A foreign national became a permanent resident after many years study and work in Hong Kong.
Now he wants to sponsor his parents holding Canadian passports to become a P.R.
In Hong Kong too – any way to do that?
How long will it take for the application?
Thank you.
ANSWER
In Hong Kong there is no facility to automatically secure permanent residency for foreign nationals other than the process of undergoing seven years of continuous ordinary residency in Hong Kong. So notwithstanding the fact that there is a situation where an individual – foreign national, has recently secured permanent residency that in of itself is not going to parlay or translate into opportunities for permanent residency for any other family member automatically, other than for dependent children under the age of 21 who were born in Hong Kong whilst such a person was a temporary resident here.
In any event, in order to secure status to allow dependent parents to be residents in Hong Kong sponsored by a foreign national permanent resident, the only manoeuvre that’s available is to apply for dependent visas for the elderly parents, and elderly in that regard is over 60 years of age.
The application is relatively straightforward, but you need to show that there is dependency on the part of the parents, and that the sponsor can put food on their table and a roof over their head.
Once those dependent visas have been independently secured, those elderly parents will maintain their residency under dependent visa status throughout all of the seven years that follow the issue of the dependent visa in the first place, and at the end of that seven-year period they will be able to independently apply for permanent residency in their own right.
So, to answer your question, no ability for permanent resident foreign nationals to automatically undergo process to get permanent residency for any other supporting family members or accompanying family members, but there does exist a mechanism for elderly parents in this type of scenario to become permanent residents after seven years of holding dependent visas. I hope you found that useful.
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
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.
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
So, how does your prior immigration record in Hong Kong impact on future visa applications? Do the Hong Kong Immigration Department cross-refer previous applications for a visa to current application for a visa?
QUESTION
Hello!
I have a question regarding to my working visa.
Previously I have been working in Hong Kong in the skin care industry as promotion manager. I wanted to change employers and change the industry related to investments and real estate (I have education in business management, but not in Hong Kong).
I submitted an application to the Immigration Department already and have even spoken with the Immigration Officer handling my case together with my employer.
However the Officer had concerns about my past experience. Unfortunately I needed to withdraw my application as I felt it would be refused.
My question is – can I apply for a working visa again with the same company, but re. a different position (one that would suit better to my past experience as I worked in marketing before)?
I know from the company’s HR department that they will open position in marketing for me and if I pass the interview for that role I would be submitting documents to Immigration once again.
Would it be inappropriate in the eyes of the Immigration Department. Or you would suggest to find new employer?
Second question. Will the Immigration Department keep that record if I withdraw my application? Would it affect my further visa applications?
ANSWER
1 – ImmD have ALL your records and cross refer to them frequently.
2 – There is no reason why you cannot apply again for the same company with a different job title.
You still have to prove no local person can do the job, that the compensation is broadly commensurate with market rates and that you are a Professional for the purposes of the General Employment Policy but the fact that you withdraw one application with that employer doesn’t preclude you from making a new application with the same employer for a different job.
Be aware though ImmD might seek to learn in more detail if the new application is a proxy for the old one so you may need to explain in some detail how the 2 jobs are different and the decision process between your employer and yourself as to how you find yourself making such a 2nd application which is unusual but not remarkable.
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
My biggest concern is the ability and feasibility for my girlfriend from Mainland China to be able to join me in Hong Kong.
Please can you advise on possible options.
She only graduated just over a year ago, so a Mainland Talent visa, I assume, is definitely out.
Thanks for your time, much appreciated.
ANSWER
As you have identified already the mission of Mainland Talents and Professionals Scheme which provides an opportunity for mainland graduates who are deemed to be talents or professionals to come to Hong Kong to take up employment on the strength of having received a job offer here from a suitable employer.
This visa programme is not going to be suitable for you in your circumstances because of the fact that your partner is a new graduate. So because of the floodgate mechanism that works in Hong Kong, in a sense to keep down the numbers of mainland residents taking up residence here, realistically, having looked through the options available to you, I would suggest that your best possible chance of being able to carry on your joint lives in Hong Kong is for her to get a student visa, potentially go ahead and participate in a master’s degree programme from a Hong Kong university – and it must be a graduate degree in this respect, or she could take an undergraduate programme as well if she wanted to take another bachelor’s degree on board. However, my advice would be to apply to do a master’s degree and thus get a student visa that would then allow you one year together until she graduates. And then at the end of that one year upon graduation, she could apply for a visa under the immigration arrangements for non-local graduates, which effectively gives her a carte blanche visa to go and work for anybody, no questions asked, for another year, and at the end of that year, as long as she’s got and employment with a suitable and credible sponsor, and the compensation that she’s receiving for the work that she does is broadly commensurate with market rates, then she’ll be able to carry on getting extended in Hong Kong under those arrangements on an indefinite basis through to seven years, as long as she’s in full time employment each time that she makes an application to extend her visa.
So, really cutting to the chase, if you want to carry on your lives in Hong Kong, really the only option you’ve got is a student visa, then immigration arrangements for non-local graduates. I hope you found this useful.
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
Do the Hong Kong Immigration Department expect every foreign national employee of Hong Kong registered companies to have employment visas even if they have never worked (or never will work) in the HKSAR?
QUESTION
Is there any problem with a Hong Kong registered company employing someone currently resident in Malaysia for a role supporting one of our clients offices in Malaysia?
I don’t think a Hong Kong employment visa is required because he won’t work here and in the short term at least he can work in Malaysia on a visitor visa as long as he is employed offshore.
ANSWER
Insofar as employment visa permissions for Hong Kong it’s very straightforward. The law says that any foreign national who intends to take up employment in Hong Kong, paid or unpaid, needs the permission of the director of immigration, which means that you need to have an employment visa for all practical purposes.
If a Hong Kong company on the other hand is planning to deploy staff into another jurisdiction to work in that jurisdiction, then it’s really the law of that jurisdiction that comes into play rather than the law of Hong Kong. If the employee is not going to be taking up employment in Hong Kong, no employment visa is needed, but if he goes to Malaysia and malaysian immigration law demands that he has an employment visa, then clearly he’s going to have to get an employment visa there and comply with the terms of malaysian immigration law. Now, I’m not entirely sure what malaysian law says about these things because it’s not my jurisdiction but I have a sneaking suspicion that they probably would have something to say about foreign national working on their soil without the requisite permission.
So it’s worthwhile really looking into that closely and not take anything for granted as such because there may be implications for the Hong Kong company who’s doing the deployment into Malaysia, and it could end up being that Hong Kong company gets itself in hot water with the malaysian immigration authorities that could come back to haunt you.
So, insofar as Hong Kong goes now, don’t have to worry about it. But I’d urge you to check out carefully the requisite immigration laws in Malaysia to make sure that you’re not inadvertently falling foul of the way that immigration in Malaysia is practised to. Okay, all the very best with this.
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
How important is sponsor-profitability, especially for start up businesses less than 12 months old?
QUESTION
I have been recruited by a newly established company (12 months old as of this week).
They have never hired a foreigner and have tasked me with completing the visa forms, both employee and employer versions.
The Employer-side application requires “proof of financial standing.”
Although registered one year ago, the company has only recently begun making sales, which do not amount to much.
Will the companies lack of profit negatively affect my chances at being approved under this Hong Kong work visa application?
If so, is there anything that can be done to mitigate this?
Thank you in advance for your reply.
ANSWER
Whenever the Immigration Department are asked to ascribe a suitable and credible sponsorship status to a newly established enterprise, the Immigration Department will look at a number of different factors when taking into account a good financial standing of the business. As a newly established company with no history of trading, that will not come as a surprise to the Immigration Department if only just turning revenue now, that’s okay.
They’ll look to see for a set of management accounts – I appreciate you won’t have an audited management account at this point, but certainly up-to-date management accounts that shows the balance sheet and the profit and loss so that the Immigration Department can see what’s going on now, that will be beneficial to the application.
The fact that there are no revenues, as you say, then what does the bank balance look like, and what the extent of the funding available to be used for the business. As long as all of that stacks up, it will not stand in the way of you getting your approval because you’ll satisfy the financial bona fides accordingly.
I hope you found that useful.
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
I Lived In Hong Kong For 11 Years – And Have Been Gone For The Last 7 – Can I Still Get Permanent Residency?
It happens a lot more often than you might imagine. You’d think that the many early years in Hong Kong ought to count towards your right of abodebut all too often disappointment is in the offing…
QUESTION
Thank you very much for this informative website! I hope you’ll be able to answer my question, I’m not sure if it’s a common scenario or not.
I was born in Singapore and I lived in Hong Kong from 1994 – 2005 (11 years) and moved when I was nearly 11 because of my father’s job, and it has now been 13 years since I left to go and live in Thailand.
My mother has a Hong Kong Permanent Identity Card (and was working for an airline there) but I do not. I had a dependant visa endorsed in my passport at the time I left with my parents.
This usually wouldn’t be a problem after leaving Hong Kong, however, there are two education sponsorship programs that I would like to apply for in Hong Kong which require you to have a permanent HKID.
I have gone to the immigration office about three times in the past 7 years as we do go back quite often, and every time we ask an officer, he says “if you are living in Hong Kong, you can apply for permanent residency.”
Is this true?
Seeing as I have already clocked up 11 years in Hong Kong, all I am missing in the application form is the current residency card.
Does this mean that if I go to university in Hong Kong starting August this year, that I could get my residency card, and then with that, apply for my permanent residency?
The way I see it, although I have been away for a considerably long time, but I am coming back, so this would technically be my 11th year total living in Hong Kong (and I have proof of having been there for 7 years ‘ordinarily’ with my school records, etc.)
I hope my question was clear enough and thank you very much in advance!
ANSWER
This is a very interesting question and it does strike a chord with quite a number of people in Hong Kong who find themselves in your situation.
So, I’m grateful to you for having raised the question and hopefully, I can shed some light on the situation and how your present Immigration Service in Hong Kong is affected by your life circumstances.
Your mother is a permanent Hong Kong Identity Card holder and on the basis that you had been born in Hong Kong and your mother had been a permanent Identity Card holder at that time then at the point of your birth your eligibility for a permanent Identity Card would have been established and effectively in the wake of that there could have been a very good opportunity for you to continue to argue now, so many years later that you are a permanent resident of Hong Kong.
However, that’s some theoretical and hypothetical in this situation because you weren’t born in Hong Kong, you were born in Singapore. So consequently, your eligibility for permanent Identity Card wasn’t established at the time of your birth and consequently, it meant that the immigration status that was available to you when you came back to Hong Kong with your mother was that at of a dependant Visa and as you’ve stated in your question you held the dependant Visa all the way through to the age of 11 and then effectively you left Hong Kong.
Now the interesting thing is that after you had been in Hong Kong as a dependant Visa holder just after your seventh, possibly your eighth birthday, you could have (or your parents could have) made an application to have your eligibility for a permanent Identity Card verified at the age of 11 years of age on the strength that you had been ordinarily resident in Hong Kong with your parents for a minimum of seven years and at that point you would have effectively been in the driving seat for a permanent Identity Card.
Subsequently, once you got to the age of eleven years when the Identity Card is issued to you and had that been, if that had occurred in fact, then effectively at the age of eleven you would have had your Identity Card issued to you possibly before you left Hong Kong and then on the basis that you have been back in Hong Kong on at least one occasion every three years thereafter your permanent Identity Card state, your right of abode in fact would have been maintained and effectively the question that you’re asking today would have been answered in the affirmative.
However, unfortunately because you only held a dependant visa for the first eleven years of your life in Hong Kong, at the time that you left with your parents to go off to Thailand effectively you abandoned your continuous ordinary residence at that time and what that means is that when you come back to Hong Kong in the future you’re going to have to get a student visa and the first eleven years of your life in Hong Kong effectively would have been lost.
So, it’s unfortunate, it’s certainly not going to assist you with the sponsorship programs that you’re lining up to make an application for but if it is any kind of consolation effectively what will happen in terms of your life going forward is that you’ll come back to Hong Kong as a student.
One would assume that you’ll spend three years here as a student, you’ll graduate. You’ll be able to join the workforce straight away if you start working for a Hong Kong employer within six months of you having graduated from university because the immigration arrangements for non-local graduates give you those privileges.
So that is, that’s effectively going to take you to three and a half years and one assumes that a three to a four-year working career in Hong Kong we’ll have seen you continuously non-ordinary residence in Hong Kong again for the requisite seven years and then you’ll be able to go on to secure the right of abode as an adult in your own right but unfortunately in light of the facts that we’ve got in your question at the moment, you’re not going to be able to secure the right of abode at this point in time.
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
