What Chance A Published Author Under The Quality Migrant Admission Scheme?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Special Programmes, Your Question Answered / No responses

What Chance Does A Published Author Have Under The Quality Migrant Admission Scheme?

Black boxes and taxes – an unheady mix!

QUESTION

Hi Stephen,

A friend of mine is looking into the idea of residing in Hong Kong. He’s a soon to be traditionally published book author in the United States, and he’s based in another country.

Well, assuming his work becomes a financial hit and reasonably well known in first world countries (not on the scale of Rowling, but I think you get what I mean), do you think he’ll find higher success with the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme?

What other visa options can he consider if you think the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme is still going to be like a lottery draw?

And assuming he does get to stay in Hong Kong, since his royalties will be coming from a US based company that already deducts their share and US withholding tax, does he need to open up a company there to receive his funds, or can he just open up a Hong Kong bank account and start depositing his cheques there without having to worry about Hong Kong’s Inland Revenue Department swooping down on him?

(I take it they won’t need to since the funds are foreign-sourced, but is this really the case or am I missing something here?)

Thanks again for your time!

ANSWER

Like anything to do with the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme, in the final analysis, your guess is as good as mine as to the chances of approvability for any particular skill set or any particular candidate.

Given the circumstances surrounding the professional career of your friend, it seems to me that if he’s going to make an application to the QMAS then it’s going to be under the hundred and sixty-five point slam-dunk achievements test, rather than the general test.

So that would require the candidate to have a significant amount of peer recognition for his accomplishments. That would suggest that if he’s had one good book then it may not be sufficient. There could be a requirement to have a track record of publishing and also I suspect depends on the on the nature of his writing. So as I say that’s just me surmising, there is the possibility an application of the achievements tests 165 slam dunk and that would be it.

Whether he’s going to get approved or not as I say your crystal ball is just as good as mine. In terms of other applications that might be open to him, it seems to me that there probably is only the capital investment entrance scheme which is a 10 million Hong Kong dollar investment for residence program that takes six to eight months to complete. If he has that level of funds and he’s prepared to lock them into qualifying investment asset classes in the HKSAR, then there’s a very good chance that he’ll go on to get unlimited approvals under the capital investment interest scheme, which would see him living, working, doing whatever you wish quite lawfully in Hong Kong without any further reference to his rationale for being here.

Aside from that, I can’t really imagine there is any other immigration status that will be suitable for him if he’s just going to carry on writing and being a self-commissioned author.

So yeah that’s about the shape of his options as regards immigration. Now in relation to your questions as regards taxation, alas my expertise is in immigration, it is not in tax I’m afraid. So I’m not qualified to answer that question for you.

Okay, I hope you found this helpful nonetheless.

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I Would Like To Apply For A Job Seekers Visa For Hong Kong – How Do I Go About Doing It?

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

I Would Like To Apply For A Job Seekers Visa For Hong Kong – How Do I Go About Doing It?

Hong Kong immigration is rife with visa gossip and rumours so I am pleased this question has been raised as it allows me to slay an old dragon once and for all!

QUESTION

Hi Stephen,

Thanks ever so much for your amazing website. I have never seen anything like this before – and I can’t believe it’s all free!

I have been looking around for details about the Job Seekers Visa For Hong Kong but can’t find anything.

Does this visa actually exist?

I have been told by a couple of people that I can come and live here for 3 months no questions asked as I look for a job, then swap that job seekers visa over to a work visa.

How do I go about doing this?

Thank you again!

ANSWER

In Hong Kong there is no such animal as a job seekers visa, that’s the bottom line!

This old chestnut has been kicking around for quite some time now and I’m glad that this question has been raised in the way that it has because it allows me to deal with it.

I think there’s a certain amount of confusion between the immigration status that you get as a visitor at the border for those nationals that are entitled to a 90-day period of stay when they arrive.

And potentially also under the working holiday visa, which allows you to work for 90 days for any single employer during the 12-month period that you hold such a working holiday visa.

So in a sense, you might be confusing the visitor visa and the working holiday visa, which both avail the ability to look for work. Given that seeking a job in Hong Kong as a visitor and indeed as a working holiday visa holder is permitted activity.

Whilst if you’re a visitor visa holder looking for a job, it isn’t permitted activity to take up any employment offer that results from you looking for that work.

But to suggest that there is a discrete immigration status called a job seekers visa is erroneous. And it could possibly be a confusion from some other jurisdiction that that perhaps avails that type of permission to be in Hong Kong to look for work.

So, there is no such thing as a job seekers visa. Come as a visitor – it is permitted activities to look for work as a visitor. If you have a working holiday visa, in any event, you can look for work. And indeed you can take up employment for up to three months with a single employer during the currency of that visa.

But job seekers visa itself, no, doesn’t exist.

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How Easy Is It To Secure A Work Visa Issued Under The Immigration Arrangements For Non-Local Graduates On The Basis Of Freelance Employment?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Long Stay & PR, Musing, Special Programmes, Your Question Answered / No responses

How Easy Is It To Secure A Work Visa Issued Under The Immigration Arrangements For Non-Local Graduates On The Basis Of Freelance Employment?

Can you realistically expect to work for yourself if your employment permissions have been granted under IANG?

QUESTION

Hi Stephen, thanks a lot for answering the questions on this website.

I must say that all the information on visageeza.com is of immense value.

I would like to pose a question regarding the Immigration Arrangement for Non-local Graduates (“IANG”) visa renewal.

Currently I am on an IANG visa which has been sponsored by my current employer.

I would like to know that shortly after the IANG visa has been granted (say few days or weeks after the approval), can I change my job or leave my job for whatever reason and start my own freelance consulting?

Is it really something permissible in the eyes of the immigration?

My second question is linked with my first one.

Let’s say if I leave my job and after leaving my job I cross the seven year mark, what impact would this have on my Right of Abode application?

I would really appreciate your help on this matter.

Thanks a lot.

ANSWER

To maintain your immigration status under the immigration arrangements for non-local graduates, each time you present yourself for an extension of stay, you need to have a valid employer and you need to be able to demonstrate to the Immigration Department that you’re being paid a compensation that’s broadly commensurate with market rates and that you are engaged in work that’s related in some way to your education and background.

Moreover, the sponsoring employer needs to be suitable and credible, all things considered. So, you can essentially get yourself an extension under immigration arrangements for non-local graduate sponsored by a current employer. Then you could cease working for that current employer and then conceptually, you could start to engage in your own freelance activities.

Whether or not the Immigration Department would deem your freelance activities to be sufficiently suitable at the time that you’re next IANG application came up for consideration, is another matter again, because the Immigration Department, in those circumstances, expect you to have established a sizeable business. Which for all practical purposes, means you need to pass the approvability test to show that you can make a substantial contribution to the economy of Hong Kong. And in that regard, I’d suggest that you read the information on our websites about the business investment visa, because it’s no small challenge to be able to secure an ongoing sponsorship in Hong Kong on the basis of your own, in a sense, freelance activities. So, that answers the first part of your question.

In so far as the second part of your question goes, let’s set the scene. For example, let’s says that you’ve been here under continuous residence visa permissions for six and a half years and that your current IANG Visa has just recently been extended and you’ve secured a one-year limit of stay, which is then going to take you conceptually to a full seven and a half years’ worth of continuous ordinary residence in Hong Kong, holding back-to-back residence visas throughout all of this time. So the point of seven years, of course, you can make your application for the right of abode and at that point you have to show that you have been continuously and ordinarily resident in Hong Kong for those seven years.

There is no inquiry as to what you’re doing in relation to your existing employment. The Immigration Department will want to see that you do have a valid period of stay under employment status and they will typically not look for confirmation as to how you’re going to be spending your time under your 12 months of immigration arrangements for non-local graduates.

Therefore, conceptually, it might be that you can get to seven years by having extended your immigration arrangements for non-local graduates’ visa and then gone off and freelance for a few months before making the right of abode application. And because at the time that you get your right of abode application approved, all conditions will be lifted as to your continuing residence in Hong Kong, you would then typically not be called to account for any time that you spent under immigration arrangements for non-local graduates, once you were freelancing as such. So that’s the upshot of it.

And I hope you found that useful!

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What Exactly Do You Need To Include In A Visa Application To Join In A Side Business In Hong Kong?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Your Question Answered / 2 responses

What Exactly Do You Need To Include In A Visa Application To Join In A Side Business In Hong Kong?

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 immigration to joining the 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 in so far as the inclusions essentially so long as the employer, 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 a personal letter from yourself outlining a business activity, 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 the director of immigration authorizes 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 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 employers 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 we’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 and 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 2 things 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.

Okay, its application to the 5th floor of immigration tower address 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 by correspondence through to your approval.

Okay, I hope you found that useful.

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I Am An Independent Contractor Not An Employee – Can I Get An Employment Visa As An Intercompany Transferee?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Investment Visas, Your Question Answered / 4 responses

I Am An Independent Contractor Not An Employee – Can I Get An Employment Visa As An Intercompany Transferee?

Sometimes, round-pegs-in-square-holes situations crop up which make the challenge of securing a Hong Kong employment visa especially daunting!

This question raises a very interesting set of circumstances which make for an interesting visa application experience ahead!

QUESTION

“I have been working for the same group of companies for the last 7 years. We have operations in both Singapore and Shanghai turning over approximately USD7 million each year. While I am based in Singapore, my employer wants me to relocate full time to oversee our operations in Hong Kong. Our Hong Kong company has no staff and only a ‘brass plaque’ presence, however, we have been booking profits there for the last couple of years and can show a USD2 million turnover. This will increase by another USD3 million in the next 12 months. I have been providing my services to the group via a Pte Ltd company in Singapore since the very beginning and will be doing the same thing in Hong Kong through my own Hong Kong Ltd company which I established 6 months ago in the expectation of this relocation. My annual contract is valued at USD150,000 p.a. plus bonuses. The Hong Kong business will grow with my relocation there and we will hire local employees and share an office, initially, with one of our trading partners – although it will take 9-12 months for any of this to happen. What type of visa am I looking at, what documents should I prepare and how long will it all take? Thanks!”

ANSWER

Essential Approvability of Your Circumstances

Given the size and nature of your company’s commercial endeavours in both Singapore and Shanghai along with the fact that your Hong Kong company is showing a historical turnover of c.USD2 million in the recent past and will likely record a further c.USD3 million in the next 12 months, there is little doubt, in my opinion, that your company’s ‘story’ for Hong Kong will pass muster with the Hong Kong Immigration Department (“HKID”).

Moreover, the fact that you are a 7 years strong ‘defacto’ intercompany transferee being deployed to Hong Kong from Singapore in pursuit of that story, gives me confidence in being able to advise you that, when your application for a Hong Kong residence visa made under the General Employment Policy has played itself out, you will indeed be granted the immigration permissions you are seeking to allow you to direct, manage and oversee the Hong Kong activities of your group as you have set them out in your question.

The Principal Challenge

The fact that you are not a formal employee of the group business but are an independent contractor places you in a round pegs in square holes situation in so far as your application to the HKID goes.

Under the General Employment Policy, an application for an employment visa on an intercompany transferee basis is usually a quite straightforward affair. Ostensibly, you need to adduce evidence to the HKID of your current employment with a group company (official governmental filings evidencing you as an employee usually serve this role), produce an employment contract extended from the Hong Kong entity to you personally to cover your ‘transfer’ into Hong Kong and then set out educating the HKID as to how the economy of Hong Kong will be substantially benefitted by your Hong Kong company being afforded the privilege of being deemed an acceptable sponsor for your employment visa permissions.

This Infographic lays out in simple terms what’s involved in the out and out employment visa scenario. Whilst this content does not assume an intercompany transferee situation, the approvability test and the process involved are essentially the same.

However, due to your historical status as an independent contractor and not an out and out employee, the HKID will automatically assess your application on the investment visa criteria which will put you in the realm of a one-man business. This Infographic covers this scenario.

As you can see, the two approaches in the employment visa consideration exercise under the General Employment Policy are very different and the trick to an efficient, stress free application in your circumstances is to educate the HKID as to the rationale for the independent contractor relationship both in your situation specifically and also in your industry generally and then go on to apply a hybrid investment visa/employment visa approvability argument, seeking to minimise the onerous requirements of the investment visa criteria and up-play the intercompany transferee employment visa criteria.

This is not, by any means, a run of the mill situation!

For more reading on the investment visa, please read this Post. Moreover, this content discusses how, sometimes, in what appears to be a straighforward intercompany transferee situation, things can go terribly wrong (hence the need to be careful about how an application is approached).

Documentation Generally

You can gain a sense of the documentation needed under both of the visa types at play in your situation as follows:

Employment Visa Checklist
Investment Visa Checklist

Case Processing Time

It would be reasonable to expect the application processing time, from first submission through to application outcome, to last 10-14 weeks, depending on the speed at which you turn around the provision of documentation when called for by the HKID as part of the case consideration exercise subsequently.

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How Does Hong Kong Right Of Abode Downgrade To The Right To Land Materialize And What Are The Immigration Implications Of This?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in 60 Second Snapshot, Long Stay & PR / 84 responses

How Does Hong Kong Right Of Abode Downgrade To The Right To Land Materialize And What Are The Immigration Implications Of This?

First Published January 17, 2013

If you are a foreign national permanent resident of Hong Kong you will hold a permanent identity card and, as a result, will possess the Rolls Royce immigration status of what is called the right of abode.

The right of abode provides you with, effectively,  defacto citizenship of the HKSAR, although you are not entitled to apply for a HKSAR passport as you would have to go one step further by renouncing your current nationality and complete the process of naturalizing as a Chinese citizen first.

The right of abode is exactly that.

With the status of right of abode owner you get the following rights:

(1) to land;
(2) to be free from any condition of stay (including a limit of stay)
(3) not to be deported from Hong Kong, and
(4) not to be removed from Hong Kong.

However, the Hong Kong Right of Abode can be downgraded to the Right to Land and therefore have a series of implications that we will detail above.

In immigration circles, there is raging debate about the true quality of the right of abode granted to long stay foreign nationals in Hong Kong because, in actual fact, it can be lost.

In order to maintain the right of abode, foreign nationals have to satisfy one ongoing condition – that he maintain his connections to Hong Kong by showing that he has been present in the HKSAR on at least one occasion in any given 3 year period.

This can easily be achieved, by making a single entry through immigration and landing in Hong Kong. Conceptually, you could then turn right around and leave Hong Kong immediately, and your right of abode would be maintained for another 3 years.

However, if you fail to satisfy the 3 year rule you will, by operation of law, lose your right of abode and be downgraded to the mere right to land – which effectively means that you can now be deported from Hong Kong after all.

In a practical sense, this doesn’t really have any major impact on the affected person.

You can still live in Hong Kong, work, establish or join in a business, study, sponsor parents for dependant visas and enjoy all of the other day-to-day privileges which accompany life in Hong Kong, although you won’t be able to vote in elections, access public financial assistance or participate in the various government programmes such as the recent Scheme 6000 or benefit from the stamp duty benefits in relation to the purchase of property.

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Applying for Right of Abode in Hong Kong After 7 Years | How To Complete The Confusing Sections On the ROP145 Application Form

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Long Stay & PR, Musing / No responses

Hong Kong Immigration ROP145 Application Form

Help!

The Hong Kong Immigration Department’s ROP 145 application form is used for the “Application for Verification of Eligibility for Permanent Identity Card.”

What Is It?

This ROP145 application form is intended for individuals who wish to verify their eligibility for a Hong Kong Permanent Identity Card.

The form is a part of the process of establishing one’s right of abode in Hong Kong, typically after having resided in Hong Kong for a continuous period of not less than seven years.

Why Should You Care?

If you’re a long-stay foreign national resident of Hong Kong and seeking to change your immigration status to permanent residency you will therefore have to complete the ROP145 application form.

There is a lot of confusion on pages 2 and 4 about which section to tick.

This Is What To Do …

Page 2 ROP 145

As you are not a Chinese national and you have been continuously resident in Hong Kong for a minimum of 7 years, this is for you. On the ROP145 application form page 2, your claim for permanent residency is based on criteria 4.

Page 4 ROP 145

This is where the confusion comes in. On the ROP145 application form page 4, there is a subtle difference between 6(4) and 6(5).

6(4) = Chinese citizens

6(5) = You!

Hope you find this helpful!

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