How Hard Is It To Transfer From A Hong Kong Working Holiday Visa To A Full Employment Visa?

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

Transfer From a Hong Kong Working Holiday Visa To A GEP Work Visa?

You know how it is… you arrive in Hong Kong for a year of fun and adventure and then you want to stay… This article deals with the transfer from a Hong Kong Working Holiday Visa to a full Employment Visa.

 

Practice Update 2026 – This content must be read in light of changes to ImmD practice since it was first published.

Transfer From a Hong Kong Working Holiday Visa ? Historically, as examined by the Hong Kong Visa Geeza in How Hard Is It To Transfer From A Hong Kong Working Holiday Visa To A Full Employment Visa?, utilizing the Working Holiday Scheme as an entry-level stepping stone to permanent employment was viewed as an accessible and relatively forgiving pathway. Under that earlier discretionary regime, an ambitious young traveler on a working holiday visa could leverage temporary, short-term work permissions to demonstrate on-the-ground value to a local employer. If the employer was impressed and prepared to sponsor a full General Employment Policy (GEP) work visa, the application was treated flexibly. The Immigration Department (ImmD) evaluated the transition under a holistic, qualitative standard where enthusiastic employer advocacy, demonstrable cultural fit, and early commercial utility could readily offset junior tenure, limited post-graduation experience, or modest starting salaries.

Under the definitive assessment framework detailed in GEP Work Visa Policy Enters A New Era, ImmD has firmly shut the door on using working holidays as an informal back-door conversion into full employment status. The contemporary GEP operates under an unyielding compliance mandate designed to protect the domestic graduate workforce and admit only verifiable, high-caliber overseas talent. Transitioning from a working holiday visa to a full GEP visa now requires clearing the standard, exhaustive economic and skills-shortage audit: the employer must satisfy a genuine local recruitment test, demonstrate substantial commercial hardware with local MPF headcount, and offer remuneration aligned with senior graduate benchmarks verifiable against Inland Revenue Department Salaries Tax parameters. Sponsoring a junior working holiday maker into a generic administrative or intermediate role on entry-level compensation is summarily rejected as non-compliant.

Stephen Barnes, the Hong Kong Visa Geeza, states:

“The days of treating a Working Holiday Visa as an informal audition that easily converts into a full GEP work visa on the strength of employer enthusiasm are long gone. Under ImmD’s modern enforcement mandate, an application to change status from a holiday maker to a professional employee is subjected to the same aggressive scrutiny as a senior corporate hire. If the employer cannot prove an exhaustive, failed local recruitment search, or if the offered salary fails to reflect prevailing market-rate compensation for indispensable foreign expertise, the application will be refused without hesitation. For foreign youth, treating temporary holiday permissions as a guaranteed bridge to long-term career residence invites immediate refusal, terminating lawful stay and severing the seven-year pathway to the Right of Abode before it even begins.”

 

 

QUESTION

Hi there!

I’m an Australian citizen in Hong Kong, working under a working holiday visa which only permits me to work 3 months per employer.

Is the only way around this to be sponsored by my employer or can I transfer to another visa?

I presume it’s quite expensive and tricky to be sponsored for an employment visa by a company – is that true?

Thanks in advance for your help! 

ANSWER

The working holiday visa is an excellent form of immigration status for people who are under 30 years of age who want to come to Hong Kong and experience Hong Kong for an extended holiday and embark on a little bit of a cultural exchange. However, there are conditions that accompany a working holiday visa depending on your nationality; and in this instance we’re talking about an Australian citizen. An australian citizen is allowed to be in Hong Kong for twelve months to work, but can’t work for any single employer for more than three months at a stretch. So in effect, what happens in the case of a working holiday visa holder who finds himself in a position that both him and his employer wants to regularise and make into a full time, in a sense, a permanent employment, then it is possible to make an application to adjust your status from working holiday visa through to employment.

But bear in mind that the Immigration Department will still apply the approvability test for the employment visa to deem you a professional for the purposes of the General Employment Policy. And that will mean that you will need to show in the context of the job offer that you have got for full-time employment that you possess special skills, knowledge and experience of value to are not readily available in Hong Kong.

Now I’ve dealt with the approvability test for the employment visa under the general employment policy ad nauseam elsewhere on the blog, so I don’t propose that we labour it on this occasion, but the procedure is very straightforward – you can be in Hong Kong possessing a working holiday visa, and you can make your application to adjust your status whilst you’re here and whilst you’re still carrying on providing your employment services under the working holiday visa.

In terms of the expense, well that’s a question of whether you pay for professional assistance to help you through that process or whether your employer has got the necessary resources internally to be able to complete that application on your behalf.

Or indeed, you’ve got all the resources available to you on the Hong Kong Visa handbook and indeed on this blog with me answering questions like this for you so that it doesn’t necessarily have to be an expensive exercise. You can certainly navigate the labyrinth which is the Immigration Department for very little or indeed no cost at all. So that shouldn’t put you off.

In a nutshell, the key thing to understand is that the working holiday visa isn’t designed to be a gateway visa through to full employment; the conditions that you got your working holiday visa under are quite strict. They tell you clearly in advance this is for short term educational and cultural exchange. If it just so happens that you find a really good opportunity whilst you’re here and both you and your employer wish to go through the process of regularising their employment, you can certainly make the application. But understand that the approvability test for the employment vision of the general employment policy is going to dictate whether you ultimately get approved or not.

Okay. I hope you found this useful.

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How Does Your Prior Immigration Record In Hong Kong Impact On Future Visa Applications Here?

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

So, how does your prior immigration record in Hong Kong impact on future visa applications? Do the Hong Kong Immigration Department cross-refer previous applications for a visa to current application for a visa?

QUESTION

Hello!

I have a question regarding to my working visa.

Previously I have been working in Hong Kong in the skin care industry as promotion manager. I wanted to change employers and change the industry related to investments and real estate (I have education in business management, but not in Hong Kong).

I submitted an application to the Immigration Department already and have even spoken with the  Immigration Officer handling my case together with my employer.

However the Officer had concerns about my past experience. Unfortunately I needed to withdraw my application as I felt it would be refused.

My question is – can I apply for a working visa again with the same company, but re. a different position (one that would suit better to my past experience as I worked in marketing before)?

I know from the company’s HR department that they will open position in marketing for me and if I pass the interview for that role I would be submitting documents to Immigration once again.

Would it be inappropriate in the eyes of the Immigration Department. Or you would suggest to find new employer?

Second question. Will the Immigration Department keep that record if I withdraw my application? Would it affect my further visa applications?

ANSWER

1 – ImmD have ALL your records and cross refer to them frequently.

2 – There is no reason why you cannot apply again for the same company with a different job title.

You still have to prove no local person can do the job, that the compensation is broadly commensurate with market rates and that you are a Professional for the purposes of the General Employment Policy but the fact that you withdraw one application with that employer doesn’t preclude you from making a new application with the same employer for a different job.

Be aware though ImmD might seek to learn in more detail if the new application is a proxy for the old one so you may need to explain in some detail how the 2 jobs are different and the decision process between your employer and yourself as to how you find yourself making such a 2nd application which is unusual but not remarkable.

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How Can I Bring My Chinese Girlfriend To Hong Kong To Live With Me While I Work Here?

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

Having a relationship with a Chinese partner resident on the Mainland can be problematic if you wish to share your lives together in Hong Kong…

QUESTION

I am looking to take up employment in Hong Kong soon.

My biggest concern is the ability and feasibility for my girlfriend from Mainland China to be able to join me in Hong Kong.

Please can you advise on possible options.

She only graduated just over a year ago, so a Mainland Talent visa, I assume, is definitely out.

Thanks for your time, much appreciated.

ANSWER

As you have identified already the mission of Mainland Talents and Professionals Scheme which provides an opportunity for mainland graduates who are deemed to be talents or professionals to come to Hong Kong to take up employment on the strength of having received a job offer here from a suitable employer.

This visa programme is not going to be suitable for you in your circumstances because of the fact that your partner is a new graduate. So because of the floodgate mechanism that works in Hong Kong, in a sense to keep down the numbers of mainland residents taking up residence here, realistically, having looked through the options available to you, I would suggest that your best possible chance of being able to carry on your joint lives in Hong Kong is for her to get a student visa, potentially go ahead and participate in a master’s degree programme from a Hong Kong university – and it must be a graduate degree in this respect, or she could take an undergraduate programme as well if she wanted to take another bachelor’s degree on board. However, my advice would be to apply to do a master’s degree and thus get a student visa that would then allow you one year together until she graduates. And then at the end of that one year upon graduation, she could apply for a visa under the immigration arrangements for non-local graduates, which effectively gives her a carte blanche visa to go and work for anybody, no questions asked, for another year, and at the end of that year, as long as she’s got and employment with a suitable and credible sponsor, and the compensation that she’s receiving for the work that she does is broadly commensurate with market rates, then she’ll be able to carry on getting extended in Hong Kong under those arrangements on an indefinite basis through to seven years, as long as she’s in full time employment each time that she makes an application to extend her visa.

So, really cutting to the chase, if you want to carry on your lives in Hong Kong, really the only option you’ve got is a student visa, then immigration arrangements for non-local graduates. I hope you found this useful.

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Do You Need A Hong Kong Employment Visa If You Work For A Hong Kong Company But Not In Hong Kong?

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

Hong Kong Employment Visa?

Do the Hong Kong Immigration Department expect every foreign national employee of Hong Kong registered companies to have employment visas even if they have never worked (or never will work) in the HKSAR?

No. Hong Kong employment visas are strictly territorial; they are required only for foreign nationals physically performing work within the HKSAR

Practice Update 2026 – This content must be read in light of changes to ImmD practice since it was first published.

Historically, as examined by the Hong Kong Visa Geeza in Do You Need A Hong Kong Employment Visa If You Work For A Hong Kong Company But Not In Hong Kong?, the jurisdictional scope of Hong Kong immigration control was treated as strictly territorial. Under standard General Employment Policy (GEP) principles, an individual physically performing their employment duties outside the borders of the HKSAR—even if contracted by a Hong Kong corporate entity and paid in Hong Kong dollars into a local bank account—had no statutory requirement to secure a Hong Kong employment visa. In that era, the advice was straightforward: Hong Kong immigration jurisdiction applied solely to activities executed on Hong Kong soil, leaving overseas personnel free to service Hong Kong corporate clients or regional operations without departmental oversight. Consequently, remote or offshore staffing arrangements were viewed as completely outside ImmD purview, provided the individual did not physically cross control points to take up unauthorized work within the territory.

Under the definitive assessment framework detailed in GEP Work Visa Policy Enters A New Era, ImmD’s heightened compliance and operational audit regime has significantly transformed how offshore employment arrangements intersect with Hong Kong immigration and corporate bona fides. While purely offshore duties remain outside territorial visa requirements, multinational employers and domestic businesses can no longer deploy foreign personnel on cross-border or regional assignments in an administrative vacuum. If a Hong Kong enterprise sponsors or attempts to sponsor key overseas personnel under the GEP while they maintain significant offshore duties, ImmD enforces an aggressive audit of physical presence, assessable Salaries Tax liability with the Inland Revenue Department, and local Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) compliance. Furthermore, if an overseas employee visits Hong Kong under the guise of an ordinary business visitor to attend meetings, supervise operations, or participate in localized projects, immigration control officers actively scrutinize whether their in-territory activities cross the boundary into unlawful employment without prior GEP authorization. Crucially, attempting to claim continuous ordinary residence for the 7-year Right of Abode pathway while based predominantly abroad under a Hong Kong employment contract is systematically rejected under common law residence principles.

Stephen Barnes, the Hong Kong Visa Geeza, states:

“While it remains legally true that working entirely outside Hong Kong for a local company does not require a GEP work visa, treating cross-border corporate employment as an unmonitored free pass is dangerous under modern ImmD enforcement. The moment an offshore employee enters the HKSAR to engage in commercial activities, or an employer attempts to sponsor a GEP visa for someone spending substantial time out-of-country, case officers will forensically interrogate whether genuine domestic employment exists, whether local tax and MPF obligations are met, and whether visitor permissions are being abused. More critically, professionals attempting to run out the seven-year clock toward the Right of Abode while residing offshore under a Hong Kong payroll will find their permanent residency applications summarily refused, as ImmD rigorously enforces settled legal authorities establishing that you cannot be ordinarily resident in Hong Kong if your real home and principal work remain overseas.”

QUESTION

Is there any problem with a Hong Kong registered company employing someone currently resident in Malaysia for a role supporting one of our clients offices in Malaysia? 

I don’t think a Hong Kong employment visa is required because he won’t work here and in the short term at least he can work in Malaysia on a visitor visa as long as he is employed offshore.

ANSWER

Insofar as employment visa permissions for Hong Kong it’s very straightforward. The law says that any foreign national who intends to take up employment in Hong Kong, paid or unpaid, needs the permission of the director of immigration, which means that you need to have an employment visa for all practical purposes.

If a Hong Kong company on the other hand is planning to deploy staff into another jurisdiction to work in that jurisdiction, then it’s really the law of that jurisdiction that comes into play rather than the law of Hong Kong. If the employee is not going to be taking up employment in Hong Kong, no employment visa is needed, but if he goes to Malaysia and Malaysian immigration law demands that he has an employment visa, then clearly he’s going to have to get an employment visa there and comply with the terms of Malaysian immigration law. Now, I’m not entirely sure what Malaysian law says about these things because it’s not my jurisdiction but I have a sneaking suspicion that they probably would have something to say about foreign national working on their soil without the requisite permission.

So it’s worthwhile really looking into that closely and not take anything for granted as such because there may be implications for the Hong Kong company who’s doing the deployment into Malaysia, and it could end up being that Hong Kong company gets itself in hot water with the malaysian immigration authorities that could come back to haunt you.

So, insofar as Hong Kong goes now, don’t have to worry about it. But I’d urge you to check out carefully the requisite immigration laws in Malaysia to make sure that you’re not inadvertently falling foul of the way that immigration in Malaysia is practised to. Okay, all the very best with this.

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I Lived In Hong Kong For 11 Years – And Have Been Gone For The Last 7 – Can I Still Get Permanent Residency?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Long Stay & PR, Your Question Answered / 2 responses

I Lived In Hong Kong For 11 Years – And Have Been Gone For The Last 7 – Can I Still Get Permanent Residency?

It happens a lot more often than you might imagine. You’d think that the many early years in Hong Kong ought to count towards your right of abode but all too often disappointment is in the offing…

QUESTION

Thank you very much for this informative website! I hope you’ll be able to answer my question, I’m not sure if it’s a common scenario or not.

I was born in Singapore and I lived in Hong Kong from 1994 – 2005 (11 years) and moved when I was nearly 11 because of my father’s job, and it has now been 13 years since I left to go and live in Thailand.

My mother has a Hong Kong Permanent Identity Card (and was working for an airline there) but I do not. I had a dependant visa endorsed in my passport at the time I left with my parents.

This usually wouldn’t be a problem after leaving Hong Kong, however, there are two education sponsorship programs that I would like to apply for in Hong Kong which require you to have a permanent HKID.

I have gone to the immigration office about three times in the past 7 years as we do go back quite often, and every time we ask an officer, he says “if you are living in Hong Kong, you can apply for permanent residency.”

Is this true?

Seeing as I have already clocked up 11 years in Hong Kong, all I am missing in the application form is the current residency card.

Does this mean that if I go to university in Hong Kong starting August this year, that I could get my residency card, and then with that, apply for my permanent residency?

The way I see it, although I have been away for a considerably long time, but I am coming back, so this would technically be my 11th year total living in Hong Kong (and I have proof of having been there for 7 years ‘ordinarily’ with my school records, etc.)

I hope my question was clear enough and thank you very much in advance!

ANSWER

This is a very interesting question and it does strike a chord with quite a number of people in Hong Kong who find themselves in your situation.

So, I’m grateful to you for having raised the question and hopefully, I can shed some light on the situation and how your present Immigration Service in Hong Kong is affected by your life circumstances.

Your mother is a permanent Hong Kong Identity Card holder and on the basis that you had been born in Hong Kong and your mother had been a permanent Identity Card holder at that time then at the point of your birth your eligibility for a permanent Identity Card would have been established and effectively in the wake of that there could have been a very good opportunity for you to continue to argue now, so many years later that you are a permanent resident of Hong Kong.

However, that’s some theoretical and hypothetical in this situation because you weren’t born in Hong Kong, you were born in Singapore. So consequently, your eligibility for permanent Identity Card wasn’t established at the time of your birth and consequently, it meant that the immigration status that was available to you when you came back to Hong Kong with your mother was that at of a dependant Visa and as you’ve stated in your question you held the dependant Visa all the way through to the age of 11 and then effectively you left Hong Kong.

Now the interesting thing is that after you had been in Hong Kong as a dependant Visa holder just after your seventh, possibly your eighth birthday, you could have (or your parents could have) made an application to have your eligibility for a permanent Identity Card verified at the age of 11 years of age on the strength that you had been ordinarily resident in Hong Kong with your parents for a minimum of seven years and at that point you would have effectively been in the driving seat for a permanent Identity Card.

Subsequently, once you got to the age of eleven years when the Identity Card is issued to you and had that been, if that had occurred in fact, then effectively at the age of eleven you would have had your Identity Card issued to you possibly before you left Hong Kong and then on the basis that you have been back in Hong Kong on at least one occasion every three years thereafter your permanent Identity Card state, your right of abode in fact would have been maintained and effectively the question that you’re asking today would have been answered in the affirmative.

However, unfortunately because you only held a dependant visa for the first eleven years of your life in Hong Kong, at the time that you left with your parents to go off to Thailand effectively you abandoned your continuous ordinary residence at that time and what that means is that when you come back to Hong Kong in the future you’re going to have to get a student visa and the first eleven years of your life in Hong Kong effectively would have been lost.

So, it’s unfortunate, it’s certainly not going to assist you with the sponsorship programs that you’re lining up to make an application for but if it is any kind of consolation effectively what will happen in terms of your life going forward is that you’ll come back to Hong Kong as a student.

One would assume that you’ll spend three years here as a student, you’ll graduate. You’ll be able to join the workforce straight away if you start working for a Hong Kong employer within six months of you having graduated from university because the immigration arrangements for non-local graduates give you those privileges.

So that is, that’s effectively  going to take you to three and a half years and one assumes that a three to a four-year working career in Hong Kong we’ll have seen you continuously non-ordinary residence in Hong Kong again for the requisite seven years and then you’ll be able to go on to secure the right of abode as an adult in your own right but unfortunately in light of the facts that we’ve got in your question at the moment, you’re not going to be able to secure the right of abode at this point in time.

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QOTW: What Documents Are Needed To Extend A Hong Kong Business Investment Visa?

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

Extend a Hong Kong business investment visa?  Not so long ago the Hong Kong Immigration Department made life quite easy for certain entrepreneurs when it came time to extend a business investment visa…

PRACTICE UPDATE: How the content must now be read in light of current ImmD policy:

This practical document checklist for extension of stay must be upgraded from a routine filing guide to a forensic audit preparation protocol. While the historical checklist emphasized basic certified management accounts, tax returns, and updated business narratives, the department now scrutinizes extensions against the hardened TTPS Category A baseline. Case officers now routinely requisition active Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) contribution schedules verifying continuous market-rate salaries for 2 to 3 local permanent residents, formal commercial lease contracts and utility receipts demonstrating exclusive physical possession, and bank statements showing verifiable ongoing local expenditures. Founders must understand that failing to sustain these operational baselines post-approval results in an immediate refusal to extend their stay.

QUESTION  OF  THE  WEEK

For extending my Hong Kong investment visa for the first renewal, do you recommend submitting any other materials aside from the cover letter, employment letter and the ID91?

ANSWER

Getting a business investment visa extended can be a challenging, or it can be a very simple process. It all depends on the circumstances of your initial approval, your last extension and where your business is today.

The essential starting documentation for an extension to a business investment visa is the simple cover letter explaining that you’re still in business and you’re confirming that you’re engaged in the business.

The ID 91, which is the extension application form, and also a copy of the updated business Registration certificate which tells the immigration department that the business still is ongoing. The question is asked though is if you need to supply any other information to assist the processing of that application.

Now normally it all depends on whether or not your last extension was subject to business review or indeed if it’s your first extension, if your original approval was subject to business review. This can be a double edged sword if you are subject to business review, because what will happen is the immigration department will want to see proof of the nature and the type of the business that you’ve been engaged in over the previous twelve months.

And that’s so that they can be reassured that you continue to satisfy the approvability test showing that you are making a substantial contribution to the economy of Hong Kong. So in pursuing this particular objective, what you need to do is to anticipate the kind of information the Immigration Department would be asking for at the time that they respond to your initial request for the extension.

These documents include proof that you’ve been employing local people through the provision of MPF documentation, proof that you’ve got a properly set up office through the provision of a stamped tenancy agreement and also a copy of your management accounts or your audited financial statement (if you’ve completed an audit since your last extension was approved).

By looking at these documents, the Immigration Department will be able to satisfy themselves that you can or are indeed making a substantial contribution to the economy of Hong Kong. Whether you should apply with these documents from the get go, or whether you should wait for the Immigration Department to come back to you after the application has commenced, is really a personal decision.

My advice and what we do for our clients is to always anticipate that every investment visa extension will be subject to some kind of review of one sort or another. And in this regard, by submitting the information in advance of these formal requests of the Immigration Department, you can expect to reduce the timeline to the formal consideration process, normally from what should be about a two and a half or a three-week exercise, potentially down to one week. This means that once the Immigration Department have received all the information from you in advance, they don’t have to go through the correspondence exercise, and you then don’t have to running around, try to find all the information that they’re asking for.

Thus, my advice is definitely submitting the application for your extension with a full portfolio of information, and not wait for the Immigration Department to come back and raise these requisitions that you have to answer in response.

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Sometimes, There Is Just NO Possibility For A Hong Kong Residence Visa – No Matter How Earnest You Might Be…

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Family Visas, Investment Visas, Special Programmes, Visitor Visas, Your Question Answered / No responses

Practice Update 2026 – This content must be read in light of changes to ImmD practice since it was first published

Under Hong Kong immigration control, maintaining continuous presence through back-to-back border runs—the classic “Shenzhen shuttle” or Macau turnaround—represents an inherently fragile strategy that inevitably attracts severe scrutiny at the control point. In I Have Been In Hong Kong For 2 Years As A Visitor And Have 2 Work Visa Refusals – What’s The Risk Of Refused Entry Again In My Circumstances?, Stephen Barnes, the Hong Kong Visa Geeza, warns that boundary examining officers continuously evaluate an entrant’s bona fides as a genuine visitor. When a foreign national accumulates months or years of aggregate stay interspersed only with brief exits, immigration officers will naturally suspect that the traveler is using repetitive visitor permissions to establish de facto residence or engage in unauthorized, off-the-record employment. Once an individual’s file reveals multiple employment visa refusals, their risk profile surges exponentially: border officers will see an established pattern of seeking local work alongside an ongoing failure to secure lawful employment status, making a formal refusal of entry an acute, imminent probability. To understand how recent policy developments provide structured, lawful mechanisms for legitimate temporary presence without resorting to risky boundary runs, Stephen Barnes details the statutory alternative in Practice Update: The 2026 Immigration Facilitation Scheme – Short-Term Work for Visitors to Hong Kong.

The vital distinction highlighted in the Practice Update is that the regularised and expanded Short-Term Visitor Facilitation Scheme—now encompassing 18 designated sectors as of 1 October 2026—offers a transparent, lawful mechanism for short-term professional contributions, but strictly within formal institutional parameters. It provides zero relief or retroactive immunity for individuals attempting to prolong an unendorsed stay through serial border hops. While qualifying international experts invited by one of roughly 490 government-endorsed host organisations may lawfully undertake pre-approved activities for up to 14 consecutive calendar days, an invitation letter does not override standard border examination or cure an applicant’s adverse immigration history. As Stephen Barnes emphasizes across both analyses, foreign nationals must recognize that visitor status is designed solely for temporary visits, not informal residency. Relying on successive border turnarounds while carrying a history of visa refusals eventually triggers the statutory “hammer falling” at immigration control, reinforcing that genuine short-term assignments must be backed by official host facilitation, while long-term presence demands proper, formal residence permissions.

Hong Kong is such a draw but sometimes it’s just not going to be…

QUESTION

Hi Stephen,

I am 25 Years old Indian National. I don’t have any kind of degree. I own a business from past seven years in India.

I am applying for jobs from past 4 months but in most of the cases I just get rejected since I can’t speak Cantonese or my employer is not willing to sponsor my Employment Visa.

I have a girl friend in Hong Kong who is PR. I want to shift with her but financially she is not strong enough so that she can sponsor me for Dependent Visa after marriage.

I want to start a business in Hong Kong but I can’t go for it since I don’t have enough capital to apply for a  Business Investment Visa or Capital Investment Visa.

The employers are not ready to sponsor my case cause I don’t have any special talent which can be justified in front of Hong Kong Immigration Department.

I do not qualify for QMAS and lastly it is too late for me to apply for university so that I can come as a student and even if I come as a student, I fear it would be very difficult for me to support myself without a job.

It is very difficult every time to come to Hong Kong on Visitor Visa and leave country after 14 days.

I would like to know is there any special visa category under which I can  shift to Hong Kong?

Someone suggested me to apply as a domestic helper or imported worker and once I am there for 2 years I would get enough time to check out other possibilities but getting a job as domestic helper or imported worker seems impossible for Indian National.

Can you please suggest me something which can sort out my issue or I should just forget about starting a new life in Hong Kong.

Please let me know.

Thank You.

ANSWER

Yes, I can understand how extremely frustrated you may be given that you principally don’t have any means for qualifying for any kind of residence visa for Hong Kong. But if you think it through, actually the policy behind the current immigration arrangements in Hong Kong for foreign nationals is designed to ensure, just like every other nation, in fact, that the brightest and the best, if you will, are able to come and contribute to Hong Kong society.

And in that regard, you know, they’re looking for certain qualities from foreign nationals who can take up residence here. And as I said, clearly, unfortunately, in your circumstances, you don’t qualify. So if life in Hong Kong is serious for you, I would suggest that you look closely to the various criteria for approval under the various immigration programs and make sure that you qualify for at least one of them.

Just turning quickly to the idea that you can become a foreign domestic helper or you can participate as imported labour well, effectively, even if you come under the supplemental labour scheme as imported labour, you’re still going to have to have a certain skill set that will be deemed not locally available in Hong Kong.

So given that you have a business background, it’s difficult to understand what might carry the day in that respect and you would still need to have a job offer; and given that foreign domestic helper visas are based on a contract that is bilaterally negotiated between the government and Hong Kong and other governments, and that India not part of that scheme, you would not be able to remain in Hong Kong as a foreign domestic helper in any event.

Sorry to say it doesn’t look very good for you, all told. But thanks for reaching out with your question and letting us know how things have been for you, it’s certainly useful to the leadership generally. Thank you.

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