Hong Kong Visas Made Easy

The Economy at Home is Very Bad – So What Investment Visa Options Exist for You in Hong Kong?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in 60 Second Snapshot, Investment Visas / 11 responses

Hong Kong has a lot to offer dynamic, entrepreneurial people who have a modicum of resources, some prior business experience and the desire to make a name for themselves out in Asia.

Leaving aside the HKD10 million investment-for-residence programme known as the Capital Investment Entrant Scheme, Hong Kong offers the possibility for current overseas business owners, or aspiring investors in new Hong Kong based businesses to secure a residence visa for Hong Kong under the General Employment Policy.

Getting such a Business Investment Visa is a relatively predictable exercise if you can show some or all of the following qualities which you can bring to Hong Kong, benefiting our economy accordingly.

(1) The downsizing of your commercial enterprise in your home country, seeking to transfer the focus of your operations to Hong Kong.

(2) Baby steps transfer of part of your operations away from your own country, establishing, initially, a Representative presence in Hong Kong, prior to eventually shifting the bulk of your commercial operations or decision making here.

(3) Existing turnover in your home country of more than USD1 million p.a. that will essentially be relocated to Hong Kong on the strength of a re-arrangement of your commercial affairs in favour of headquartering in the HKSAR.

(4) The exercise of setting up in Hong Kong will create at least 1-2 local jobs here in the first 12 months, your company will be homed within suitable business premises and you have sufficient capital to run the business assuming no revenues from operations for the first 6-12 months after commencement.

Hong Kong welcomes overseas businesses, large or small, and makes it relatively painless to get started.

With visas for immediate family members readily available, incredible tax advantages, an expatriate community that is dynamic, entrepreneurial and getting on with building success, why struggle on in depressed European, American and Australasian economies when there’s no doubt you’ll be able to make an excellent go of it in Hong Kong.

So, what are you waiting for?

More Stuff to Help You Along

The 10 key reasons why foreigners seek to live and work in Hong Kong

10 ‘must have’ resources for any Hong Kong investment visa application

Is the Hong Kong Capital Investment visa actually fit for purpose?

I have a socially advantageous yet modestly capitalised business plan – can I get an investment visa for Hong Kong?

The anatomy of a ‘slam dunk’ Hong Kong investment visa – taking just 7 weeks to approval

Is the Hong Kong Quality Migrant Admission Scheme Just Too Competitive to Be Realistic?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Hadley Says…, Special Programmes / 9 responses

So, here’s the rub.

You’re assessing your chances for a Quality Migrant Admission Scheme visa and you think you’re on to a solid chance of approval.

You’ve got a good points score, a clean record, connections in Hong Kong and enough funds to live for the first 12 months without needing to find a job.

Home and hosed right?

Wrong.

The problem is you have absolutely no idea who you’re competing against when it comes time to ranking you at the selection stage.

Moreover, you have no idea what the Selection Committee are looking for on any given selection exercise and how you stack up against the competitors in your nominated industry sector.

So your true ability to assess your chances for approval under the QMAS programme are only as good as the clarity available from your Crystal Ball.

Unless, of course, you have a Nobel Prize, have represented your nation in the Olympics or a world famous virtuouso!

More Stuff You Might Fund Useful

How important are employer testimonials in your QMAS application?

Why I hate the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme (& you should too!)

Realistically, what is the minimum number of points for a shot at a QMAS approval?

Hong Kong Visa Handbook templates for a QMAS application

How Important Are Employment Testimonials in a Hong Kong QMAS Visa Application?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Special Programmes, Your Question Answered / 8 responses

The Quality Migrant Admission Scheme is designed to attract ‘top notch’ talents to the HKSAR and, by my reckoning, only about 5% of applicants ever receive a Golden Ticket. Of course if you happen to have a Nobel prize or you are an Olympiad with a medal to your name, the odds of an approval are a lot higher. However, if you’re applying under the General Points Test, your educational accomplishments, professional background and career achievements to date are of vital importance. As is documenting them…

QUESTION

“Hi,

The QMAS visa documentation requires “Copies of testimonials from every employer claimed as relevant to your application.”

– Is it same as experience letters from current and ex-employers?

– If not, is there any particular format of these letters?

– Is it a mandatory document?

Thanks so  much!”

More Stuff You May Find Useful or Interesting

Why I hate the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme (& so should you!)

Realistically, what is the minimum number of points you need for a shot at a QMAS approval?

How to extend your Hong Kong QMAS Visa

Get your 100% free QMAS application D-I-Y Kit here

PODCAST ANSWER

Podcast: Play in new window

Is the Hong Kong Immigration Department Website Actually Any Use to Visa Applicants?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in 60 Second Snapshot, Employment Visas, Family Visas, Investment Visas, Long Stay & PR, Refusals & Appeals, Special Programmes, VG Front Page, Visitor Visas / 2 responses

The Hong Kong Immigration Department website is good for a few things but not very good at all where it counts – namely, indicting to you your chances of success in getting your Hong Kong residence visa application approved.

You see, immigration policy in Hong Kong is governed by highly confidential guidelines which the general public or, indeed, even professional practitioners do not have access to.

And these guiding principles are dynamic and shift to suit the contingencies and needs inherent in Hong Kong’s economic circumstances at any moment in time.

So, it’s a moving feast and, unless you are dealing with immigration applications day-in, day-out, it is almost impossible to glean what the current approach the HKID are taking to in approving certain applications such as those for employment and investment visas.

In this regard, the Immigration Department website is designed to do just 3 things:

1  Firstly, it sets out the policy mantra (what I have couched the approvability tests) for each type of visa application describing the consideration criteria.

2  Secondly, it provides a general list of documents that need to be prepared to pursue your application – but doesn’t explain what they are looking for on these documents and in this respect they are inviting you, as it were, to lift up your skirt and show them everything.

3 Finally, it tells you how to go about initiating your application and sets up your expectations of, potentially, a 4 week case consideration time line to outcome notification.

The HKID website is informative but not especially useful as the the role of the Immigration Department is one of poacher and gamekeeper: their job is to inform and decide, not to advise.

Consequently, the Immigration Department website should not be taken as the definitive guide to application approvability.

The hundreds of people each month who search for ‘case refusal’ ‘application denied’ and ‘visa appeal’ on our Visa Handbook and the Visa Geeza websites is testimony to this fact.

The HKID website only tells you 2/3rds of the story!

More Info You Might Find Useful

How a Hong Kong employment visa application can go completely wrong if you don’t know what you’re doing

Getting a working visa for Hong Kong is just a matter of filling in the forms, isn’t it?

Why do Hong Kong investment visas get denied?

Paying for visa help – the Who’s-Who in the Hong Kong immigration services industry

What’s the Deal About Advertising Your Job Locally Before You Can Apply for an Employment Visa in Hong Kong?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Hadley Says… / 5 responses

The question is often asked if it is absolutely necessary to undertake a local advertising campaign in respect of a job to be offered to a foreign national who needs a visa to take up an employment in Hong Kong.

The answer is, it all depends.

In the case of intercompany transferees, certainly not.

The Hong Kong Immigration Department will typically not second guess the need to try to recruit locally in this situation.

However, in many other cases the spectre of ‘local recruitment first’ looms large.

The general rule of thumb is that the lower the skill set required to do the job, the more likely the Hong Kong Immigration Department will expect a local recruitment exercise to have been completed prior to the foreign national applicant being offered the position.

The same holds true for work that is remunerated at the lower end of the approvability scale (being about HKD200,000 per annum).

For those employers trying to pre-empt this challenge, you need to be aware that undertaking a local recruitment exercise that can be said to be mere window dressing is a 2 pronged barb.

On the one hand, the mere fact you undertake a local recruitment exercise first is tacit admission that the job CAN be done by a local person and the HKID will latch on to this and possibly use it to undermine your argument  for visa approvability.

In this instance they will ask you to submit copies of the CVs received in response to the campaign and then decide for themselves if any of the candidates are suitable – and then refuse the employment visa application on the grounds that the skills CAN be found locally.

So care needs to be taken in considering the ‘local employee first’ aspect of securing an employment visa in Hong Kong.

More Stuff You Might Find Useful

How a Hong Kong employment visa application can go completely wrong if you don’t know what you are doing

10 ‘Must Have’ resources for a successful Hong Kong work visa application

Will a criminal record impact on your ability to get a residence visa for Hong Kong?

Can you have 2 employment visa applications for Hong Kong pending at the same time?

Mike Tyson: Welcome in Hong Kong, New Zealand Say No, Australia Still Deciding

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Musing / 4 responses

Well, it’s hardly news that convicted rapist Mike Tyson made it to Hong Kong last month.

At least now know the impact  a criminal record can have on your application for an employment visa here (maybe).

What is news is that New Zealand yesterday decided they didn’t want to have him grace their shores after all, whilst the Aussies are still making their mind up.

UPDATE: October 10, 2012 – Mr Tyson is granted a visa to undertake his dog & pony show in Australia.

Related Posts

Will he or won’t he? – Mike Tyson – his criminal record and his Hong Kong visa…

The Visa Geeza on RTHK Radio Three

The Hong Kong Immigration Department are out to deny – not approve – visa applications (aren’t they?)

Will a criminal record impact on your application for a Hong Kong residence visa?

Is the Travel Pass as Good as a Hong Kong Employment Visa?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Hadley Says…, Visitor Visas / 10 responses

The Travel Pass is designed for frequent visitors to Hong Kong who have a current, pre-existing employment outside of the HKSAR that is going to continue in the future.

Moreover, The Travel Pass requires that your frequent visits here will be of benefit to Hong Kong.

You also need the support of a local contact who can vouch for your bona fides.

Essentially, then, if you can satisfy these three key elements it is reasonable to expect approval.

Of course, in order to get out of the starting gate, you need to have made three trips to Hong Kong in the 12 months immediately prior to submission of your Travel Pass application and you have to be a citizen of a country that is provided with visa-upon-arrival privileges.

It takes 4-6 weeks to finalise a Travel Pass application and, if successful, your prize is quick and easy clearance through immigration each time you arrive, a 2 month limit of stay granted ‘no questions asked’ and get three years of trouble-free to-ing and fro-ing between Hong Kong and your current country of residence (or any third country for that matter).

But it is NOT a visa to live in Hong Kong and so you cannot transfer your employment here on the strength of  your Travel Pass, cannot get a Hong Kong ID Card, cannot sponsor your family for dependant visas nor employ a foreign domestic helper.

So, for those of you who are looking for pseudo-residence permissions in Hong Kong it’s close, but no cigar!

More Stuff You Might Find Interesting

Hong Kong Travel Pass Used to Keep A Family Together in Hong Kong – Quite Lawfully

I Want to Live in Hong Kong With My Boyfriend – is the Working Holiday Visa a Viable Option?

I Have an Employment Visa  and I Want to Bring My Girlfriend to Hong Kong – Options Please?

Why Applying for a Foreign Domestic Helper Visa for Your Girlfriend is Not a Good Idea