Hong Kong Visas Made Easy

What Do You Need To Do If There Has Been A Change In The Details Of Your Hong Kong Employment Visa Sponsor But No Change In Your Employer?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in 60 Second Snapshot, Employment Visas / 3 responses

Important Steps to Take When Your Hong Kong Employment Visa Details Change

Sometimes, though not very often, the corporate entity sponsoring an employment visa for a foreign national employee working in Hong Kong, may undergo a reorganisation or a repositioning in relation to its operations here and, consequently, it can be no longer said that the party serving as the sponsor of the original visa permissions, is the party that is actively engaging the services of the employee nor indeed (possibly) even carrying on a business in the HKSAR any longer.

An example of this could be where a foreign company sets up an entirely new commercial operation in Hong Kong and transfers an employee from their overseas business to oversee their market entry activities here.

As part of this exercise, the company will have applied for and secured an employment visa for their inter-company transferee staff and the business is now well and truly off to the races.

However, soon after, the advisors in the home country realize that the manner in which the Hong Kong entity has been established is not advantageous for taxation purposes and seek to reconfigure the international group structure before the business goes too far down the commercial path it is treading.

Consequently, they decide to incorporate a new, alternate Hong Kong entity, owned and configured in a fashion that is different from that disclosed to the Hong Kong Immigration Department at the time that its bona fides as a suitable sponsor for foreign national employment visa permissions was being established when the inter company transferee visa approval was granted to their first staff in Hong Kong.

In this situation, the employee and employer have an obligation to report these material change in circumstances to the Immigration Department and, in the process, undergo what is known as a Technical Change of Sponsorship application.

This requires the employer and the employee reporting the facts of what has gone on corporately, submitting information setting out the details of the change in sponsoring entity and also evidence that, for all practical purposes, the terms and conditions of the sponsored employee’s employment in Hong Kong have not changed at all as a result of this international corporate reconfiguration.

This type of application usually takes 3-4 weeks to finalise and is processed via the Resident’s section on the 5^th floor of Immigration Tower down in Wanchai.

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Work Ended – What Visa Options Do You Have To Stay In Hong Kong For Another 2 Years To Get Your Permanent Residency?

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

This post will provide an overview of the various visa options available, helping you navigate the complexities of visa regulations and ensuring a smooth transition into your next chapter in Hong Kong.

QUESTION

“I have been working in HK since 2007 on a working visa, which expired in August 2012. Is there any legal status that I can apply for, except getting another job in HK or investing HK10m, to extend my past 5 years so that I can apply for a permanent residency in HK in 2 years time?

I travel often to other countries but I have been practically living in HK and renting an apartment since 1997.  I hold a Canadian passport.   Currently I am here as a visitor.”

ANSWER

This is a very interesting question, but it’s also quite involved because it requires the essay of three particular visa categories that may be open for your consideration to assist you get back into residence visa permissions.

The three visa consents that you’re looking at applying under potentially, which don’t include getting an out and out employment visa,  or investing $10 million under the Capital Investment Entrance Scheme visa.

The only other three options are available to you are the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme programme (QMAS), dependent visa, or in fact a business investment visa. Just dealing with these programmes very quickly.

The Quality Migrant Admission Scheme programme could be available to you if you’re particularly well educated or very well accomplished in your particular professional area of expertise.

The dependent visa could be that if you were in a loving, committed relationship with a resident of Hong Kong, and you’re not presently married, obviously, then you could make an application for a dependent visa and that would give you the residence permissions that you’re needing to continue your residence here.

Thirdly, if you are entrepreneurial in spirit and you’ve got a modicum of funds to invest in, you can show that you can make a substantial contribution to the economy of Hong Kong, you could consider an application for a business investment visa.

So those are effectively your options to bring your existing visitor visa into regularisation with a residence visa consent. And then we just need to deal with the issue about the impact that all of this, will have on your subsequent application after you’ve been here for seven years for a permanent residency status, getting a permanent identity card in the process.

The more time you spend as a visitor without taking any steps towards regularising your residence visa, will after the fact, count against you for the continuation of your ordinary residency. However, if you’re able to quickly get a new application into the system and subsequently go on to have that application approved, no matter how long it takes, then that time spent as a visitor should not count against your continuous ordinary residence; and I mention this particularly because the QMAS programme will take so five to seven months to complete. The Business Investment Visa application will take three to four months to complete. And a dependent visa is real, just an administrative exercise, so it only takes three or four weeks for that process to play itself out.

So there is a consideration that you need to bring into play as to what the most realistic way of getting status is available to you and how fast it will be for you to be able to bring your current tourist visa into  residence visa status.

Okay, I hope that helps.

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The Merits Of Applying For A Reconsideration Of A Refused Hong Kong Visa Application

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in 60 Second Snapshot, Refusals & Appeals / 8 responses

In this post, we will explore the advantages of pursuing a reconsideration application, highlighting how a well-prepared case can address the concerns raised by immigration authorities and enhance the likelihood of a favorable outcome.

The saying goes that a lawyer who represents himself in court has a fool for a client.

The same could be said for a refused visa applicant who remains serious about his residence prospects for Hong Kong in the wake of the HKID refusing his application for immigration status here.

Why do I say this?

A Reconsideration application is an appeal and consequently an uphill struggle.

If you were not successful the first time around, you have to ask yourself if you have what it takes to get it right if you have second run at it.

Making a request for Reconsideration is a big step and there is a lot at stake. You can have only one proper go at it so you need to get it right.

Do you have a strong sense of what has gone wrong or are you actually just being driven by the emotion of disappointment?

The application calls for new and previously unsubmitted information which has come to light since the time your refusal was notified to you.

Do you really have this lined up, do you appreciate its strength and do you know how to use it to articulate your augmented story – and actually, is it compelling enough?

Are you too close to this application that you are not being objective? Have you considered, instead, moving past this refusal and going on to progress an alternate application based on revised plans for your life in light of the fact that the HKID are not presently buying into your rationale for you wishing to remain in Hong Kong on the terms enunciated in your refused application?

Have you prepared yourself for another refusal and all that this would entail for you?

It is important to remember that, as a foreign national, especially if you are here as a visitor, you are using the resources of the HKID each time you make an application down at  Immigration Tower.

And with the official fees being as modest as they are, how realistic are you in expecting the HKID to continue to pour resources into your application when they have given full and due consideration to your Original case and found it wanting?

These, and quite few other considerations, are in play in deciding whether to apply for a Reconsideration or not.

So please decide wisely. You only get one good shot. Do you really want to do it yourself?

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What’s The Situation About The Need For Business Premises As Part Of Your Hong Kong Investment Visa Application?

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

The Hong Kong Immigration Department expect that, as part of any application for an investment visa, the entrepreneur will naturally establish a home for his or her business out of which the enterprise will operate.

Whilst it often makes financial sense for a brand new start up enterprise to initially work from the spare bedroom or kitchen at home, this arrangement, unfortunately, will not pass muster with Wanchai’s Finest down in Immigration Tower.

Where, for example, are the new employees going to report to work each day? Not from your home address, that’s for sure, not so long as the Immigration Department have a say in your plans, it won’t.

Instead, investment visas which get approved these days either:

–          Open their own offices right from the very get go, or

–          Establish a virtual office initially, and then grow into fully serviced offices subsequently, or

–          Take a formal agreement to share another party’s office, often with an aligned business or commercial partner

If you take the latter route, however, it is important that the other party has a formal stamped tenancy agreement to prove that the arrangements are genuine.

Oh, and it helps to submit photographs of your office premises as part of your application bundle.

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Is The Hong Kong Immigration Department Website Actually Any Use To Visa Applicants?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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More Info You Might Find Useful

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

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

Why do Hong Kong investment visas get denied?

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

The Visa Dilemma Of An Unmarried Trailing Partner Seeking To Work In Hong Kong

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Visitor Visas, Your Question Answered / 1 response

It’s a common enough problem, where unmarried couples are coming to Hong Kong, one to work, one trailing in the other’s wake. I have covered variations on this scenario previously, but this question is excellent as it gets to the heart of how to manage the inevitable visitor status of the non employed partner through ’til such a time as both parties are able to gain employment visa status.

QUESTION

“I viewed your Hong Kong visa presentation & I was wondering if you could help me with a query?

My partner is travelling over to Hong Kong to work for an airline. As we are not married I will not be a dependent person.

I was told that I would receive a tourist visa for 3 months which could be lengthened by travelling outside HK & re-entering.

I hope to find employment in HK & remain on, on a work visa.

Please advise on:

(1) Should I mention my intention of seeking employment when entering HK or on a visa application?

(2) Your opinion on whether extending the visa based on the desire to find work in HK is possible?”

ANSWER

This is a really interesting question because ostensibly the visa upon arrival privileges that are afforded to more than 180 different nationalities are such that you have to present yourself as a bona fide visitor in order to qualify for admission under these arrangements, and it then begs the question as to what is permitted activity under the visitor visa category.

A practical experience suggests that coming to Hong Kong to look for work is perfectly lawful. Although, if you are to indicate that this is your intention when you’re at the border, the officer may misconstrue what your real motivations are, and may conclude that actually whilst you think that you’re just looking for work he may conclude that you’re going to be engaging in work.

So you increase your risk profile as a bona visitor when you present yourself if you nominate to the examining officer what’s bringing you to Hong Kong at this point in time. So ostensibly, if you’re going to be entering or exiting Hong Kong to spend time with your partner who does have an employment visa, then you just explain that is the purpose of your visit. And I would stay silent as to your intentions to look for and ultimately secure work in Hong Kong and then adjust your status to get an employment visa.

Now, in terms of whether it’s possible to extend your visa based on the desired working in Hong Kong, I’ll just refer you to what I mentioned earlier. If you’re coming as a visitor, don’t expect the Immigration Department to support your desire to extend your stay as a visitor because you’re pursuing the local job market in anticipation of finding a position subsequently that would lead you to make an employment visa application. So keep the two very discreet and very separate.

Having said all that, primarily the vast majority of cases that we do for employment or indeed investment visas are done on what is effectively a change of status application basis where you find yourself in Hong Kong as a visitor and a job often manifests itself, and you then make an application to adjust your status from visitor to employment. And once that process has played itself out, you’ll be granted an employment visa label that you would then have to make an exit from Hong Kong – Macau, Shenzhen, Zhuhai are all fine, relinquishing your visitor visa status as you make the exit.

Then place the employment visa label on a clean page in your passport and turn right around and come straight back into Hong Kong, entering with your visitor visa, and the immigration officer will activate you at the point of entering Hong Kong.

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

The Hong Kong Immigration Department Are Out To Deny, Not Approve, Visa Applications (Aren’t They?)

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What Does It Take To Get A Hong Kong Investment Visa Approved?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in 60 Second Snapshot, Investment Visas / 5 responses

Securing an approval for an investment visa is one of the hardest challenges there is in the realm of Hong Kong immigration practice.

Your mission is to pass the approvability test and demonstrate definitively to the Hong Kong Immigration Department that you can make a substantial contribution to the economy of Hong Kong as a whole.

First and foremost, you need a really good business investment story and the wherewithal to tell it in a compelling way.

A good way to think about how to go about doing this is to make believe that you are trying to persuade a rich, self-made uncle to back your business plan for Hong Kong financially.

If, after you have revealed all of your plans to him, do you believe he would see fit to put his hard earned money up to help you get your business in the HKSAR off the ground?

You might think of this as the smell test for how the Immigration Department will receive your story and so, if it won’t get past your uncle, why do you think it will pass muster with the HKID?

Assuming your story is compelling, you then have to ask yourself if you are going to put in place the three legs of what I have couched as the approvability stool for an investment visa approval.

Namely, are you going to be creating local employment opportunities in the not too distant future?

Are you planning to take on suitable business premises to accommodate your operations right from the get go and have you got real cash to put into the business as, by definition, this visa type calls for an act of investment?

Whether the cash you have available for investment is modest or significant, the HKID will also be expecting to see an array of additional resources which you plan to bring into play in your proposed business for Hong Kong.

This can take in partnerships, confirmed business in hand, exclusive contracts with obviously successful enterprises, bank guarantees, the support of local businesses or commercial personalities, a track record of personal and business success – indeed any other resources which are manifestly going to assist you set the business off on the path to eventual success.

And there are 2 other elements which are found in each and every business investment visa approval which we have been responsible for over the last 20 years.

These are an undying commitment to your enterprise, giving everything that you have to it and also a manifestly entrepreneurial spirit.

Hong Kong has this in droves and is the baseline against which all investment visa applications are considered by the HKID.

If you are less than enthusiastic about the possibility for success in your new business, no matter how well resourced it may be, this will undoubtedly come across in the way you articulate your story and manage your application, so think big, talk big and back up your representations with good paperwork and administer your application in a very timely manner.

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