Hong Kong Visas Made Easy

29

Mar 2024

I Have A Socially Advantageous Yet Modestly Capitalised Business Plan – Can I Get An Investment Visa For Hong Kong?

Posted by / in Investment Visas, Your Question Answered / 12 responses

This is an important question on the business investment visa for Hong Kong….

Investment Visa For Hong Kong

Experience suggests that the Hong Kong Immigration Department do tend to look favourably upon such business plans, but the applicant absolutely does not have it all his or her own way, as you will learn in my PodCast answer. (Please note the subject matter of the business in this question is just an ersatz surrogate. I have changed it to ‘fear of flying’ to protect the identity of the service nature and maintain the confidences of the person planning to establish this very unique enterprise.)

QUESTION

“I, an American citizen, have been planning on beginning a stress-management therapy business in Hong Kong for adults who suffer from a fear of flying.

The market is a whole lot bigger than you might imagine given that intrinsically Hong Kong is a small, far flung place that is typically accessed by commercial flights.

Consequently there is hardly anything in Hong Kong and the rest of Asia generally which offers this type of private therapy course, plus post-therapy support, for adults who simply can’t  summon up the courage to get into an airplane.

Each intensive therapy course will run over a 3 day period, 12 hours per day. The objectives of the therapy are not just to allow participants to control and overcome their fears, but become incredibly self-confident in the process.

I personally have 8 years of first-hand experience in this very successful therapy. I have been through the same programme as a student, now a graduate, coach and course instructor.

I don’t hold any tertiary qualifications except for a Diploma at college.

My girlfriend, who is also a coach and course instructor on the programme, holds a bachelors degree.

The start-up costs are very low. I envision I can start employing 1 person full-time after 7 months and 2 people in part-time employment after 10 months.

The business is basically a franchise in many respects. The programme is already a worldwide business (the America’s, UK, Australia, South Africa, Europe, NZ, etc) so this will be the Asian branch.

In that case, is there a possibility the owner/inventor of the programme could help fund the start-up in HK or would that relegate myself to an ’employee’ status in the eyes of the HK officials rather than a ‘Business Owner’?

With only US$6,000 in capital available to me at the moment, I believe my best route is to try to register the business over in mainland China first.

I have not looked into the hurdles one must pass to start a business over here (I’m in Guangzhou) but it may be easier than HK.

If I can do it, I have the prospect of having around US$25,000-US$40,000 come April-June next year.

With that money available, and the proof of income making already from the business in mainland China, that may be a better time to apply for the Investment Visa in HK?

I expect business to be operating full throttle after 14-18 months from start up in Hong Kong bringing in around US$40,000 a month from then on.

I also plan to keep studying Mandarin and Cantonese language classes so I can eventually teach the courses in native Chinese language which will increase my market.

Do I have a good chance of obtaining an Investment Visa?”

ANSWER

The fact of the matter is that the Immigration Department do place significance on the nature of an enterprise that’s going to be supporting an application for an investment visa by a foreign national, and if the space that the foreign national is going to be establishing a business in can be said to be advantageous to society more generally than just the contribution that it makes to the economy of Hong Kong, experience tells me that the Immigration Department do factor that in quite heavily.

That having been said, there is still a requirement for the enterprise itself to be credible on every front. So sort of dealing with the general themes that you raise in your question in no particular order, but will all tie properly together at the end.

I believe I’ll start off by saying that the USD6,000 that you’ve got to invest in the business will not work for the Immigration Department. I mean, quite apart from the fact that the visa calls for an active investment, USD6,000 really isn’t sufficient capital to actually get the business off the ground, and the Immigration Department do know that typically any business that is going to be relying upon revenues to be earned to finance itself tend to be a stew by the department.

So you’re going to have to have a decent wedge of capital under your belt to persuade the department that you’ve got the necessary resources to give effect to your plan because, as we know, just because you’ve got a really good business idea doesn’t mean that it’s going to be successful by mere fact that it is an idea and it’s a good idea, you’re going to have to invest money into taking it to market and bringing it to the attention of people who are going to be providing you with the revenues to ensure that it’s successful. So USD6,000 isn’t going to cut the mustard, I’m afraid.  On the other hand, if the franchisor took an equity stake and provided a bulk of the capital, that would significantly improve your chances of success. But as a business with you owning a piece of the action, the Immigration Department would apply the investment visa aprovability test to your application, rather than the employment visa provability test, and they are two different animals: one focuses on the individual skills of the applicant – that’s the employment visa probability test, whereas the investment visa aprovability test focuses squarely on what the business is all about and how it can make a substantial contribution to the economy of Hong Kong. But in a strange way, if your franchisor came in and effectively took the bulk of the equity this could be advantageous, because unless you’ve got specific qualifications in the fear of flying space, as it were, I suspect the Immigration Department would conclude that you’re not actually qualified to undertake this work as an employee. Therefore, by going down the investment visa route, it puts the focus on the chances of success as a business, not how qualified you are as an employee; and once you get to a point where you’re really sort of ten to 15% shareholder in a company, the Immigration Department, they’re going to be applying investment visa approvability test here in any event. So that definitely could be a way for you to fast track your plans to come into Hong Kong if you’re prepared to go into business with these people.

In terms of the turnover at USD40,000 a month, I mean, this is a half a million dollars a year and that will definitely pass muster with the Immigration Department. So your revenue numbers are absolutely on the money for an approval in terms of you potentially being able to take your limited capital pool to China first and starting your business there before you bring it to Hong Kong.

Like you, I’m not really in a position to understand what will pass muster in China, whether or not you can get immigration status in the way that you envisage. But I can tell you that if you use China as a proving ground and establish this practise there first, it will definitely be a good idea, because what that will mean is the Immigration Department will be able to access the documentation that shows that it has worked.

In fact, it is working under your stewardship in China and it becomes de risked from the Immigration Department’s perspective, particularly if you’re going to wait until another eight or nine months down the road when you do anticipate that you’re going to come into funds of up to say, USD40,000. That level of financing together with a track record in China, together with your experience in this space, together with the creation of local jobs in the first twelve months, together with a projected half a million USD in revenues turnover in the first twelve months, I believe the Immigration Department would give you an investment visa on that kind of story with those kind of resources in place. So, from that perspective, I think, you’re onto a pretty good opportunity if it all falls into play in the way that you’re hoping it to.

Now, the only other question that you’ve raised that I need to address relates to this question of your girlfriend and who is ostensibly qualified to perform this work.

I think implied in that inclusion in the question is the idea that you’re going to have your girlfriend come and work in the business for you, which, on the basis that she doesn’t have immigration status for Hong Kong, will mean that this business is going to have to serve as an employment visa sponsor for her, which, as a new business, is going to raise a lot of questions with the department having said that if you can fold her into the story in such a way to suggest that the business is going to grow with her contribution, together with your contribution, to the extent that the two of you on the books, as it were, your ability to sell more is going to be increased, and that will then, by extension, allow you to create a bigger business, and the creation of local employment opportunities is going to be improved over and above the numbers that you’ve mentioned in your question. So don’t take it for granted that just because the Immigration Department partner buying into the idea that you will get an investment visa, but it’s assuming that your girlfriend, under the sponsorship of this new vehicle, will be able to get approved accordingly. That’s a separate challenge that will need to be examined in light of where you are in your business at the time that you make your application. It is not impossible, but you certainly need to think about that as a separate application exercise; don’t factor it into your own application mix, as it were.

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28

Mar 2024

Can A Newly Qualified Foreign National Permanent Resident Of Hong Kong Automatically Secure PR For His Parents Too?

Posted by / in Long Stay & PR, Your Question Answered / No responses

So, just what immigration options for parents accrue to a foreign national holding a Hong Kong permanent identity card?

Permanent Resident of Hong Kong

QUESTION

Hi there!

 A foreign national became a permanent resident after many years study and work in Hong Kong.

Now he wants to sponsor his parents holding Canadian passports to become a P.R.

In Hong Kong too – any way to do that? 

How long will it take for the application? 

Thank you.

ANSWER

In Hong Kong there is no facility to automatically secure permanent residency for foreign nationals other than the process of undergoing seven years of continuous ordinary residency in Hong Kong. So notwithstanding the fact that there is a situation where an individual – foreign national, has recently secured permanent residency that in of itself is not going to parlay or translate into opportunities for permanent residency for any other family member automatically, other than for dependent children under the age of 21 who were born in Hong Kong whilst such a person was a temporary resident here.

In any event, in order to secure status to allow dependent parents to be residents in Hong Kong sponsored by a foreign national permanent resident, the only manoeuvre that’s available is to apply for dependent visas for the elderly parents, and elderly in that regard is over 60 years of age.

The application is relatively straightforward, but you need to show that there is dependency on the part of the parents, and that the sponsor can put food on their table and a roof over their head.

Once those dependent visas have been independently secured, those elderly parents will maintain their residency under dependent visa status throughout all of the seven years that follow the issue of the dependent visa in the first place, and at the end of that seven-year period they will be able to independently apply for permanent residency in their own right.

So, to answer your question, no ability for permanent resident foreign nationals to automatically undergo process to get permanent residency for any other supporting family members or accompanying family members, but there does exist a mechanism for elderly parents in this type of scenario to become permanent residents after seven years of holding dependent visas. I hope you found that useful.

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27

Mar 2024

I Want To Live In Hong Kong With My Boyfriend – Is The Working Holiday Visa A Viable Option?

Posted by / in Special Programmes, Your Question Answered / 10 responses

Working Holiday Visa

Sometimes, the sun and the moon align beautifully on a set of circumstances to allow an unmarried couple to spend time together in Hong Kong when ordinarily visa circumstances conspire against them. Not on this occasion, however!

QUESTION

“Hi there,

I have just recently returned from Hong Kong to Canada where I am a citizen.

My boyfriend lives in Hong kong and I have travelled there 3 times in the past 2 years to see him only as a quick 2 week holiday each time.

Covid is a problem for us now obviously.

We frequently talk about me moving to hong kong to live together.

Obviously if I was to live in Hong Kong I would have to find work and have an income. I guess the reason for me sending you this message is to find out which is the best visa application for me to look into?  

I had hoped to maybe stay there for up to 1 year.”

ANSWER

In your situation, it would seem that the working holiday visa would be the ideal solution for you.

The working holiday visa is available to Canadian citizens as well as to a number of other different nationals, and the premise of the working holiday visa is to allow the holder a primary intention to holiday in Hong Kong and it’s available to you if you’re aged between 18 and 30 and that you can show sufficient proof of having – in the case of a Canadian, HKD15,000 in your bank account to fund your proposed stay in Hong Kong.

You also need to show that you have a return air ticket when you arrive and also that you have got medical and comprehensive hospitalisation and liability insurance in your name. On the basis that you can satisfy these requirements, you can get a working holiday visa.

The working holiday visa effectively gives you a twelve-month limit of stay in Hong Kong where you can come to work for up to four employers during your time in Hong Kong, with an absolute maximum of three month stay for each employer.

And there is a quota. So, you do have to get your application in good order each year, and the quota for Canadian citizen is 200.

Making the application is very straightforward: you can download the application form from the website – the requisite link is attached to this post on the blog so that you can know where to go for the information, you submit the application directly to Immigration Tower by post. NB, you must be in Canada at the time that you will file this application and you must be ordinarily resident in Canada at the time. But as you’re a citizen- as stated in your question, I don’t think that’s a problem.

Therefore, on the basis that there’s quota available and you can show that you’ve got the money and that you are applying whilst you’re in Canada and you’re ordinarily resident in Canada, I don’t see any problems as to you moving forward with a successful application for a working holiday visa.

It would certainly appear to be the suitable solution in your circumstances given that you only intend to stay for one year in any event; and certainly in that time, it will then allow you to get some relationships moving with employers and understand how Hong Kong operates from an employment perspective, and assuming that you qualify separately for an employment visa in due course, on the basis you can get yourself a job offer, then reason why you could entertain, subsequently, an application for a full employment visa in your own right, once your working holiday visa term has come to an end.

I think that’s a solution for you. All the best!

The Hong Kong Working Holiday Visa Information on the Hong Kong Immigration Department Website

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26

Mar 2024

I Have Lived In Hong Kong For 5 Years. Can I Extend My Work Visa For 2 Years, Quit My Job, Study Full-Time, Then Apply for RoA?

Posted by / in Employment Visas, Long Stay & PR, Your Question Answered / 8 responses

First Published October 9, 2012 – Still Relevant

Apply for RoA

Whilst the implementation of Hong Kong immigration policy is essentially very flexible, as an employment visa holder, until you have gone on to receive the right of abode (RoA) or unconditional stay after seven years continuous ordinary residence, your permissions to remain in Hong Kong are governed very tightly. I am grateful to this questioner for providing an opportunity to have a discussion about ‘strategic immigration status management’ through to the point where it is possible to make an application for permanent residency in the HKSAR.

QUESTION

“Thanks for being so helpful, your posts are very useful. I have 2 questions:

 1) If my visa is expiring in 31 April 2013 and the company extends it 15 March 2013 which gets approved (before the original visas expiry date, i.e. approval on 30 March 2013) to extend until April 2015 – what happens if I quit before the original visa’s expiry date (but my extension has already been approved)? Am I allowed to stay in HK until 2015?

 2) If my visa is expiring 31 April 2015, and I decide to quit, can I apply for university courses or a degree course on the employment visa that I am on or do I need to re-apply for a student visa (end date of the course does not surpass the visa expiration date)?

Does this educational period count towards Right of Abode?”

ANSWER

In this question, we’re being asked whether it’s possible to extend your current employment visa, quit your job, then go on to take up studies full time without actually dealing with the question of immigration status. In wake of the change in the rationale for Hong Kong, it’s not commonly appreciated that when you get an employment visa, you get two privileges: you get the privilege to do the particular job that’s underpinning your employment visa in the first place, and you also get the privilege to reside when you stop working for that particular employer that is the party that’s sponsoring your employment visa. Effectively, your privileges to work cease at that point in time, but your privilege to reside continues until your current limit of stay expires or unless the Immigration Department expressly revoke your existing limit of stay and give you a shorter limit of stay, whereupon you’re expected to leave.

Thus, if you have had your privileges to work terminated as a result of leaving your employment, then effectively the question is what is permitted activity other than residing in Hong Kong whilst you’re in possession of that employment visa?  Well, it’s not permitted activity to take up any employment and it’s not permitted activity for you joining a business first without getting the consent of the Immigration Department.

When you possess an employment visa, it is permitted activity joining a part time course of study? It’s not permitted activity whilst you’re in possession of an employment visa to take up a full time course of study. So if your rationale for remaining in Hong Kong in the wake of leaving your job is to take up a full time course of study, you’re going to have to adjust your immigration status from employment through to student, and the limited stay that you’ll get on each occasion will be directly related to your continuing enrolment and your continuing participation in your course of studies. So then, moving on to the second part of the question, effectively, any time that you spend in Hong Kong as a resident will count towards your continuous ordinary residence for the purposes of an eventual Right of Abode approval.

So the test is continuous ordinary residence showing that you have become settled in Hong Kong throughout this time and at the point of making your application, you’ve taken concrete steps to having taken Hong Kong as your only place of permanent residence. Therefore, any time that you spend as a student in Hong Kong, as long as it’s part of a continuous period of ordinary residence that amounts to no less than seven years. Having become settled and taken Hong Kong as your only place of permanent residence, then that time spent as a student will definitely count towards the seven years for the purposes of a permanent residency approval.

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25

Mar 2024

My Employment Visa Has Been Refused – What Can I Do Now?

Posted by / in Employment Visas, Refusals & Appeals, Your Question Answered / 4 responses

My employment visa has been refused …. We have been contacted a lot recently by applicants who’s cases have been refused  – so this question is both timely and, for all those affected, of great significance.

Employment Visa Has Been Refused

QUESTION

“I would like to know if, once  I have received the first rejection letter from an Officer of the HKID for my employment visa application, I can either:

i) file Reconsideration and if still rejected,

ii) then file S53 Review, or

iii) make direct application to the Chief Executive after second rejection?”

ANSWER

When an application from an employment visa has been denied, the letter which the applicant receives indicates that the employment visa application was not approved as the Immigration Department were not satisfied that the person possessed special skills, knowledge or experience or value to are not readily available in Hong Kong; in all the circumstances of case, the employer is justified engaging with services of an expatriate rather than the services of a local person, and this leaves it very difficult to try and interpret exactly what might be wrong with a case and thereby putting together another set of information to have another run at the application by way of an appeal’s process called a case reconsideration.

In order to successfully argue a case reconsideration, you basically need to have significant additional new information which had weight to the original application or are there relevant and important new facts which have come to light since the refusal with comprehensive verifying documentation supplied to support it. So that process in many ways is like another employment visa application.

The case officer will review it and then his colleagues will review it and then a determination from supervisory level staff and managerial staff will be laid down to ensure that in fact the original decision was the correct decision and that any new and previously unsubmitted information which has been supplied doesn’t add the necessary weight to coerce the Immigration Department to switch from one decision to the decision of approval; and that’s a process that usually plays itself out over the course of between two and sometimes twelve weeks. If the reconsideration is refused, then really your options are starting to get a little bit limited in a practical sense.

In your question, you mentioned the issue of section 53, review of the immigration ordinance. This is a procedure that’s not very often used these days because whilst the review procedure is ongoing the applicant is not allowed to be in Hong Kong as a visitor. So because it can take between six and twelve months for a review process to be completely finalised, most people who’ve been denied employment visas and haven’t been successful in reconsideration don’t travel down that path because it simply just takes too long to be anything close to practical.

Additionally, making an application for direct intervention of the Chief Executive is an appeal manoeuvre that is not recommended in the average sort of run of the mill case, as it were, and because you haven’t provided any information as to what the nature of the case is, or allow us to understand a little bit more about how we might be able to make this advice more tailored to you. However, it would seem unlikely, given the volume of instances that we have made an application for the intervention of the Chief Executive that in your instance, it may probably not be irrelevant or indeed an appropriate channel or place to follow. So in many ways, even direct intervention request of the Chief Executive isn’t a particularly practical solution to your dilemma. However, as I say, only in the case where there’s a significant matter of public interest involved would you want to follow that route.

So those are the array of the options you got available to you – your first port of call is, without doubt, reconsideration; and then if you are refused on the reconsideration and it’s becoming really apparent to you that they are making the wrong decision, you could potentially submit another reconsideration with, again, further new and previously unsubmitted information that would allow the Immigration Department to take another look at it. But, in a very practical sense, by the time that process is played itself out, it’s arguable that you don’t really have anywhere else to go and the appeals process is not going to work for you. Unless, of course, you genuinely believe that your employment is a matter of great public interest, such that the Immigration Department should be redirected by the Chief Executive to have a better and closer look at it, but it would seem to be unusual.

I hope that helps.

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24

Mar 2024

Can You Freelance Or Start Your Own Business Under A Hong Kong Working Holiday Visa?

Posted by / in Investment Visas, Special Programmes, Your Question Answered / 5 responses

Freelance or Start Your Own Business Under a Hong Kong Working Holiday Visa

The working holiday visa for Hong Kong is designed for certain types of employment activity – but does this include freelance work or starting or your own business?

First Published On April 15, 2013 – Still Relevant

QUESTION

Hi

I have recently moved to Hong Kong with my partner (who has an employment visa) and I obtained a working holiday visa for 1 year.

My plan was to get over here and then look for work opportunities and then transfer over to an appropriate visa. I registered my own company in Ireland and it looks like the most work I will do here would be as a freelancer.

Am I able to work as a freelancer on the working holiday visa or do I need to get another visa – say the investment visa?

We do plan to be here a few years.

Thanks

ANSWER

The working holiday visa for Hong Kong is designed specifically to allow nationals of certain countries, not every country, to come to Hong Kong for a maximum period of twelve months with the primary intention to holiday here. And, as a result of the bilateral arrangements between several countries in Hong Kong, parties who hold a working holiday visa for Hong Kong are able to effectively work for up to four employers in that twelve-month period, and not being able to work for a single employer for more than three months at a time.

Anything more than that is a direct breach of conditions of stay. The programme is really all about sort of cultural exchange if nothing else, and doesn’t anticipate nor provide for holders of such visas to go out and work for themselves, that is ostensibly registering perhaps the sole proprietorship business and then undertaking activities as a freelancer.

Moreover, going to the next step and applying to incorporate a company and then starting to engage in business through that limited liability company is effectively not permitted activity under the working holiday visa.

So whilst you might be able to get away with your sort of plans on the ground as it were, to freelance or to start a business, if your long term intention is to stay in Hong Kong on the strength of the business that you’re planning to undertake it’s really important that you don’t be tempted to start that business whilst you’re a working holiday visa holder, and this is because if at a point of you subsequently making your application for a business investment visa, your activity whilst holding an working holiday visa will be disclosed to the Immigration Department, and they’ll know then that you’ve actively been engaged in activities which are a breach of your conditions of stay and that could lead to the Immigration Department considering a subsequent application less than favourably.

So, yes. If it’s your intention to freelance sort of starting a business, the moment that those intentions crystallise, irrespective of the immigration status you hold presently, you need to make an application for a business investment visa.

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23

Mar 2024

What Paperwork (If Any) Goes Into Your Passport To Recognize That You Are A Hong Kong Permanent Resident?

Posted by / in Long Stay & PR, Your Question Answered / 1 response

Dead simple question this one with a very short answer (for a change!)

You Are a Hong Kong Permanent Resident?
QUESTION

What paperwork/ piece of paper, if any, goes in to your passport to recognize that you are a permanent resident of the HKSAR? 

For the last 7 years I’ve had a dependant visa

I need to know as I have one page left in my passport. 

And will immigration take my passport away to facilitate me getting permanent residency?

ANSWER

If you’ve lived in Hong Kong continuously for a period of not less than seven years, you can make the application to convert your status from temporary resident to permanent resident. During the currency of your application for permanent residency, the Immigration Department will call to inspect your original passport at the point of them verifying your eligibility that you are in fact a permanent resident. And that’s the only use of the passport that the Immigration Department take whilst your application for permanent residency is ongoing, so they don’t hold it at all; you are in fact able to travel freely or otherwise with your passport whilst the application for PR has been considered and ultimately finalised.

Once the approval of your PR comes in, effectively your passport is now defunct for immigration purposes as regards Hong Kong because your Right of Aboard is reflected in the issue to you of a permanent identity card and that permanent identity card, therefore is your travel document in and out of Hong Kong, and your passport is no longer needed to be presented to an immigration officer at the point of arrival. Therefore, there’s no endorsement in your passport to reflect your PR.

I hope you find this useful.

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