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.
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
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 5th floor Residents Section, not the 24th 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 5th floor of Immigration Tower, not on the 24th 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.
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
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.
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
So, you sense there’s an opportunity to augment your salary with some freelance work so how do you go about making an application to join in a side business in Hong Kong?
QUESTION
Dear Visa Geeza,
I have listened to your podcasts regarding sole proprietorship and followed the information given.
Background information – I am currently working as a Business Manager (3+ years) for a Hong Kong based company who holds my working visa.
My employer has agreed that I can work outside of my current company as a sole proprietor / freelance.
I have registered and got my BRC and waiting on forms to open a bank account.
My questions is, what is the best way to approach immigration / who to write to regarding acceptance of my sole proprietorship?
1) My employer to write a letter confirming that they allow me to work outside the company – is there anything you would advise to include / not include?
2) A personal letter from myself outlining my business activates / plan – during work for my current company I have been approached by a number of other businesses and sometimes friends who want certain services for Hong Kong companies.
Do I need to outline in detail or just explain what services I will be offering?
Do I then need to link how this will benefit Hong Kong and potentially create new jobs etc?
Any advice would be great as this will hopefully be the last step and I can start accepting work during my free time and keep immigration happy.
Thanks!
ANSWER
Yes, so as you’ve understood, going about getting the permission of the director of immigration to join in a side business requires you essentially to get the permission of your current employer to confirm that they have no objection to you taking up this side business. And they need to do that in writing.
And, insofar as the inclusions, essentially, so long as the employer, a sponsor, clearly denotes that he has no objection to taking up that side employment, then really that’s the sum of that correspondence part to the Immigration Department. Then in terms of your personal letter from yourself outlining your business activities, yes, essentially what you do is you talk about the work that you do for your current employer, how you have sufficient time, free time, that you could use productively, and you’ve been approached by various parties in Hong Kong to provide those services. Consequently, in anticipation of the Immigration Department approving you to uptake that side business you have established, a sole proprietorship and you are standby ready to begin work on side projects the moment that the director of immigration authorises it in writing.
So, yes, I would essentially set out in your current letter to the Immigration Department the rationale for you wishing to take up that side employment. At this point, I wouldn’t really get into issues about how it’s going to benefit Hong Kong and potentially create new jobs and the like; the expectation of a side business is that it’s something you do on the side, something that supplements and supports the income that you receive from your current employer. And by giving you permission to join in the side business, the Immigration Department are essentially saying, okay, we acknowledge that you have other talents that could be marketable, we don’t particularly want to stand in your way of you being able to exercise those marketable talents for profitable end, just so long as your current employment interests are not compromised by your proposed side business activities – hence the Immigration Department needing the permission of the employer to go forward with an approval for such an application.
So, yes, I wouldn’t harp on too much about how you’re going to create local jobs and add a lot of value to the economy of Hong Kong. Essentially, the side business process anticipates that there is some value creating activity. There’s no need to argue for it as such, and clearly, if you do believe you’re going to create new jobs, then that begs the question as to whether or not that’s a part time side business or whether it’s a full time business. And if it’s a full time business, then clearly you need to stop working for your current employer and make an application for a wholly fledged business investment visa instead.
So, essentially, those are the two things that you need to be thinking about when crafting your letter to support the proposition that you should be allowed to join in your side business.
It’s an application to the 5th floor of immigration tower, addressed to the residence section; you can send it in by mail. There’s no need to show up with your passport to progress this type of application, and the Immigration Department will deal with you via correspondence through to your approval.
I hope you found that useful.
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
Hong Kong work visa to work as a language teacher but no degree?
The challenge of securing a Hong Kong work visa for language teachers is rife with contradictions. This question speak to what might work in the very unusual set of circumstances posed.
QUESTION
“Hi, one of my friends has just recommended you guys to me so I decided to write about my case to see if there is something I can do. First of all, here’s a bit of information on my current situation.
I came to HK approx. 2 years ago to continue my studies. I got into university and studied for 18 months (the student visa was not a problem at all), then for some strong reasons I had to withdraw from university. That was almost six months ago. Then, I went back to my home country and came back. Since then I have been living with my boyfriend in HK and I’ve been trying to get a job. but even that I have got some offers none of the companies have been able to get me a working permit. I’d like to point out that I had to travel outside HK a couple times to renew my tourist visa.
I recently had an offer to teach French at a small learning centre which just opened around 7 months ago. I got plenty of experience teaching but I don’t have a certificate or relevant studies on this matter. Although, I studied a higher diploma and I got a couple of university certificates, one in Computer Studies (2nd year – Hong kong) and also I studied Business management (3rd year – Montreal).
Long story short, I would like to work in HK for some time and then get back to school. What could you recommend me in this case? Do you think there is a chance for me to get the visa permit for this job? The centre does not know the procedures to follow in a case like this. I hope you can help me to get this through.
Thanks!”
ANSWER
This is quite a complex question and it’s not clear on the face of it if you’ve actually graduated from university or not.
Having had a student visa in Hong Kong previously neither helps nor hinders you in your subsequent visa applications. Although if you had graduated from a Hong Kong university, you could have secured easy working permissions under the Immigration Arrangements for Non-Local Graduates (IANG).
And of course, on the basis that you do eventually go back to university in Hong Kong and graduate in the future, securing employment visa permissions for any kind of work that you want to engage in will be really very straightforward. But anyway, back to the challenge at hand, it’s not clear from your question also, if the companies who previously extended job offers to you had tried to secure an employment visa for you, and in actual fact, you were rejected in those applications, which can also have an implication, or whether or not they were actually interested in helping you go through the immigration process.
If you have had previous employment visa applications rejected, then to the extent that the Immigration Department have a record of the things that you have submitted to them previously (on file) the representations and the information that are presently sitting on your file will serve as a backdrop to any future applications that you make, so that’s kind of an important element of where we sit at the moment. If you have submitted applications previously in respect of those job opportunities that came your way. Now, as for the current French language school, if you don’t try, you’ll never know.
I’ve recently come across a case where a non-graduate police officer from the UK, in actual fact, was able to secure an employment visa for her to teach English in a non-governmental organisation in Hong Kong, which came as quite a surprise. But there is some experience in my hands that show that the mere fact that you don’t have a university degree doesn’t automatically preclude you from qualifying as a language teacher in Hong Kong. Although, in fairness, in this particular instance, we were talking about an NGO employer rather than a commercial employer.
So if we piece together your sort of chequered educational background the fact that French is your mother tongue, and the fact that you’ve stated that you’ve got lots of experience teaching, it’s worthwhile giving an application for an employment visa sponsored by this new French school, a try.
You’ll have to make a good argument, possibly tying your prior education in Hong Kong university as some kind of benefit to your Chinese students of French in this instance. And it may also be worthwhile stating to the Immigration Department that this is just a temporary measure, this employment that you going to be taking up as it’s your intention to return to full time education in Hong Kong in due course, and show them proof of this.
And it may be that the Immigration Department will see that this is just an opportunity to tide you over to the time that you can get back into school and on the basis that you can properly document the fact that you have taught French extensively in the past, as you stated in your question, that together with your elements of a tertiary education until now, could see you getting the visa application approved; but as I say, if you don’t try, you’ll never know. And then finally, it’s important to remember that the school itself plays a role in your application. And if they’ve got no experience in the process, they’ll need to work with you really closely during the visa application. And to that end, please show them the video that I’ve linked to. This answer deals specifically with those challenges faced in the hands of your employer.
Okay, I hope this helps. Good luck.
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
However, my employing company is not doing that well and it may shut down or a few of us might be fired this summer.
Unfortunately, if it happens in September or October, it will leave me very little time to find a new job/apply for any academic course to be able to remain resident here under a new employment or student visa.
I am already looking for jobs but it’s not easy to get one currently.
Please let me know your opinion about the best course of action I can take now or in the coming days and what is the usual course of action if someone is fired 15/20 days before end of 7 years, for example.
Thanks again
ANSWER
If you find yourself having been continuously and ordinarily resident in Hong Kong for the requisite seven years to go on to qualify for permanent residency, when you make your application, you need to have a valid residence visa endorsed in your passport on the day that you apply and you need to have a valid residence visa endorsed in your passport on the day that the Immigration Department finalise your application.
So in your circumstances, if you find that you lose your job for whatever reason in the weeks running up to your seven-year anniversary and your present residence visa expires on exactly the seven-year anniversary, you’ve got a couple of options available to you: the first option is that you earnestly try to arrange another residence visa, possibly through an extension to your employment visa because you have secured an alternate job offer and you’re suitably qualified, both professionally and immigration wise to take up that employment and the Immigration Department approve it and that will then carry you over the seven year line with the one year visa you get at that point which will then make you eligible, all things considered to promote an efficient right of abode application.
Alternatively, you could do it via a student visa as well, that’s also an option to you; but as you’ve pointed out, you don’t have a high level of confidence that you’ll be able to create those circumstances, and therefore what’s going to happen if you get to the seven-year anniversary and you’re not in a position to have a new residence visa available to you?
Well, effectively what you do is you make an application 30 days before your seven-year anniversary and ensure that every single piece of paper that the Immigration Department will need to look at your case positively and be ready to approve you so that there’s no need for them to engage in any ongoing correspondence with you to get other documents such that when you make your application and your supporting letter you indicate that you’re no longer employed, that you won’t be in a position to have a residence visa the day after your seven-year anniversary and therefore could the examining officer kindly see fit to finalise and approve your right of abode application on the seven-year anniversary when your current limit of stay expires; that’s one technical way to address the challenge that you’ve got. However, in the final analysis it boils down to the workload of the immigration officer and the disposition of the immigration officer to entering into that kind of arrangement; it’s certainly not guaranteed and effectively means that the immigration officer who is tasked with your application is prepared to organise his or her workload to accommodate you, all things considered.
So that’s, effectively one way that you can go about doing it; and we’ve seen instances on two or three occasions in the past where the right of abode officer has been able to come to the party, as it were. But if you do find yourself not able to finalise your right of abode application on the exact seven-year anniversary, then no matter, as long as you continue to earnestly look to create the circumstances so that you can get a new residence visa in due course during the currency of the transition from your old situation to the new situation that is going on to get a student visa, or continuing to interview for new jobs, and thereby going on to get an employment visa subsequently, any time that you spend in Hong Kong as a visitor, during that process, because that’s the only immigration status that you’ll have available to you, will not, in normal circumstances, break your continuity because the act of trying to create the circumstances for a student visa or new employment visa show your continuing intent to remain settled in Hong Kong. And therefore the Immigration department won’t allow any time as a visitor as long as it’s a reasonably short period of time to break your continuity of your residence. And therefore, subsequently when you do get your new residence visa, you can then make your application for the right of abode and I think your family goes through without too much of an ado.
I hope you found that useful.
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
My visa got approved and with a six month review condition.
I have already rented a part time office. I’m not sure about the hiring employee part.
In my business plan, I said I would hire one employee in the first year.
I feel it’s a rush to hire someone within six months.
However, you warned that immigration is more strict now at Hong Kong investment visa extension review.
Could you please give me some advice regarding hiring employees?
1. Do I have to hire an employee within the six months of business visa approval?
2. Does it have to be a full-time job? Will part-time job be ok?
3. Do I have to hire a Hong Kong permanent resident? Can I hire someone on dependent visa?
4. What if I could not find a person qualified for the job within six months? Can I explain to immigration that I’m trying and hope for a pass?
Thank you again for helping me.
ANSWER
I am very pleased to hear that you did manage to get your investment visa having used the resources of our website. That’s very good news indeed.
Turning to the fact that you only got a six-month limit of stay, effectively what the Immigration Department is saying to you when you get a six-month limit of stay on first approval is that they believe that you were marginal for your approval that prepared to give you the benefit of the doubt. So in this respect, you’ve got a green light to now to implement your business plan and appreciate that your business plan has anticipated that you’re going to achieve certain things in the first twelve months rather than the first six months. However, the fact that you’ve had this six-month limit of stay, is kind of a clear sort of signal to you that the Immigration Department have got expectations of certain kind of commercial activities on your part. Now I appreciate that commercially at the present it may not make much sense for you to be going after full time or part time or dedicated office premises and all the rest of it, but the best way to approach this would be to view the six months that you’ve got as your testing time where you can clearly move the business forward in those six months and you can take the steps that you need to take in implementing your business plan that are defensible at the time of your six month extension renewal exercise. So do bear in mind that the six months that you received is a kind of message to you, that there’s a certain expectation that you will crack on with your business and not seek to be reticent in implementing your plans and that the Immigration Department won’t have an expectation that you can show to them in those six months that you’ll create the new facts on the ground so that they can be persuaded that you are in fact making a substantial contribution to the economy of Hong Kong, which is the aprovability test for investment visa in the first place.
So understanding that’s the kind of the backdrop to this, let me turn my attention now to your specifically questions. Firstly, do you have to hire an employee within six months of business visa approval? Again, my answer to that is no, but you need to be explaining to the Immigration Department why you haven’t recruited in the context of the overall performance of your plan heretofore.
Secondly, does it have to be a full time job or will a part time job be? Again, the Immigration Department are not prescriptive as such. They will look to see how you are moving your business forward. And if it just so happens that for the moment a part time staff is sufficient for your needs to allow you to achieve the early objectives in the first six months, then that is what that is, it doesn’t have to be one or the other.
Number three, do you have to hire a Hong Kong permanent resident or can you hire someone independent visa? Well, the definition of local recruitment for the purposes of immigration in Hong Kong is really being able to create a job for somebody who doesn’t need the permission of the Immigration Department to uptake that employment. So, in this respect, if you’ve got a dependent visa holder who is in a position to do work for you, then that’s fine.
And then finally, what if you can’t find a qualified person for the job within six months? Can you explain to immigration that you’re trying and hope for a pass? Well, again it’s a question of showing to the Immigration Department that you’re earnestly recruiting – submit copies of the advertisements that you’ve put out on social media, jobsDB and the like, and, if you have received CVs, make sure you create a compilation of all of those CVs and explain to the Immigration Department during your extension exercise that you are committed to recruiting such people; and, given the efforts that you’ve made thus far reflected in the CVs that you’ve received, that you will be submitting copies of as part of your extension exercise, you haven’t been able to find the talent that you’re looking for at this point in time so you continue your search. So effectively what you’ve got to do now is persuade the Immigration Department that you’re not sitting on your hands, you’re getting on with your business, you’re implementing your plan as best you possibly can. Show to the Immigration Department at the time that you come up for renewal all of these things and you may very well find yourself with a twelve-month limit of stay; at the end of that exercise if they feel that there’s still work to be done in that respect, they may just extend you for a further six months. But I wouldn’t be concerned that they’re not going to extend you and just anticipate that you’re going to have a job of work ahead of you dealing with the paperwork persuading the Immigration Department that you’re worthy of that approval in the first place.
I hope you found this useful.
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
