Hong Kong Right of Abode Application – Consider Your Strategy & Plan Early

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Long Stay & PR, Your Question Answered / 10 responses

First Published July 27, 2012 – Advice Still Highly Relevant Today

 

Hong Kong Right of Abode Application – Plan Early

This question comes in 2 parts. The first relates to positive planning in respect of an eventual Hong Kong right of abode application. The second touches on the mechanics of an aligned change of sponsorship application to the Immigration Department in the run in to the 7 year milestone where a permanent residency application comes into play.

I have updated this post today due to recent positive experiences we’ve encountered with ImmD who have demonstrated significant flexibility in  a number of our Hong Kong right of abode application recently.

It’s clear that Covid has created something of a new dynamic as to what amounts to ordinary residence for those long stay foreign nationals who found themslves away from Hong Kong for several years due to the ravages of the pandemic.

QUESTION

“Hi Stephen, first of all, thank you very much for your website and the information you provide. It’s very helpful.

I was wondering if you could help me answer some of the questions that I have related to working visas and permanent residency. I have contacted the Immigration Department directly, but only got the standard vanilla answer pointing me to some of the documentation on their website which doesn’t have detailed information relevant to my particular case (or at least I haven’t been able to find it).

I would really appreciate your advice and time.

I have been employed and residing in Hong Kong for the last 5.5 years. The whole time I have been staying on the basis of a working visa sponsored my employer (Employment as a Professional). My current working visa is valid until April 2013.

I am now looking to change jobs and already have an offer from another company who are willing to sponsor my working visa. However, the new job would involve extensive traveling for business in South East Asia region.

I have the following questions:

1) I am concerned that the demand for traveling associated with the new job and the fact that I would be away from Hong Kong, likely continuously for up to several months at times, might negatively affect my permanent residency application which I will qualify for towards the end of 2013. Hong Kong has become my home and I am planning to remain here in the future. Therefore the ability to become a permanent resident without any difficulties is absolutely crucial to me.

As such, would you know if there are any restrictions on how much time I can spend away from Hong Kong on business?

– Is there a limit to how many days I can be traveling in a row?

– And similarly, is there a certain amount of days that I need to be present in Hong Kong during the year overall?

– Ultimately, will the extensive traveling cause any issues when I apply for the permanent residency next year?

 The only specific information I found was in the application for permanent residency in which one must declare that they haven’t been away from Hong Kong for more than 6 months continuously. I haven’t found any info on how they treat if you travel for 2 – 3 months, then come back (say for 1 month), then go away again for 2 – 3 months, come back, etc., and repeat this process several times in a year.

Change of Employment Visa Sponsorship & Your Hong Kong Right of Abode Application Subsequently

2) Ideally, I would like to finish my current employment and start the new one without any interruption. I understand that I am required to apply for a new working visa, sponsored by the new company.

– Would you know if it’s possible to apply for the new working visa while still being employed by my current visa sponsor?

– Do I need to hand in my resignation letter first? 

– And what would happen in case my new visa application is unsuccessful?

– Would my current working visa become invalid (because I have stopped working for a company that sponsored it) and would I be required to leave Hong Kong immediately or would I be granted some grace period during which I could either reapply for the visa or look for another job opportunity?

 Thank you very much in advance for your help.”

More Stuff You May Find Interesting or Useful

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Hong Kong right of abode – when does the clock start ticking?

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 the right of abode?

10 Must Have resources for a successful Hong Kong right of abode application

 

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PODCAST ANSWER

 

 

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Hong Kong Employment Visa: A Comprehensive Guide When Applying In Hong Kong

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

I’m in Hong Kong with my family as visitors seeking for me to get a Hong Kong employment visa with dependant visas for the rest of my tribe. What’s involved and how can I stay compliant if our 90 days visitor visas expire before we complete the whole employment and family visa application processes successfully?

Introduction

Are you a foreign professional eyeing opportunities in Hong Kong? The city’s General Employment Policy (GEP) allows you to work and bring your family along. However, the process of obtaining a Hong Kong Employment Visa can be complex. This guide will walk you through the eligibility criteria, documentary requirements, and the process of extending interim visitor visas.

Eligibility for Hong Kong Employment Visa

To qualify for an employment visa, you must meet several requirements. These include a good educational background, typically a bachelor’s degree, and at least two years of post-graduation work experience in a managerial or supervisory role. In certain cases, the Immigration Department may accept good technical qualifications, proven professional abilities, and extensive relevant work experience instead of a formal university education.

Skills and Experience

The applicant must also possess special skills, knowledge, or experience that are valued in Hong Kong and not readily available within the local workforce. They should be of good character, and the compensation package for the job, including income, accommodation, medical, and other fringe benefits, must be broadly commensurate with market rates.

The Role of the Employing Enterprise

The employing enterprise must be deemed a suitable and credible employment visa sponsor by the Immigration Department. This means the company should be well established, have a properly set up office, and already employ Hong Kong locals.

Documentary Requirements for Hong Kong Employment Visa

Various documents are required for both the employer and employee in an employment visa application. These include application forms, marriage and birth certificates, recent photographs, passport details, CV, graduation certificates, employment references, and more.

The Approval Process

Once the application is submitted, the consideration process will play out online, via email, fax, or occasionally by post. Processing time usually takes 4-6 weeks but can be longer in more complex cases. It is rare for a case, unless it is an intra-company transferee type, to be approved without some dialogue with the Immigration Department.

Extending Interim Visitor Visas

If your visitor permissions are going to expire before your approval comes through, you will need to arrange a means to extend your visitor permissions. You can apply at the Immigration Department directly for an extension but they generally do not encourage this as it involves a lot of time and resources for them to manually process an extension of stay. You can’t use the excuse of ‘work visa application pending’ to expect an visitor visa extension so you’re best off making a short family trip to Macau instead.

Conclusion

Obtaining an employment visa in Hong Kong requires meeting specific criteria and presenting a strong case argument that demonstrates the applicant’s value and the need for their unique skills in Hong Kong. By carefully considering the applicant’s individual circumstances, the job offer context, and the proposed employer’s business needs, the applicant can maximize their chances of a successful application.

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Navigating Hong Kong Employment and Dependent Visas: A Comprehensive Guide

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Family Visas, Musing, VG Front Page / No responses

Explore our comprehensive guide on Hong Kong employment and dependent visas. Learn about the application process, eligibility criteria, and the rights of visa holders. Get insights on how to navigate the Immigration Department’s requirements and make your transition to Hong Kong smoother.

Must Have Resources

INFOGRAPHIC – Newcomers Guide to Getting an Employment Visa for Hong Kong

FACTSHEET – Visa Information On the Hong Kong Employment Visa

PLAN – The Hong Kong Visa Application Roadmap

VIDEO – Your Employer Must Help You Get Your Hong Kong Employment Visa

TEMPLATES – How to Structure Your Hong Kong Employment Visa Application Argument

CASE STUDY – Hong Kong Employment Visa – Teenage High School Graduate Gets Approved!

VIDEO – Does Your Employer Control Your Hong Kong Immigration Destiny?

VIDEO – What’s the Minimum Salary Requirement for a Hong Kong Employment Visa?

VIDEO – If I Didn’t Graduate From a University Will It Preclude Me From Getting an Employment Visa in HK?

PODCAST – Can I Come to Hong Kong as a Visitor, Find a Job, then Change to an Employment Visa?

CASE STUDY – Hong Kong Employment Visa Application – When All Else Failed We Appealed to the Chief Executive – and Won!

VIDEO – I Hate My Boss and Want to Leave My Job – What Happens to My Hong Kong Employment Visa?

 

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Hong Kong Immigration… What Does It Mean… Swapping Status?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Family Visas, Investment Visas, Musing / No responses

First Published September 12, 2015

Over the last 20 years or so I have coined a number of phrases in Hong Kong immigration parlance. Working my way through all of our content these last 40 days as we work to complete our large language model programming activity for VisaGeeza.Ai I have ‘re’found’ this series of videos which involve a much younger looking me! The advice and content holds good though!

In this short video, I discuss how spouses finding themselves in unfortunate immigration circumstances can go about swapping visa status’ to solve their pressing visa problems. Now 8 years old, the song remains the same …

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How Does Changing Industries Impact on Your Application to Change Hong Kong Employment Visa Sponsorship?

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

First Published January 16, 2018 – Updated April 23, 2023

Two-pronged question today starting with how to change Hong Kong employment visa sponsorship into a new job sector. Tnis is an update review question that still holds valid even 5 years after I gave the original advice. I am coming across a lot of good stuff worthy of a fresh lick of paint as we programme VisaGeeza.Ai which is 40% complete and 97% accurate so far. Our aim is to be 120% accurate once we’re 100% programmed. This extra 20% involves making suggestions … Watch this space.

QUESTION

My current work visa is about to expire 5 days from now. I’ve applied for a transfer and extension simultaneously almost 4 weeks ago as I am moving to a new employer.

The visa application has not been approved yet.

What if they don’t get back to me before the expiry date of my current limit of stay? Do I have to leave the country?

Someone told me you can stay in HK for 2 weeks after your work visa expires. Is this true?

Also, I am not sure if this complicates things, but I am moving industries as well.

I was an English teacher for the last year in Hong Kong and I am moving back into business.

I used to work in Insurance for almost 3 years before I came to Hong Kong. This new job is an Insurance job as well and I have written the papers I need to be able to practice this profession in Hong Kong.

Thanks for your insight.

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

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PODCAST ANSWER

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Blended, Unmarried, Non-Traditional Family With School-Age Kids – What Hong Kong Visa Choices Exist?

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

Blended, Unmarried, Non-Traditional Family With School-Age Kids – What Hong Kong Visa Choices Exist?

First Published April 25, 2012 – Updated February 2, 2024

Hong Kong Visa Choices?

As I work my way through the preparations for the launch of VisaGeeza.Ai, I am taking the opportunity to give a fresh lick of paint to advice that I gave in years past which is still very much relevant today.

Modern families come in all shapes and sizes and when an unusual situation presents itself, Hong Kong visa opportunities need to be shaped and mould to fit. Here is an interesting scenario that has played itself out over the last 12 months and sheds some fascinating light on how to make round immigration pegs fit in square visa holes…..

QUESTION

“Basically I have been living and working in HK for the past 2 years and I am looking to relocate my girlfriend here over the summer. She is currently based in Canada and she has a 3 year old daughter from a previous relationship.

We have been looking at kindergarten/schooling options and the ones that I have spoken to state that they can’t enrol a child unless they have a HK visa (not tourist). So I can see two potential options, my girlfriend gets work here and applies for a dependent’s visa for her daughter OR I can somehow arrange for her daughter to be a dependent on my visa (I have a full working/employment visa).

There is no guarantee she will be able to get a job in HK straight away yet we will need to get her daughter into education as soon as possible so the question I have is – is there any way I can assign her daughter as a dependent on my visa, perhaps by setting myself up as a legal guardian? Also I will be financially supporting them both here.”

ANSWER

There is no possibility of securing a dependant visa for your girlfriend’s daughter unless there is a legal guardianship in place (which presents its own challenges as I’m sure you’re aware – you’d have to talk to both a Canadian and a HK family lawyer for specific advice on this question – and I’m not convinced the HKID would not look at this as merely a visa manoeuvre, which of course it is, thus getting them offside from the outset).

If you can demonstrate that you and your girlfriend/her daughter have previously cohabited you have the possibility of securing prolonged visitor visas for both of them under your sponsorship (getting them ‘resident’ in HK with you as a starting premise) and then seek separate dispensation for the child to take up study.

The HKID are reasonably flexible in these situations (but a prior cohabitation is essential to get out of the starting gate for a prolonged visitor visa).

My best advice in these circumstances would be to bring them to Hong Kong, have them live with you for several months in HK as visitors (assuming they are both Canadian citizens you should be able to secure a total of 6-9 months stay under the visitor visa category with a couple of family trips abroad in that time) then apply for prolonged visitor visas on the strength of your six-nine months cohabitation and proof of a prior lengthy relationship, seeking separate dispensation for your daughter to enter into education as part of the same applications.

This assumes, of course, that your girlfriend has not yet secured an employment visa in her own right thereby affording the dependant visa option independent of her immigration connection to you.

Otherwise she could make an application under the Top Talent Pass and/or Quality Migrants Admission Scheme – but she would have to be exceptionally talented/qualified for this visa class and approvals are generally hard to come by.

One other thing to bear in mind is that the HKID will definitely require the consent of the child’s father, if he is still a legal part of her life, for your girlfriend to bring her to Hong Kong. The nature of the documentation required from the HKID will depend on the nature of the ongoing parental responsibility which the father carries for the child (if any).

If marriage is part of your long term plans and is legally feasible for you both bringing forward these plans would avail dependant visas at a stroke (but I would never advocate marriage merely for the sake of immigration!)

Those are you options in a nutshell. You’ll no doubt get what you need from the HKID, eventually, but you may have to take a bit of  a detour and delay your plans for the  start of your daughter’ss education in your round pegs in square holes situation.

I’ve seen these types of scenarios many times before and we have always been able to finagle an acceptable outcome.

For more details on the visa options in play for you please check out the detailed advice on the Hong Kong Visa Handbook .

FOLLOW UP QUESTION

“I emailed you around about this time last year with regards to relocating my girlfriend and daughter over to HK. They arrived in May 2011 and we got off to a good start as my girlfriend managed to get a job fairly quickly, thus securing her own employment visa and dependent visa for her daughter who is currently going to a school in Sha Tin.

 Their visas run out in May 2012 and the problem is my girlfriend will not be getting her visa renewed as she is pregnant, due at the end of June and will stop working in the short-term. Therefore the dependent visa will also run out and we are back to square one.

Would an application for a dependent visa be possible for both of them based on the grounds that we have been in a long term relationship (4+ years), have been living together for the last 10 months in HK (my partner and I have a joint rental agreement and joint bank accounts) and I have been supporting them financially since they arrived?

Or would it make more sense to apply for extended visitor visas once their current visas have run out and write separately to allow her daughter to continue being educated in HK?

 The priority is to make sure her daughter is deemed eligible to continue to be educated in HK.

 Apologies I have tried to gather the right answer from your website but I can’t seem to find it!”

FOLLOW UP ANSWER

There is no possibility of securing a dependant visa for your partner nor her daughter (as you are not legally married), but ironically, after the baby arrives you will be able to secure a dependant visa for your new born assuming your name appears on the birth certificate.

You find yourself in a vortex of confusing immigration issues to be addressed. This is how I see them:

1 – Your partner will have to secure a prolonged visitor visa sponsored by you as a defacto spouse.

2 – Your informally adopted daughter may also have to have a prolonged visitor visa sponsored by you with dispensation to study or secure a student visa in her own right (it depends on what the HKID want to do in these circumstances – they would ultimately decide the status they believe he should have as she is still so young). I suspect the HKID would want to have proof that the biological father, assuming he still plays a role in her life, has no objection to the continuing immigration arrangements in Hong Kong.

In pursuing this tack, you will have to make the case that your relationship does in fact go back a long way, even prior to their arrival in Hong Kong, and that for the last 10 months you have all been living together as a family.

If your partner does intend to return to the workforce, you could make the argument that the prolonged visitor visa is just an interim measure until the confinement/maternity leave period is over whereupon she will once more secure an employment visa in her right and return your daughter to dependant visa status once more.

This may make the HKID a little easier on you from a documentation perspective if they know that they only have to anticipate a one-time only issue of prolonged visitor visas lasting just 6 months.

I would also make the applications sooner rather than later, certainly as soon as she stops working.

I’m not surprised you can’t find information on this scenario on our website. It’s not the everyday situation that we come across!

With the right applications and a lot of patience with the process you will get an acceptable outcome, of that I’m certain.

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Why Applying for a Hong Kong Foreign Domestic Helper Visa for Your Girlfriend is Not a Good Idea

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Family Visas, Hadley Says… / 9 responses

Foreign domestic helper visa for your Girlfriend?

Another ‘oldie but a goodie’ post from nigh on 11 years ago. Just goes to show that some things simply don’t change when many do when it comes to Hong Kong immigration! All of this content is being brought bang up to date for inclusion in VisaGeeza.Ai which is taking shape nicely now. More on this once we’re set to launch.

First Published August 8, 2012

So, you’ve met a lovely local girl recently on your holiday to Thailand, Indonesia or the Philippines and you’re thinking about the kind of visa she might get to allow you both to carry on your relationship now that you’ve returned back to Hong Kong.

In these circumstances, you might be tempted into thinking that a Foreign Domestic Helper visa is the way to go.

However, this is not a good idea for very many reasons, not least that you will almost certainly be breaking the law – both of you!

In the process of applying for a foreign domestic helper visa both you and your new beau will effectively be making misrepresentations to the Hong Kong Immigration Department – and this is a criminal offence.

You can, and almost certainly, will go to jail – the both of you!

And when you do get out of prison, unless the you have the Right of Abode, it’s unlikely that you’ll be allowed to remain in Hong Kong – she won’t certainly – and it could well mean the end of your time in Hong Kong.

So, if you’re thinking about such a solution to your girlfriend’s Hong Kong visa problem – please think again – it is just not worth it.

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