Hong Kong Visas Made Easy

How Can I Handle My Hong Kong Employment Visa Extension If I Plan To Be On Leave For 8 Weeks Around The Time For Renewal?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Your Question Answered / No responses

This situation occurs quite a lot especially for those employees who were originally summer hires and are on back to back employment contracts matching the validity of their limits of stay.

QUESTION

I am a Canadian currently employed in Hong Kong and have a work visa. If I plan to be absent on leave in the five weeks prior to the expiry of current limit of stay, can I apply to renew my work visa ‘in advance’ of the normal 28 day period?  I intend to return to Hong Kong 3 weeks after my current visa expires and so be gone for a total of 8 weeks on leave. How can I handle my employment visa extension in this situation?

ANSWER

The Hong Kong Immigration Department see this situation quite frequently in actual fact, and so they do have  developed a protocol to allow people such as yourselves who find themselves not really being in Hong Kong and available around about the time that their current visa comes up for renewal.

As you’re holding an employment visa, effectively the solution for you is to make your application probably six weeks before your current limit of stay expires, follow the normal processes which are detailed in the visa extension kit which is included as a link to this blog post, and also in your application bundle, include express representations as to the reason for why you’re making an early application, and also include copies of all the documents that substantiate the reason for you making that early application, so that the Immigration Department can conclude for themselves that they need to effect a positive act of discretion on an out of policy basis to allow your extension application to be processed slightly earlier than the norm, which would then effectively be completed in about five to ten days and giving you sufficient time to finalise these formalities prior to making your trip.

So that when you come back, you’ll have your visa extension fully completed and you won’t have to worry about it anymore. So, yep, it’s perfectly doable. Just submit all the supporting documentation in regard to the reason for the extension. And then you’ll find that the Immigration Department will play ball with.

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A Detailed Business Plan For Your Hong Kong Investment Visa? – Not Really…

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Investment Visas, Musing, VG Front Page / 1 response

I always stifle a chuckle when I read on the websites of professional service providers offering a Hong Kong visa and immigration product that there is a need for a ‘detailed business plan’ in each and every Hong Kong investment visa application.

It’s simply not true.

Certainly, every applicant for an investment visa needs to have a ‘planned business’ but it certainly doesn’t follow that, in order to get an approval, the Hong Kong Immigration Department insist on seeing a formal business plan as such.

This is an important point because so many investment visa applicants that come our way have written up at least a basic document which sets out how they see their business playing out over the first couple of years. This is just good planning.

These raw documents cannot properly be said to be formal business plans (as in a 60 page document with extremely detailed all-scenarios-covered projections, risk factors, use of funds, competitor analyses, IP policies and the like).

Most entrepreneurs starting out for the first time wouldn’t know where to begin in crafting a document like that.

However, this documented material does provide the essential elements of the argument underpinning the investment visa application and is an absolute gold mine of information for an immigration consultant who is skilled at articulating an investment proposition in the context of current Hong Kong immigration policy.

When called for by non-specialist immigration practitioners, a formal business plan just puts an added documentation burden on the client and relieves the service provider of the need to properly argue the case.

Don’t let them get away with it!

You pay good money to consultants like me to get your investment visa approved so make us earn our keep. Most definitely have your plans, intentions and money flows written down, but the HKID no more want to read a 60 page business plan in support of your application, than you want to write one.

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Your Hong Kong Employment Visa – What Happens When You Lose Your Job?

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

If you have an employment visa and have stopped working for your sponsoring employer, no matter what the reason, you will not have to leave Hong Kong straight away.

The HKID provide you with enough time to make arrangements to find an alternate employer or, if you prefer, to lay the groundwork to start your own business.

Ninety-nine per cent of the time, the Hong Kong Immigration Department will allow you to carry on living in Hong Kong until your current visa expires but you’re expected to leave at that time.

But if you find another employer or have made ready to start your own business you can apply for new visa permissions to continue living and working in Hong Kong – and get a 12 months extension to your present period of stay in the process.

But in either case you have to make the applications and get the Hong Kong ID’s approval before you start working – otherwise you’ll be breaking the law.

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What’s The Minimum Capital Required For A Hong Kong Business Investment Visa?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Hadley Says…, Investment Visas / 7 responses

The Business Investment Visa in Hong Kong is different from the Capital Investment Entrant Scheme.

The former requires an applicant to establish or join in a Hong Kong business actively, while the latter is just a matter of passively investing in the HKSAR.

The Capital Investment Entrant Scheme requires at least ten million Hong Kong dollars while the Business Investment Visa does not require any such minimum.

Instead, you need to have sufficient capital to give effect to a business plan which  will demonstrate to the Hong Kong Immigration Department that you can make a substantial contribution to the economy of Hong Kong.

Of course, this is like asking how long is a piece of string.

So, instead of focusing on a specific minimum number, it is better to produce a set of financial projections that show the following:

1          You can finance the first 12 months of your business and life in Hong Kong using your investment funds through until such a time as you have revenues, then profits, coming into your company.

2         You can create at least 1 or 2 local jobs in the first 12 to 18 months of operation – and have the money to fund your business through to this time – and beyond.

3         You have sufficient capital to give effect to your overall business plan such that it stands a reasonable chance of becoming a solidly entrenched commercial entity in its own right before too long.

So it all depends on your business plan, your prior experience and the overall story.

Business investment visas can be approved with cash in the bank at just 300,000 or 400,000 Hong Kong dollars if your story is a good one but be aware, bottom scraping should be avoided at all costs if you want to sleep well at night whilst the Immigration department are considering your application!

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Do I Automatically Qualify For A Hong Kong Dependant Visa If My Partner Has A Work Or Investment Visa Here?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Family Visas, Hadley Says… / 12 responses

The rule for dependant visas in Hong Kong is very simple and easy to understand.

In order to qualify, the family members must be either the legal spouse or unmarried children under the age of 18.

Where the principal applicant is moving to Hong Kong for work or investment, the family members simply follow in his or her wake, securing dependant visas as an adjunct to the main application, just so long as the main applicant can, as part of the application process, demonstrate that, as a family, they can all have a roof over their head in Hong Kong and will have food on the table without recourse to any kind of public assistance.

All pretty logical and sensible really.

Moreover, once the visas have been granted, the period of stay the dependants receive mirrors that of their main family sponsor exactly all throughout their time together in Hong Kong.

This means that, for example, if the principal changes jobs or immigration status, the family’s dependant visas will carry on unaffected unless the Immigration Department specifically intervene and change their limits of stay.

But it is very unlikely they will change any of the conditions though, so you don’t have to worry too much about that.

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Is It Possible For An SME To Sponsor An Employment Visa For A Foreign National Employee In Hong Kong?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Hadley Says… / 2 responses

Even if your business is relatively small, it is not totally impossible for you to serve as an immigration sponsor for a foreign national staff who you might wish to take up employment for you here in the HKSAR.

In these circumstances, not only must the visa applicant him or herself pass the approvability test of possessing special skills knowledge or experience of value to and not readily available in Hong Kong…

But your business must also demonstrate that you are justified in engaging the services of this applicant and you might also have to show that the skills involved can not readily be found within the local workforce.

Additionally, as this will be the first time your company has sought to sponsor such a foreigner to work for you in Hong Kong, the Immigration Department will expressly drill down on and request you to provide information on such things as:

–          Your financial turnover and profitability.

–          The local employees who work for you, their job titles and what they get paid.

–          Who your clients are and what your business is really all about, and

–          Your office accommodation arrangements

Moreover, if your company is less than 2 years old, the Hong Kong ID will also require specific information and representations to prove to them that your business will be able to, in not yet in fact, make a substantial contribution to the economy of Hong Kong.

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How Hard Is It To Transfer From A Hong Kong Working Holiday Visa To A Full Employment Visa?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Your Question Answered / No responses

You know how it is… you arrive in Hong Kong for a year of fun and adventure and then you want to stay… This article deals with the transfer from a Hong Kong Working Holiday Visa to a full Employment Visa.

QUESTION

Hi there!

I’m an Australian citizen in Hong Kong, working under a working holiday visa which only permits me to work 3 months per employer.

Is the only way around this to be sponsored by my employer or can I transfer to another visa?

I presume it’s quite expensive and tricky to be sponsored for an employment visa by a company – is that true?

Thanks in advance for your help! 

ANSWER

The working holiday visa is an excellent form of immigration status for people who are under 30 years of age who want to come to Hong Kong and experience Hong Kong for an extended holiday and embark on a little bit of a cultural exchange. However, there are conditions that accompany a working holiday visa depending on your nationality; and in this instance we’re talking about an Australian citizen. An australian citizen is allowed to be in Hong Kong for twelve months to work, but can’t work for any single employer for more than three months at a stretch. So in effect, what happens in the case of a working holiday visa holder who finds himself in a position that both him and his employer wants to regularise and make into a full time, in a sense, a permanent employment, then it is possible to make an application to adjust your status from working holiday visa through to employment.

But bear in mind that the Immigration Department will still apply the approvability test for the employment visa to deem you a professional for the purposes of the General Employment Policy. And that will mean that you will need to show in the context of the job offer that you have got for full-time employment that you possess special skills, knowledge and experience of value to are not readily available in Hong Kong.

Now I’ve dealt with the approvability test for the employment visa under the general employment policy ad nauseam elsewhere on the blog, so I don’t propose that we labour it on this occasion, but the procedure is very straightforward – you can be in Hong Kong possessing a working holiday visa, and you can make your application to adjust your status whilst you’re here and whilst you’re still carrying on providing your employment services under the working holiday visa.

In terms of the expense, well that’s a question of whether you pay for professional assistance to help you through that process or whether your employer has got the necessary resources internally to be able to complete that application on your behalf.

Or indeed, you’ve got all the resources available to you on the Hong Kong Visa handbook and indeed on this blog with me answering questions like this for you so that it doesn’t necessarily have to be an expensive exercise. You can certainly navigate the labyrinth which is the Immigration Department for very little or indeed no cost at all. So that shouldn’t put you off.

In a nutshell, the key thing to understand is that the working holiday visa isn’t designed to be a gateway visa through to full employment; the conditions that you got your working holiday visa under are quite strict. They tell you clearly in advance this is for short term educational and cultural exchange. If it just so happens that you find a really good opportunity whilst you’re here and both you and your employer wish to go through the process of regularising their employment, you can certainly make the application. But understand that the approvability test for the employment vision of the general employment policy is going to dictate whether you ultimately get approved or not.

Okay. I hope you found this useful.

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