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
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
Life in Hong Kong throws up many new opportunities and this question seeks to understand the implications for 7 years continuous residency in respect of an eventual right of abode application where an overall switch over in life plans sees a lady intending to relinquish her employment visa for a student or dependant visa …
QUESTION
I am a Canadian citizen living in HK. I have an employment visa and want to leave my job. My fiancee (Canadian citizen) has an employment visa and we will be married in 10 months.
1. Can I leave my job (my employment visa has been extended until 2014), stay in HK on my employment visa until the wedding, and then transfer my visa to a Dependent visa linked to my husband?
2. Will this 10 month gap of non-employment, (even though I have 2 valid years left on the employment visa) count as a break in the 7 year continuous living requirement for permanent residency? I will remain in HK.
3. Will a dependent visa still count towards permanent residency?
4. Does permanent residency need to come from only one type of visa, or can it come from multiple visas?
5. Is there any benefit to having an employment visa over a dependent visa for permanent residency or privileges as a HK resident?
6. Can I attend a HK based university under the employment visa or must I change the visa to a student visa?
7. Will the time between the date of resignation and the beginning of my student visa (if I choose to do this, possibly 4-6 months) break the continuous living requirement for permanent residency?
ANSWER
I really love it when questions like this are laid out so logically and sequentially because I can just get to the height of the question without worrying too much about the facts to ensure that my advice is as accurate as it can be. So, cracking on number one question, the answer is yes. The moment you stop working for your current employer, your ability to continue to work in Hong Kong ceases at the point of your employment termination, but the privilege to resign continues on.
So, as long as in that time you’re maintaining all the vestiges of settlement in Hong Kong, then for all practical purposes the fact that you are not going to be working whilst you have an employment visa with a limited stay that’s still valid should not break your continuity of residence, specifically or particularly if you’re going to be preparing for nuptials in that time.
So, yes, you can transfer from employment visa to a dependent visa and expect that it’s not going to break the continuity of residence, which effectively answers your second question, as long as, as I said, you can show that all throughout this time you have been continuingly engaged in activities that can be said to suggest that you are settled in Hong Kong, and, as I said, preparing for your nuptials to a Hong Kong resident is certainly good evidence of this. So, yes, you’ll be fine in that regard.
The time spent as a dependent visa holder will definitely count towards permanent residency, so long as you’re going from your employment visa into your dependent visa back to back any state of administrative flux in relation to your change of immigration status should not preclude you from qualifying/having that time qualify under the seven year rule.
In reply to your question four – effectively you need a residence visa, and that residence visa can be reflected in any kind of visa other than visitor or indeed any of the other categories, such as a foreign domestic helper or if you’ve been admitted under the supplementary labour scheme. People admitted under these programmes do not have the privilege of being able to count time spent as a whole holder of that type of visa for the purposes of continuous ordinary residence. So, yeah, going from one employment visa to a dependent visa is not going to be a problem for you.
I think I’ve answered the question five – if there’s any benefit in having employment visa or the dependent visa for permanent residence privileges of Hong Kong resident. No, it doesn’t make any difference. It’s all about the act of settlement.
In reply to your question number 6 – Well, under the employment visa, you’re entitled to join in a part time course of study. If it’s your intention to engage in a full time course of study, then you need to relinquish your employment visa and change to a student visa. So for all practical purposes, in your circumstances, time spent as a student, which would then subsequently adjust to dependent (once you’ve got the marriage to your fiance out of the way) all of that will count as good time for ordinary residence purposes when it comes to your right of abode application.
Subsequently, and finally, the answer to your last question is again no. As long as you can show that you’re engaged in the act of settlement or continuing engagement in the act of settlement throughout all of this time, then it will not break your continuous ordinary residence for the purposes of a right of abode application.
Problems only ever come into play with breaking continuous ordinary residence, if you effectively relinquish your residence visa status and don’t do anything about reinvoking it or reinstating it, I should say within a very quick period of time after it’s expired. But if you’ve got continuous back to back residence visas throughout all of this time, and the ordinary pattern of your life suggests that you have been settled in Hong Kong throughout all of this time and in fact, any absences from Hong Kong during this time have been of a nearly temporary nature, as evidenced by what you leave behind to return back to at the end of your temporary sojourn abroad. And at the time that you make your application for permanent residency, you can show that you’ve got back to back tenancy agreements or you’ve got residential accommodation arrangements in place, for example, such that you bought your own property. And you can show that as long as you can show that you’ve got your tax returns all in good order and that, for all practical purposes, you’ve got an obvious manifest pattern of normal continuous ornament residence in Hong Kong throughout those seven years. The plans as you set them out for me in your list of seven questions suggest that you won’t have any problems at all when it comes time to making your application proponent identity card.
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
Sometimes, the sun and the moon align beautifully on a set of circumstances to allow an unmarried couple to spend time together in Hong Kong when ordinarily visa circumstances conspire against them. Not on this occasion, however!
QUESTION
“Hi there,
I have just recently returned from Hong Kong to Canada where I am a citizen.
My boyfriend lives in Hong kong and I have travelled there 3 times in the past 2 years to see him only as a quick 2 week holiday each time.
Covid is a problem for us now obviously.
We frequently talk about me moving to hong kong to live together.
Obviously if I was to live in Hong Kong I would have to find work and have an income. I guess the reason for me sending you this message is to find out which is the best visa application for me to look into?
I had hoped to maybe stay there for up to 1 year.”
ANSWER
In your situation, it would seem that the working holiday visa would be the ideal solution for you.
The working holiday visa is available to Canadian citizens as well as to a number of other different nationals, and the premise of the working holiday visa is to allow the holder a primary intention to holiday in Hong Kong and it’s available to you if you’re aged between 18 and 30 and that you can show sufficient proof of having – in the case of a Canadian, HKD15,000 in your bank account to fund your proposed stay in Hong Kong.
You also need to show that you have a return air ticket when you arrive and also that you have got medical and comprehensive hospitalisation and liability insurance in your name. On the basis that you can satisfy these requirements, you can get a working holiday visa.
The working holiday visa effectively gives you a twelve-month limit of stay in Hong Kong where you can come to work for up to four employers during your time in Hong Kong, with an absolute maximum of three month stay for each employer.
Making the application is very straightforward: you can download the application form from the website – the requisite link is attached to this post on the blog so that you can know where to go for the information, you submit the application directly to Immigration Tower by post. NB, you must be in Canada at the time that you will file this application and you must be ordinarily resident in Canada at the time. But as you’re a citizen- as stated in your question, I don’t think that’s a problem.
Therefore, on the basis that there’s quota available and you can show that you’ve got the money and that you are applying whilst you’re in Canada and you’re ordinarily resident in Canada, I don’t see any problems as to you moving forward with a successful application for a working holiday visa.
It would certainly appear to be the suitable solution in your circumstances given that you only intend to stay for one year in any event; and certainly in that time, it will then allow you to get some relationships moving with employers and understand how Hong Kong operates from an employment perspective, and assuming that you qualify separately for an employment visa in due course, on the basis you can get yourself a job offer, then reason why you could entertain, subsequently, an application for a full employment visa in your own right, once your working holiday visa term has come to an end.
The right to land in Hong Kong impacts quite a number of people here but does not figure much in the general immigration scheme as it is not a status that you can apply for per se, nor is it an immigration status that you can acquire by descent.
The right to land in Hong Kong is available in certain situations which I discuss in the context of this question which popped into my Inbox first thing this morning (and I have assumed the questioner’s parents are Chinese citizens for the purpose of this question).
QUESTION
“Hi, I was born in Netherlands in 1974, but my parents are from Hong Kong. Will I still be able to apply for the right to land? “
ANSWER
In this discussion, we are focusing on the Right of Abode in Hong Kong rather than just land rights or immigration status. Since 1997, the concept of permanent residency has become important for individuals seeking to secure their Right of Abode in Hong Kong. A Hong Kong permanent resident, who possesses the Right of Abode, enjoys several benefits, including the right to land, freedom from any conditions of stay, protection against deportation, and the assurance of not being removed from Hong Kong. However, it is important to note that if a foreign national loses their Right of Abode, they can still obtain the right to land, provided they initially possessed it. The right to land continues to be relevant for certain British nationals who were resident in Hong Kong before 1997. Over time, most individuals who have lived continuously in Hong Kong for seven years since then have successfully obtained their Right of Abode. It’s significant to understand that your immigration status is often influenced by your family background, specifically your parents’ Right of Abode status at the time of your birth. For those in similar circumstances, I recommend checking the last link on this page for a detailed discussion on how to anticipate the immigration department’s response when applying for the Right of Abode based on your specific situation.
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
The question of permanent residency in Hong Kong is one of the most complex areas of immigration practice and this question is helpful in that it speaks to the situation of ethnically Chinese foreign nationals with Hong Kong parentage.
QUESTION
“I am a mother of three children. I hold a Permanent Hong Kong Identity card as well as a HKSAR passport. My husband is Malaysian and I have lived there for the last 22 years. My eldest child was born in Hong Kong before we moved to Malaysia full time. My two other children (a girl and a boy) were born in Malaysia. A few years ago I was able to secure a Permanent Hong Kong Identity Card for my eldest child and now I would like to do the same for my other 2 children. Can you tell me if they will qualify or not? Thank you!”
Thanks for your question. Can you please provide me with some further information as below:
How old are your 2 other children now?
“Daughter: 19 years old this year”
“Son: 11 years old this year”
What nationality were you when your children were born?
“Malaysia and Hong Kong”
What nationality are you now?
“Malaysia and Hong Kong”
What nationality are your children now?
“Malaysia”
Where do your children live now?
“Malaysia”
Have your children ever lived in Hong Kong before? If so, when and for how long?
“No”
Did they do any schooling here?
“No”
What year did you move back to Hong Kong from Malaysia?
“I am currently living in Malaysia, I’m just here for holiday”
What nationality is your husband?
“Malaysian”
Where does your husband live now?
“Malaysia”
ANSWER
In order to secure permanent Hong Kong identity cards, we must establish that your daughter and son are ‘permanent residents’ of Hong Kong.
A permanent resident of the HKSAR is defined under paragraph 2 of Schedule 1 to the Immigration Ordinance. Here are the relevant sections:
2 … A person who is within one of the following categories is a permanent resident of the HKSAR….
(a) A Chinese citizen born in Hong Kong.
(b) A Chinese citizen who has ordinary resided in Hong Kong for a continuous period of not less than 7 years.
(c) A person of Chinese nationality born outside of Hong Kong to a parent who, at the time of birth of that person, was a Chinese citizen falling within Category (a) or (b).
(d) …
“Chinese citizen” is defined under paragraph 1(1) of the Schedule 1 to the Immigration Ordinance.
“Chinese citizen” means a person of Chinese nationality under the Nationality Law of the PRC as implemented in the HKSAR pursuant to Article 18 of and Annex III to the Basic Law and interpreted in accordance with the Explanations of Some Question by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress Cioncerning the Implementation of the Nationality Law of the PRC (‘CNL’) in the HKSAR adopted at the 19th meeting of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress at the 8th National People’s Congress on 15 May, 1996.
Article 5 of the CNL stipulates that:
“Any person born abroad who parents are Chinese nationals or one of whose parent is a Chinese national shall have Chinese nationality. But a person who parents are both Chinese nationals and have both settled abroad, or one of whose parents is a Chinese national and has settled abroad, and who has acquired foreign nationality at birth shall not have Chinese nationality.”
So, the crucial point in considering whether your daughter and son are permanent residents of Hong Kong for the purposes of getting Permanent Identity Cards is whether they were Chinese nationals at the time of their birth. Whether they are Chinese nationals or not therefore hinges on if you, their mother (who is a Chinese national), were settled abroad at the time of their birth.
From the information you have provided to me it appears that:
1 – You, their mother, are a Chinese national.
2 – At the time of the birth of your daughter and son you were settled abroad in Malaysia.
3 – Consequently, by operation of Chinese nationality law, your daughter and son are not Chinese nationals.
4 – Indeed, they acquired Malaysian nationality at the time of their birth.
5 – Consequently, as your children are not Chinese nationals they cannot be deemed permanent residents of Hong Kong by virtue of their relationship to you.
6 – Meaning, their application for Permanent Hong Kong Identity Cards is unlikely to be successful.
However, you will never know if you do not try.
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
