02
Jun 2018Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Feature Article, Musing / No responses
Coming to Hong Kong for the first time? Here are 11 things YOU need to know before you go to Hong Kong!
A comprehensive travel guide to bring you up to speed on the weather, language, getting around and more!
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26
May 2018Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Family Visas, Your Question Answered / 8 responses
The Hong Kong Immigration Department grant dependant visas on the basis of family reunion in Hong Kong.
Where, however, the sponsoring spouse is no longer resident in the HKSAR, the question is begged as to whether or not an extension will be available for the sponsored dependant visa holder?
QUESTION
I currently live in Hong Kong on a dependent visa.
For the past two years my husband (a permanent resident of Hong Kong) started to live and work in the United Kingdom because we planned to settle in the UK in the future . Unfortunately he was unable to process a UK visa for me because of uncertainty of jobs there, which is not possible till now.
My Hong Kong dependant visa is expiring soon so he will come back to Hong Kong for my visa extension.
My question. Is there any supporting documents needed from my husband because he is staying outside of Hong Kong?
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24
May 2018Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Your Question Answered / No responses
So, exactly what privileges come with a Hong Kong work visa? Can you actually work on the side under a Hong Kong work visa?
QUESTION
Hi!
I have a question regarding employment visas. I currently hold a full time Hong Kong work visa from a company (X), and I just registered my own business and will have several avenues of work for this. Therefore, I’ve been told I should change my visa over so that my company sponsors myself to do all the work through these different avenues, including company X.
Is this the right procedure?
Otherwise, can I maintain my work for company X, while my company gets paid (instead of me) for the other work I’m doing? Is that allowed?
THANK you!
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20
May 2018Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Long Stay & PR, Musing, Resource / 5 responses
On May 29, 2014 The Henley Group sponsored a talk on How to Apply for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong at the American Club.
Spaces were limited and it booked out pretty quickly.
Nevertheless, we recorded the whole presentation and are pleased to produce it here in 7 parts.
The entire talk will be posted on this website over the course of the next couple of weeks
We originally produced a version of this presentation last year.
However, this time we can bring the material to life a bit more with an actively engaged audience and a lovely ambiance to the session all told.
I hope you get value from it.
A hat tip to my new colleague Chris Michael Owen who joined us recently to head up our video production endeavours as our resident cinematographer here in Hong Kong.
Chris joins our team working closely to complement the Sterling work of our long-standing video artist guru, India-based, Chirag Sachdeva.
Together we have big plans for the rest of the year and you will begin to see a significant uplift of the volume and quality of our video content as Visa Geeza TV emerges from the drawing board little by little as a result of our recent investment in the Video Cha Cha studio in Wanchai.
Either way, our intention is to help answer your Hong Kong visa questions and assist in solving your immigration problems.
Our websites are about you, not us, and we’re just happy to have you around.
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17
May 2018Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Family Visas, Musing / No responses
Hong Kong dependant visas for qualifying same sex partners? Progress it seems.
ImmD have quietly, of late, started issuing same sex partners who are married or have a civil partnership with an immigration status that is equal to a dependant visa.
The status is ‘permission to remain in Hong Kong under only a limit of time’. This means that the holder can work and secure a Hong Kong Identity Card. It’s the functional equivalent of a dependant visa but, it seems, it not formally a dependant visa (just yet).
The move comes after Hong Kong’s Court of Appeal ruled last year that authorities were wrong to deny a visa to a British national seeking dependent status on the basis of a same-sex partnership. Same-sex spouses of Hong Kong residents can now obtain visas, but the case has been appealed to Hong Kong’s Supreme Court, which could reverse the Court of Appeal’s ruling. Arguments before the Supreme Court are scheduled for June 4.
The following (redacted) letter of approval from a recent case sets out how / why are they are doing it.
Ideally a marriage certificate must be available in support of the application. A civil partnership may still be acceptable but in the final analysis it is down to the discretion of the examining officer to accept a civil partnership as part of the assessment for the existence of a genuine relationship. (NB civil partnerships between heterosexual partners do not yet attract dependant visa eligibility.)
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14
May 2018Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Your Question Answered / No responses
Will previous financial difficulties experienced ‘in another life’ outside of Hong Kong impact on your ability to secure an employment visa here?
QUESTION
I’ve dreamed of living in Hong Kong for much of my life, but I have a bankruptcy in my past and don’t know if it will affect my plans to find a job and get a sponsored work visa.
How does having a USA bankruptcy (Chapter 7, elimination of unsecured debt, usually someone with few/no assets) on my credit record affect establishing myself in Hong Kong?
Do employers/ Hong Kong Immigration require credit checks?
Does having a bankruptcy in my past make it difficult get a work visa, make me an unlikely candidate to get a sponsored work visa?
Other than for an apartment rental credit check, does anyone officially have to know?
Since that unfortunate event quite a few years years ago, I’ve kept a good job, re-established my credit as much as possible, have several credit cards and saved quite a bit of money.
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100% visa application success rate? Take it all with a pinch of salt
Is it better to apply for your visa before or after you relocate to Hong Kong?
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09
May 2018Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Musing / 2 responses
HOT OFF THE PRESS
Yesterday, ImmD announced a new immigration Scheme designed to, allegedly, make life easier for certain types of employer who need to hire biotechnology, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, robotics, data analytics, financial technologies or material science experts AND who work and / or operate out of Hong Kong Science and Technology Park or Cyberport.
I plan to do a complete critique of this Scheme once the full details are known but first reading is that the Scheme is not much use to the average start up or SME as, among other things, it calls for mandatory employment of locals to qualify – the first time I have seen such a requirement in Hong Kong Immigration practice.
In essence it’s a hybrid Supplementary Labour Scheme / Start Up Visa Frankensteinian monster that even comes with fixed time limits, a quota allocation application dimension and a compliance reporting requirement.
To me it seems as though a bunch of government bureaucrats sat down and said ” how can we come up with an immigration programme that nobody really needs that will allow us to spend all these government coffers and at once show just how committed we are to making life easier for those poor companies who have to earn their living rather than spending time administering government initiatives? ”
More from me later…
In Brief: What is the Technology Talent Admission Scheme (TechTAS)?
TechTAS is a three-year pilot scheme which provides a fast-track arrangement for eligible technology companies/institutes to admit overseas and Mainland technology talent to undertake R&D work for them. Eligible technology companies/institutes would first have to apply for a quota. A company/institute allotted with a quota can accordingly sponsor eligible persons to apply for an employment visa/entry permit within the quota validity period. It also has to fulfill the requirement to employ new local employees.
In Brief: What are the merits of TechTAS?
To the technology companies/institutes and technology talent…
By allotting applicant technology companies/institutes with a quota to admit technology talent with specific requirements, TechTAS will provide certainty for them to proceed with their recruitment and business plan.
While TechTAS would require the applicant technology companies/institutes to demonstrate at the quota application stage that the technology talent sought is short in supply or not readily available in Hong Kong, by doing away with the requirement to demonstrate local recruitment failure each and every time they seek to bring in talent, the actual admission procedure will be streamlined and thus be considerably shorter.
Once the applicant technology company/institute has identified a suitable candidate fitting the requirements in the allotted quota, it would take a shorter period of time for the individual to obtain the visa/entry permit – the Immigration Department envisages that the normal processing time for visa/entry permit applications could be shortened to two weeks, upon receipt of all the required documents.
To the technology sector…
The local employment requirement would provide more local job opportunities and help nurture our local talent
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