Hong Kong?

11.  How to Apply for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong – Without Any Professional Help – Is Hong Kong Your Only Place of Permanent Residence?

12.  How to Apply for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong – Without Any Professional Help – Security Objections & Outstanding Taxation Liabilities

13.  How to Apply for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong – Without Any Professional Help – Paperwork, Process, Patience

14.  How to Apply for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong – Without Any Professional Help – Losing It!

15.  How to Apply for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong – Without Any Professional Help – Documents Required

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INTERVIEW – What was it like being an immigration consultant in Hong Kong at the time of SARS?

Can my dependant child go on to become a Hong Kong permanent resident if I am not married to his mother?

I have sworn an MPF declaration that I am leaving Kong Kong – am I now precluded from applying for the right of abode here?

Can I apply for the right of abode if my employment visa expires on the exact 7 years anniversary of my residence in Hong Kong but I have no job here on that date?

Right of Abode for foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong – it was all so inevitable really

So, What Happens to Fiances Now in Hong Kong – Can They Get Any Kind of Visa Prior to Marriage?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Family Visas, Musing, Visitor Visas / 1 response

Nope.

For Hong Kong visa purposes, fiances may as well not exist.

It used to be that the Immigration Department would routinely grant extensions to visitor visas for up to 2 months for those foreign nationals who were engaged to be married, had booked their ceremony and were one bag of sugar away from icing the wedding cake.

However, with the revamp of how visitor visa extensions are treated down at Immigration Tower these days, all of that has gone out of the window.

So if you plan to marry a Hong Kong resident (holding the nuptials in the HKSAR itself) AND you are a 7, 14 or even a 30 day visa upon arrival national, you may find your time in Hong Kong together with your life partner limited until your dependant visa is eventually issued.

ImmD will not even respond positively to requests for a visitor visa extension in order to allow the non resident spouse to wait out the 6-8 weeks dependant visa processing time – seeing this as “Queue Jumping”, preferring that the applicant be outside of Hong Kong while the family visa application plays itself out.

Sometimes, all is NOT fair in love and war.

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The Remarkable Tale of a Hong Kong Investment Visa Approval – Buying a Restaurant, Maintaining Jobs & Managing Remotely

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Case Study, Investment Visas / 5 responses

On Friday last week, our client Mike Chapin very graciously invited my colleagues and I to have dinner at his restaurant JAR in Central.

He asked us along as his guests to celebrate the approval of his and his wife Natalia’s Hong Kong investment and dependant visa applications a few weeks earlier.

Due to travel and other (family) commitments elsewhere, only half of our Hong Kong based team could make the dinner in the end, but as it happens Amy, Ruby and I were the core ‘three’ on their applications so the celebration was warmly enjoyed as we all had had skin in the game of their hugely justified Hong Kong visa approvals.

Over dinner I asked Mike if he had any objection to me telling his visa application story on this Blog as it’s a shining example of how the Hong Kong Immigration Department view an investment visa application in the context of joining in an existing food and beverage business here.

It also speaks to some gutsy entrepreneurism that has been a privilege to behold.

He kindly agreed for me to parlay his Hong Kong immigration experience – so here we go.

Mike has a long and seasoned background in F&B management in New York, working with and for, at various points in time over the last 17 years, such organisations as TGI Friday’s & Hooters to name just two.

For those of you familiar with the Jagermeister Tap Machine found ubiquituously around Hong Kong, Mike holds the patent for this PT Barnum-esque drinking show, although he’s quick to point out it did not make him fabulously wealthy, as has been the lot of so many inventors down the years.

So then, Mike is well qualified to own and run a restaurant (in the US at least).

But Hong Kong?

No problem Squire.

It turns out that Mike owns an especially large pair of cojones.

Given that he and Natalia are at that stage in their lives where they believe their days should be filled with fun and adventure, they determined it would be a hoot to put at risk a considerable sum of their hard earned retirement funds, shift their lives to absolutely the other side of the world, embrace an economy that they had no prior experience with whatsoever, and buy a business that operates in arguably the most competitive industry that Hong Kong has to offer.

Stuff that Hong Kong entrepreneurs are made of!

The Chapins have always loved Hong Kong having visited a few times previously.

So when the JAR restaurant group (3 properties) found itself struggling to keep itself together in July last year, Mike had a real good look at it to see if it had any legs with his money and experience invested into it.

Mike determined that JAR in Central did, so he bought it (not a distressed sale either, I hasten to add).

The other 2 properties were, on the other hand, subsequently closed by the owner.

In the process, 14 full time and 3 part time local jobs were maintained through the investment of the Chapins’ money.

So, even before he’d had time to think about the immigration implications of his investment decision, he had started down the path to making a substantial contribution to the economy of Hong Kong – which is what the investment visa approvability test calls for – reflected in a 7 digit cash investment in the HKSAR to boot.

JAR is an 88 seat western restaurant specialising in Western/Mediterranean cuisine.

Mike’s overarching mission is to combine menu variety, atmosphere, ambiance, special theme nights and friendly staff to create a sense of ‘place’ in order to reach the goal of overall value for money when having a dining experience.

JAR’s concept is “wonderful food and wine, reasonably priced and knowledgeable service in an outstanding atmosphere”.

You can read Ale Wilkinson’s Dim Sum Diaries 2011 JAR Review here to get a sense of what Mike was buying into.

As Mike places great store in employee involvement and a sense of ownership of the brand, somewhat remarkably, he has pulled off the concept of JAR as a  family business, with his staff being his lovingly adopted sons and daughters.

But right at the outset, he needed to manage and build the business remotely from New York. No mean feat.

JAR fared remarkably well from July to May when residence visas for the Chapins were but a mere twinkle in their eyes and Mike will jump in quickly to tell you how great his staff are and it’s clear that he means it. Could you, after all, imagine running any kind of business from 7,000 miles away, for almost a year  (not least a restaurant?)

After a bit of interim shuttling between NYC and HK, Mike formally instructed us to commence work on their visa applications in November.

We filed in December and had the first request for further and better particulars from ImmD by the end of January.

As Mike had prepared an excellent bundle of documents in response to the Checklist that we had originally crafted at the outset of our instructions, ImmD did not ask for too much more from us when they responded about 5 weeks into the process.

Essentially, all they were looking for was up to date banking information, recently updated business registration documentation and the latest filings with the Registrar of Companies.

There was also a bit of housekeeping needed in relation to a new passport that Mike was in the process of applying for.

Essentially, it appeared that the Immigration Department were reasonably satisfied with the bona fides of the business and the commitment to Hong Kong that the Chapins were demonstrating in their purchase of their restaurant.

To me (at least) it was patently obvious that they were making a substantial contribution to the economy of Hong Kong.

We filed the 2nd submission with ImmD on the 6th of February.

Then nothing more… but the wait.

And the wait…

And the wait.

A couple of calls to the Immigration Officer tasked with the case in March and April were met with the news that their applications were in the queue for final case assessment so, as we always do, we just went back to waiting.

On May 22, we received the fax from ImmD that their visas were approved. We collected their visa labels soon after and sent them to New York poste haste.

On the 26th of June, some 11 months after buying their business, they finally arrived, in Hong Kong – to manage JAR in person!

At the dinner last week, Mike told us about the exceptional service he and Natalia received from the Immigration Department when they went for the Hong Kong ID card appointments too. They were gobsmacked that it took only 20 minutes to complete all the procedures – in and out, wham baam, thank you maam.

Five months for their visas. Less than half an hour for their ID cards!

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