Hong Kong Visas Made Easy

Can My Dependant Child Go On To Become A Hong Kong Permanent Resident If I Am Not Married To His Mother?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Family Visas, Long Stay & PR, Your Question Answered / 5 responses

Children born in Hong Kong to a Hong Kong permanent resident have their eligibility for permanent identity cards established at birth. But what if the child is born to a Hong Kong permanent resident not married to its mother and where the child was born outside of Hong Kong?

QUESTION

First, many thanks for your time.

I’m a permanent resident of Hong Kong and my son (now 2 years and 5 months) was born in Malaysia and has a Malaysian passport.

I applied for a dependency visa for him in 2012 and was granted a one-year visa in November of that year. He has spent 8 months in Hong Kong so far.

His mother is not a dependant (indeed I’m still married to another woman) but there is no conflict between us – we want what’s best for the child.

Is it correct to say that if I can get my son on the 3 x 3 dependant visa pattern he will be able in the end to apply for a permanent ID card?

ANSWER

A child of a Hong Kong resident can go on to secure a dependent visa sponsored by that resident on the basis that both parents agree that the child should be resident with one of the others if not both of them in Hong Kong.

So in a traditional family situation, this doesn’t present itself as a problem because both the parents and the child naturally together in Hong Kong. But in a scenario such as this where one parent is a permanent resident of Hong Kong and the other parent is not a resident of Hong Kong, but the couple have mutually decided that their offspring best interest would lie being resident with the permanent resident in Hong Kong.

As we’ve seen from this example, it is possible to secure a dependent visa for the child so that the child can live with its permanently resident parent in the HKR. And so once, they get the dependent visa typically it’s one year granted in the first instance and normally where both parents are in Hong Kong and both parents are permanent residents if the child itself isn’t a permanent resident because it wasn’t born in Hong Kong, then the dependent visa that’s issued goes on a three-year pattern and a three-year pattern, so that altogether in this instance you can anticipate that once the dependent visa has been held for a full seven years, issued for one year and then renewed twice at three years on each occasion, then you get a full seven years continuous residence status endorsed in the child’s passport all throughout this time and on the basis the child has been resident in Hong Kong, been educated and all the rest of that good stuff in that seven years, then you can make an application at the expiry of the second dependent visa period of stay for verification for eligibility for a permanent identity card for the child and at that point, if the child is verified as being eligible for the issuance of a permanent identity card once they become of age to procure one, that’s the 11^th birthday. So you get the juvenile ID card, then, the passport of the child is endorsed to the extent that the eligibility for that permanent identity card has been verified and so a label is placed in the back of the passport and that then dispenses with the need to have a formal dependent visa. And so the child is then allowed to exit and enter Hong Kong and live here unconditionally as though it was a permanent resident at that point in the game.

So once the child gets to eleven years of age and application is made for a juvenile identity card a cheque is made at the time of the application. Consideration as to whether the child has been continuously or nearly resident with his parents in Hong Kong, and as they are juveniles, invariably they have been. And on the basis that has been satisfied then the child will be issued a juvenile permanent identity card and then they are effective permanent residents of Hong Kong.

I hope this helps.

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What Do The Immigration Department Look For When Establishing The Bona Fides Of A Hong Kong Employer As A Suitable AND Credible Sponsor Under The Immigration Arrangements For Non-local Graduates?

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

Can any old entity successfully sponsor an employment visa extension under the Immigration Arrangements for Non-local Graduates? What qualifies a Hong Kong employer as a suitable and credible sponsor?

QUESTION

I am currently in Hong Kong on IANG Visa.

My company would need to help me to sponsor the IANG visa once my limit of stay is within 4 weeks of expiry.

I do understand that the remuneration for the job needs to be at the market level and the job should be commonly taken up by the graduates.

What I would like to know is that is there any minimum standard regarding the size, revenue and/or profit that the company must satisfy in order to sponsor the IANG visa.

In other words is there any minimum standard for the financial standing of the company for it to be eligible to sponsor the IANG Visa?

ANSWER

Essentially what the Immigration Department is looking for from a proposed sponsor of an employment visa granted under the Immigration Arrangements for Non-Local Graduates (IANG) is that the sponsoring entity indeed be a suitable and credible sponsor. Now whilst your question drives to the heart of profitability, in fact the Immigration Department are not so much looking for profitability, although that clearly helps if the business is profitable, but they’re wanting to make sure that it’s a sizable and well established employer, and to that extent what I’ve done is I’ve included in this post a cut and paste of a standard list that the Immigration Department send out in pursuit of every application under the Immigration Arrangements for Non-Local Graduates, so you can get uh an insight into what it is the Immigration Department is really looking for from a proposed sponsor so that it can qualify as a suitable & credible sponsor.

If you can address each of these items in the list to the satisfaction of the Immigration Department then suitability for sponsorship purposes will be established; and note that there is a requirement there in relation to the business plan for the business in the event that the sponsoring entity or the proposed sponsoring entity is less than twelve months old.

This really drives to the heart of the Immigration Department wanting to be sure that friends of IANG applicants are not just cobbling together a quick story for the purposes of contriving a job offer under IANG so that new graduates will be able to carry on their lives in Hong Kong in the wake of having had a twelve-month grace period to get themselves established in the workforce with well established organisations.

So I think the list actually speaks volumes as to what the Immigration Department are looking for. Don’t worry about profitability as such. Just make sure that as you’ve stated the compensation that’s being paid to you is broadly commensurate with market rates locally, and if your employer is able to suitably address the list that’s detailed in the post, the bona fide of being a suitable and credible sponsor will have been established and you can expect that your extension will get approved without too many problems.

I hope you found that useful.

Copy Standard List Requirements Referenced in the PodCast Answer

 

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How Is My Dependant Visa Affected Under The Mainland Talents & Professionals Scheme If My Sponsor Father Goes Back To China To Work?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Family Visas, Long Stay & PR, Special Programmes, Your Question Answered / 4 responses

What happens to a Hong Kong resident dependant visa holder sponsored by a parent holding a visa issued under the Admission of Mainland Talents & Professionals Scheme where the parent is unlikely to remain in Hong Kong – but the dependant wants to stay?

QUESTION

I am currently holding a dependent visa of which my father is the sponsor, under the Admission Scheme for Mainland Talents and Professionals.

 The situation is that:

(A). There is a chance that my father, the sponsor, would not be able to extend his stay since he has to spend more time working in mainland than in Hong Kong (i.e., his visa would expire in 2014 if not successfully extended, which technically means my dependent visa would expire at the same time) (B). However, I myself has an offer to start working at a multinational company this September.

 Given the prime goal of attaining permanent residency for me, I need your expertise and suggestions on the following questions:

1. If there’s a large chance that my father will not be able to claim permanent residency two years from now (when 7 years has been reached since first got HKID), shall I switch to employment visa as soon as I am eligible to do so?

2. I have held dependent visa for 5 years now. After year 7, can I apply for permanent residency independently (given that we have successfully extended our sponsor/dependent visas till then?) Or does my outcome depends on my father’s application/status?

3. If I do switch from a dependent visa to an employment visa, say in September of this year. Will the accumulation of residency start over from the new visa? i.e., Say I work in Hong Kong under employment visa for 2 more years. Does that give me a total of 7 years, or only 2, for the application for permanent residency? 

4. Aside, I understand that 7 years is only a precondition for application of PR. So if I do get 7 years from the scenario above (5 dependent + 2 employment), yet I didn’t stay much in Hong Kong in the 5 years as a dependent. Would that significantly impact my chance of claiming PR?

Thank you very much for answering this long list of questions.  I really appreciate your time and help.

ANSWER

A question that’s got quite a few components to it, but the answer is relatively straightforward, so I don’t think it’s going to take too long to be able to clear things up for you in relation to your ability to remain in Hong Kong on a dependent visa.

If your father’s admission of Mainland Talents and Professional Scheme visa isn’t available for extension, then correct, you’re going to have to leave Hong Kong unless you’ve been able to adjust your status into another type of residence visa; and from the facts that you’ve saved, it would appear that you have potentially a sponsor, ideally a large multinational who will be prepared to sponsor you for employment visa permissions.

In order for you to get those permissions, you will definitely have to pass the approvability test for an employment visa, which is that you’re going to have to possess special skills, knowledge and experience of value to and not readily available in Hong Kong, and also the multinational is going to have to conceptually show that they’re justified in engaging your services rather than those of a local person.

But the reality is that the Immigration Department very rarely second guess the hiring decisions of large multinationals. If your sponsor in this instance is in fact large multinational, it’s a fair assumption that you will be able to successfully adjust your immigration permissions through to an employment visa from a dependent visa if it does transpire that your father’s not in a position to continue to sponsor your visa accordingly.

Now, insofar as part two of your question – yes, once you have had seven years continuous ordinary residence in Hong Kong, and as long as you’ve had back to back residence visas in all of that time, which means time spent as a dependent and indeed time subsequently spent as an employment visa holder cumulatively, those two visa types over the course of the seven years will qualify you for the purposes of a Right Of Abode application; and there is in fact no direct association in relation to your own application for the Right of Abode with that of your father’s, assuming of course, that you’re over 18 when you make your application for permanent residency subsequently, I think that effectively gives you the answer in relation to question three, so I don’t need to discuss that any further.

As regards question four, at the point of making the application for the Right of Abode, you’re going to have to demonstrate to the department that any time that you spent spent away from Hong Kong in the seven years was of a merely temporary nature only as evidenced by what you left behind to return back to at the end of each temporary stay abroad.

Now, assuming that you have maintained your vestiges of your life in Hong Kong throughout all of those seven years, and even if you have spent a bit of time up in China for the purposes of your sort of the normal pattern of your ordinary life, then that type of time spent in China should not derogate from your ability to claim ordinary residence all throughout the time that you suggesting to the department that you have been resident in Hong Kong.

If for all practical purposes, though, you fundamentally upped sticks went back to China and spent maybe a couple of years cumulatively with only one or two months in that time back in Hong Kong, then it’s difficult to argue with the department that you have remained settled in Hong Kong throughout all of this time, because it could be deemed that Hong Kong was really just a jurisdiction of convenience and that your real time from a settlement perspective, was spent up in China, not in Hong Kong. So it will all depend on the nature of the time that you spent in China and the length of that time and what you were doing there. But fundamentally, if you’ve, for all practical purposes, maintain a full life and education and a professional career in Hong Kong, then the Immigration Department would likely conclude that any time spent out of Hong Kong will have been of a merely temporary nature, and so your continuity of ordinary residence should have been maintained accordingly.

I think that really covers all those bases for you, so I hope you find this helpful.

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Can Elderly Parents Come To Live With Their Son Who Only Holds A Hong Kong Employment Visa?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Family Visas, Long Stay & PR, Your Question Answered / 6 responses

If you hold a Hong Kong employment visa, bringing elderly parents to join you in Hong Kong is an area of immigration practice that is fraught with difficulty – as well as uncertainty. Dependant visas are, as a matter of policy, not available for non permanent residents yet it’s a scenario that presents itself all too frequently. This question provides an opportunity to discuss the visa possibilities in this situation.

QUESTION

“Can my husband and I aged 70 and 71 join our, son a banker, whilst he holds a Hong Kong employment visa for approximately 2-4 years ?  We are UK citizens and have pensions. We would live with him and his family there.”

ANSWER

In Hong Kong, dependent visas are only available for spouses and unmarried children under the age of 18. For foreign nationals who are holding residence visas in Hong Kong, for example, if your son has an employment visa that’s classified as a residence visa, consequently, from the fact that I have your question, it would appear that your son is not going to be in a position to sponsor you for dependent visa permission, which is unfortunate.

On the other hand, you could, if you did have a proof of prior cohabitation (you were all living together before your son moved to Hong Kong), you could make an application for a prolonged visit either on exceptional grounds. This would give you a six-month period of stay extendable every six months and would facilitate easy access to Hong Kong and enter and exit from Hong Kong across the borders each time you decide to leave and come back again. This would obviate the difficulties of having to explain yourself to the borders officers and make it a very simple, easy way to join your family in the HKSAR. On that basis, if you were to progress a form visitor application, some would have to sponsor you and in that regard you’d have to assume all responsibility for your financial support, you’d have to show that you had a very good medical insurance policy and the fact you’ve got independent means is all to the good in respect of a prolonged visa visa application. But as I say, the necessary precondition is that you would have to show that you were living together as a family prior to his relocation to Hong Kong. And if that’s not in play, then it would be difficult for you to secure a prolonged visit visa from the department.

That said, you are UK citizens and in any event, you’re going to get 180 days, which is six months each time you present yourself as a visitor at the border.

So, in relation to the practical challenge of being able to be with your son and his family in Hong Kong, it seems to me that for a couple of years at least, if you were to make entries and exits from Hong Kong over those two years, make them on four or five separate occasions, I believe that you’d be able to actually spend the kind of time that you’d like to be spending together with your son and his family, even though it wouldn’t have you in Hong Kong as a resident per se, which would mean that you wouldn’t get a Hong Kong identity card, you wouldn’t be able to have access to the facilities, but in a very practical sense, you would have the opportunity to be together with your family.

So, in these circumstances, the Immigration Department are quite practical – they would see that your son is in Hong Kong, that you have an obvious need to spend time with him. And, I think because given that the Immigration Department deal very much in the area of discretion, you could take all your circumstances down to Immigration Department and effectively show to the Immigration Department what’s going on in your family lives and ask them to help you with the ability to stay in Hong Kong on an extended basis as visitor without actually going through the prolonged visitor visa application as such.

So all things considered, you’re in a very good position in a practical sense, because you are British nationals and you will get 180 days each time that you present yourself at the border. So go in and out, as I’ve said, maybe three or four times over the course of two years, spend 20 months, maybe 23, 24 months on that basis, and then if you find yourself having problems when you re-enter Hong Kong go down to Immigration Department with your son, explain the circumstances that you find yourself in, deliver to the Immigration Department all the information that they need to make a decision as to the bona fide of your circumstances, and I believe that you would be able to spend time together with your family, albeit, without securing a residence visa in the process.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that if your son does end up spending seven years in Hong Kong, all total, and converts his status from a sponsored employment visa through to permanent residency, he will be able to sponsor you and you will be able to come as dependents and be able to take advantage of all the benefits that Hong Kong has to offer for all residents, including access to medical facilities and services.

I hope that helps.

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If I Live And Work In China But Have A Hong Kong Employment Visa Can I Get Dependant Visas For My Family?

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

To live in Hong Kong requires a place to lay your head here each night. What happens to your application for dependant visas for your family if you don’t have anywhere for them to live?

QUESTION

I have held a Hong Kong employment visa for the last 3 years.

 But most of the time I work in Shenzhen, China.

 I am here with my family  but I am thinking about moving them to Hong Kong finally for good education and other reasons etc.

 Now I want to apply dependant visas for them, my wife and two kids .

 But I do not have tenancy lease agreement to show residence proof .

 Please advise!

ANSWER

The very bottom line to this question is that in order to get dependent visas for your family to come and live in Hong Kong you need to be able to show that you can put food on their table and a roof over their head. Now, the fact that you have an employment and an employment visa, that will be sufficient for you to be able to show the immigration point where you can put food on their table, roof over the head is mission critical.

The problem that you’re facing is that because you presently have an employment visa the expectation is that right now you are resident in Hong Kong because usually the Immigration Department will not afford residence visas to people who are actually working in China; because you need visa to work in China, not in Hong Kong.

However, they’re cognizant of the fact that a lot of travelling goes on across the border. So in the main, they typically don’t second guess what the residential arrangements are if you’ve got a good Hong Kong employer and your employment in Hong Kong continues. However, insofar as making an application for a dependent visa goes as an existing resident and certainly having been here for three years at the point of making your application for the dependent visa, you will need to show that you have got accommodation for your family.

So in order to facilitate dependent visa applications, my advice is that you get to Hong Kong, rent a place, and once you’ve got a tenancy agreement, submit your applications for the dependent visas, and I think you’ll find that they will be granted to you without too many problems. But you are going to need to have a tenancy agreement for sure.

Okay, I hope you find this useful.

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What’s The Difference Between Unconditional Stay And Permanent Residence In Hong Kong?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Long Stay & PR, Your Question Answered / 2 responses

When would unconditional stay be an appropriate Hong Kong immigration status as opposed to the right of abode and, in any event, what’s the difference?

QUESTION

We’re considering to apply for a business investment visa, but we don’t really intend to live in Hong Kong in the near future.

If our application gets approved, we’ll get 2-3-3-year-visa, renewable up to 7 years.

My question is since we can’t be resident in Hong Kong during these 7 years, we only can apply Unconditional Stay after 7 years.

But then if one day we decide to really live in Hong Kong, after living in Hong Kong for a period of time (how long is required?) can we change our status applying Hong Kong permanent residence?

What will be the requirements to submit such request?

What are the differences between unconditional stay and permanent residence?

I read unconditional stay visa holder need to come back to Hong Kong once per 12 months period. But other than that, I didn’t find any other info.

I would like to know particularly the differences on income tax filling and social benefit for above two status.

Thanks a lot for your kind advice!

ANSWER

When you secure an employment visa in Hong Kong, you are lawfully employable by the employer which has successfully sponsored an employment visa for you. Once you stop working for that sponsoring employer, insofar as your continuing employment visa permissions go, in essence, all bets are off until you make an application to the Immigration Department to change your sponsorship from your old employer through to the proposed new employer.

In preparing for this application, you need to anticipate that it’s a process that’s very similar to the application that you underwent the first time, insofar as getting the visa approved for the status that you’ve got right now. In the Hong Kong Visa handbook, employment visa section, I’ve set out the documentary requirements that govern these types of applications, whether it’s a new application or in fact it’s a change of sponsorship application.

Now, the way that the process works is that you go to the Immigration Department with your completely assembled bundle, and you file your application to change your sponsorship without at this point, if this is in fact the case, having stopped working for your present employer and during the currency of your new employment visa application, your current employer really shouldn’t be privy to what’s going on because the Immigration Department certainly won’t correspond with your existing employer.

All that will happen is that whilst the Immigration Department are considering your application, which by the way happens on the 5^th floor Residents Section, not the 24^th floor Entry Visa Section, so whilst the Immigration Department are considering your application, they’ll correspond with you directly and they’ll raise any questions or request for information or other requisitions that apply in the context of the application before you.

And um, insofar as the chances of approval go, you need to anticipate that as long as it’s a like for like employment and as long as you are clearly a professional under the General Employment Policy and the new employer is justified in engaging your services as opposed to the services of a local person, then it’s reasonable to assume that your change of sponsorship application will be approved.

Normally the Immigration Department respond positively to such applications. Now, the way it works once you’ve got sort of nine tenths of the way through the application process is that you’ll see that the Immigration Department will call for a document from you that demarcates the date of last employment with your current employer so that they can then when they finalise your approval, set a line between your previous sponsorship and your new sponsorship, they will need a line in the sand, as it were, a date from which the new sponsorship obligations of your new employer will prevail and at the same time, relinquishing your old employer, your past employer, of their continuing sponsorship in relation to you. And it’s when the Immigration Department call for this document that you will get a sense that they’re about to finalise your application positively. And at that stage, what you do is you submit your resignation and give a copy of the resignation documentation that sits between you and your current employer, which in turn will denote what your final date of employment is with that old employer.

And you submit copies of that documentation to the Immigration Department, and they will then, as I say, be able to demarcate the old sponsorship from the new sponsorship and then after you’ve been approved, you should receive a letter from the Immigration Department stating when your new employment arrangements are going to commence from that is your new sponsorship.

Employment visa sponsorship arrangements are going to commence from inviting you down to go and process an extension to your current limit of stay because at the moment you have six months less you have less than six months left on your current limit of stay, in these circumstances, rather than put Immigration Department resources through, on the one hand, a change of sponsorship application, and then a few weeks or months later, because your current limit of stay is going to expire, put the Immigration Department resources through a second application insofar as giving you an extension to your current limited stay.

Usually the Immigration Department, as I say, if you’ve got six months or less remaining on your current limit of stay, they normally endorse your passport at the same time as they give you the new approval, and normally that twelve-months limit starts from the expiry of your current limit of stay, which in this instance would be July.

So, in effect, that’s how that process is handled and that’s how that process is managed. And included on this post are a lot of other resources where I’ve dealt with challenges associated with the change of sponsorship application that you’re looking to accomplish. And again, I refer you back to the Employment Visa Section of the Hong Kong Visa handbook where all the documents that you need – checklist, templates and all the rest of that good stuff that will apply in allowing you to go through that process, you can find them all there. And just to remind you, because you’re an existing resident, you would submit the application and the Residence Section on the 5^th floor of Immigration Tower, not on the 24^th floor, which is the Entry Visa Section which is where applications for the very first time time for the employment visas are considered.

I hope you find this useful.

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How Do Foreign National Children Resident In Hong Kong For 7 Years Go On To Acquire Permanent Residency Here?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Family Visas, Long Stay & PR, Your Question Answered / 1 response

The test for the right of abode for foreign national children resident in Hong Kong for 7 years is the same as for adults but the manifestation of that PR takes a slightly different form…

QUESTION

I’ve heard that our children can independently hold permanent residency once they turn 7.  Is this correct and if so, how do we go about applying for it?

Thanks!

ANSWER

Once a child that was not born in Hong Kong has lived here continuously for a period of not less than seven years, that child goes on to make an application to have his eligibility for a permanent identity card verified, and that exercise involves exactly the same approvability test as is applies to an adult counterpart that’s also seeking to go ahead and secure the right of abode in Hong Kong.

Therefore, usually in the context of children that are naturally resident in Hong Kong with their parents, the evidence that’s submitted in support of that application is that they are together with their parents and that they are in school, and the Immigration Department take proof of schooling typically as being definitive evidence that they have been continuously known as a residence in Hong Kong, and of course they do check to see their whereabouts during that time. So, insofar as the test goes, it is, essentially, the same as it is for adults, when it comes to children; however, the manifestation of the right of abode is reflected not in the issue of a permanent identity card because the child, if it’s under eleven years of age, can’t secure any kind of identity card; effectively, once they get to eleven they get a juvenile ID card, and that, juvenile ID card states that the holder has the right of abode, but prior to that the actuality of having had your verification for eligibility for the right of abode verified, it is reflected in a sticker that’s placed in the back of the passport of the child, and then the child then presents that at the boundaries and at the airport when the child is travelling. And of course the Immigration Department immediately admit the child and the strength of the child having the right of abode. So that’s it, it’s an endorsement and a passport first until the issue of the first ID card whereupon the permanent identity card is formally issued.

The only wrinkle to that is that at the point of issuing the ID card at the age of eleven, there will be a further examination to ensure that the child has remained continuously resident in Hong Kong, throughout the preceding, say in this case, three or four years, if the child had eligibility verified at the age of seven, and if the child has not been continuous and only resident in Hong Kong throughout all of that time or has been absent from Hong Kong for more than three years at a stretch, then the ID card that will be issued will be a right to land ID card and will not be a permanent identity card.

In a nutshell, eligibility can be verified through the placement of the sticker in the passport, but you still need to maintain your connections to Hong Kong under the Basic Law, which means that the child must have been in Hong Kong on at least one occasion during the interim period, over a course of three years, in order to maintain eligibility for the right of abode and the issue of the permanent identity card accordingly. Otherwise, as I’ve stated, the child will be issued with an ID card that grants him the right to land.

I hope you find this useful.

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