What Are The Chances Of Being Allowed Back If You Overstay Your Hong Kong Visa And Are Then Convicted Of That Crime?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Musing, Refusals & Appeals, Uncategorized, Visitor Visas / 6 responses

It is NEVER a good idea to overstay your Hong Kong visa for the reasons set out below…

QUESTION

I previously overstayed my Visitor visa for a period of 13 months;  I reported to the Immigration Department, was charged and at Sha Tin court I was convicted and given a suspended sentence of 6 months. I bought my air ticket and I was allowed to leave Hong Kong on my own without being formally deported.

This was in June 2008.

Later I tried to return to Hong Kong in 2009 but at the airport I was refused entry and I was told by an Immigration Officer that I can apply for a visa before coming to Hong Kong, as a visa on arrival is not available in my case.

I submitted my Visitor visa application through a friend of mine (who is a permanent resident of Hong Kong) but my application was refused.

2 years later (that is in 2011) I applied again for a Visitor visa via the same sponsor and once again my application was refused.

I wrote an email to the Immigration Department asking if I was blacklisted from entering Hong Kong.

I was told I am not blacklisted, yet my applications keep being rejected.

Can you kindly suggest any measures that I can take to apply successfully for a Visitor visa? I have a local sponsor in Hong Kong and any information/suggestion from you will be of immense help.

ANSWER

Yes, your situation is rather unfortunate as you are appreciating because it’s seven or eight years now since you overstayed your visa in Hong Kong and faced justice for doing that. And as you’ve clearly appreciated, there are costs and penalties to pay for not complying with Hong Kong immigration law, which I think all too many people, frankly, don’t take seriously.

Hong Kong is a great place and you may indeed wish to come back in the future. And as you’re discovering, oversaying whilst gets your time on the ground, in the immediate sense, it is in a sense kind of like, you know, mortgaging your future and your ability to be able to come back to Hong Kong. So it is very unfortunate.

Getting really down to the heart of it, if the Immigration Department have told you there is no blacklist, then that probably is technically accurate. However, each time that you make an application for a visa, the examining officer is going to take into account all the circumstances of your application and if they can see that you did have history of overstaying and indeed were convicted for that and then you departed, normally there isn’t any hurry on the part of the Immigration Department to let you back in because they can’t see any upside. So I’m afraid there’s not much you can do about it; you’re just bearing the cost and consequence of something that you have in your past. And, as these things can very often do, they can come back to haunt you.

I’m afraid that’s what’s happening to you now. So you never know. Just keep on making your applications. One day you might get lucky; but for the moment, I would imagine that the Immigration Department are not particularly interested in having you back.

Okay, I realise that’s not what you hoped to hear, but essentially,that’s the position that you’re in.

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Employment In Hong Kong As A Professional Or An Imported Worker – Which Are You?

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

There is often confusion between employment in Hong Kong as a Professional or an Imported Worker – this post seeks to clear this up…

QUESTION

First of all I want to say that your website is amazing, easy to understand with relevant information.

My question might be very simple but I cannot find the answer myself.

I need to apply for a working visa, I found that there’s two forms one is ‘Employment as Imported Workers’ and the other is ‘ID990A as professional’.

I only have a Diploma or certificate from my country which may not be a tertiary education and is not a degree in other area which is technical, I have experience in customer service, customer care, reception, and hostels back home and in Australia and now I have the opportunity to unfold myself and work in a hostel in Hong Kong.

In which category am I, what is the best I can do.

ANSWER

So the difference between the two particular application types that you’re looking at really gets down to the difference between being a professional with a visa issued for employment under the General Employment Policy, on the one hand, and on the other hand, the application to the Immigration Department under the Supplementary Labour Scheme as an imported worker which is administered by the Labour Department. And then when that process has played its way through, then the Immigration Department will clearly be responsible for issuing the visa.

So, the importation of labour route is really the supplementary labor scheme. And this is not applicable to you. This is, a program which sophisticated employers take advantage of through a long process of proving to the Labour department satisfaction that the particular types of skills that they are seeking to import into Hong Kong for projects cannot be found locally.

And, on the basis that that project is successfully completed with the Labour department, then the Immigration Department will grant visas for up to two years as a maximum to certain imported workers who fit the particular skills profile that has been pre cleared by the Labour Department as part of the early stage of that importation of labour initiative. So for you this is not relevant.

The question therefore is well, are you a professional for the purposes of the General Employment Policy? And can you expect, given the type of work that you’ve articulated in your question, to get approved to do that type of work?

Well, firstly, to be deemed a professional for the purpose of the General Employment Policy, you’re expected to be either a university graduate with two years post graduation working experience in a managerial or supervisory capacity or you have technical or vocational qualifications which you appear to have being a diploma holder plus five years post qualification working experience in the managerial or supervisory capacity, or if you’re merely a secondary or high school graduate, then you’re expected to have at least ten years post secondary working experience in the managerial or supervisory capacity.

In order to get over the first hurdle of being deemed a professional then, as a second part of the approvability test which the Immigration Department applies to any particular application for an employment visa under the General Employment Policy, you would need to show that you possess special skills, knowledge and experience of value to and not readily available in Hong Kong.

So I think this is where your problem lies because you might very well be able to squeeze yourself into the bracket of being a professional. But then when you turn your attention to the nature of the work that’s proposed for you, which is to manage a hostel, I think you’re going to struggle to convince the Immigration Department that the special skills, knowledge and experience are entailed in that particular activity.

Moreover, I suspect that the Immigration Department are not going to buy into the story that the skills required to run a hostel are not readily available locally. I appreciate that the hostel might be for foreign nationals, I appreciate that there’s a certain camaraderie and a certain sort of culture that prevails among hosteling arrangements globally and the types of people that use them, but for the Immigration Department, their mandate is to protect local jobs wherever possible. And in my experience, given the type of work that’s involved and your profile particularly, I would suggest that you don’t get your hopes up that you’ll get an employment visa in order to do that work.

One other option that might be available to you although it’s not clear from your question what nationality you are, but if you’re a qualifying national for a Working Holiday Visa, then you might be able to get temporary employment permissions to engage in work in a hostel, but that’s not really the question.

Okay, sorry the news is not great, but I hope you found it useful nonetheless.

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Is it Better To Apply For Your Visa Before Or After You Move To Hong Kong?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Family Visas, Investment Visas, Musing, Special Programmes / 21 responses

When considering whether to apply for your visa before or after relocating to Hong Kong, it’s important to weigh the pros and cons of each option in relation with the type of visa you are applying for

As a matter of fact there are some types of Hong Kong immigration status where the rules are very strict about where you have to be on the day your application is formally submitted.

For example, if you are applying for permanent residency, then you MUST be physically in Hong Kong on the day you file your application.

On the other hand, if you are making an application under the Admission of Mainland Talents and Professionals Scheme, then you HAVE TO be outside of Hong Kong when you submit your application paperwork to the Hong Kong ID.

But, for the most part, it doesn’t really matter where you are when your application is lodged, at least not from the perspective of approvability or whether the Immigration Department will look MORE or LESS favourably on your case.

If you decide to come to Hong Kong and apply whilst you’re here, there is an advantage if you are a ‘90 day national’. By this I mean, your nationality is granted a 90 day visitor visa upon arrival in Hong Kong (or, if you’re British you even get double this).

You see, as the HKID typically need  7-8 weeks to finalise a residence visa application, the 90 days you get as a visitor will see you through the entire process so it is a relatively easy experience sitting out the time it takes for you to receive the result of your application. No sweat.

On the other hand if you are a 7, 14 or even 30 day national and have filed for your residence visa whilst you find yourself in Hong Kong, the Immigration Department will not grant you any special treatment if you apply to extend your visitor visa whilst you seek to wait out the time to case finalisation.

So, in this case, you’re going to have to do the Shenzhen Shuttle to get a defacto extension to your limit of stay as a visitor – and each time you run the gauntlet of a possible refusal of entry – not a particularly pleasant experience.

No matter what nationality you are or how long the visitor visa permissions you get, if you have applied in Hong Kong, especially if you’re trying to get an employment visa, it is absolutely vital that you stick closely to the conditions of your visitor status. Do not be tempted to start working for your future employer as that will be unlawful if your visa is not yet approved.

There is ‘Catch 22’ though, if you are applying for a business investment visa, which I discuss in detail elsewhere in this Blog (and also in the Hong Kong Visa Handbook) so I recommend you check out those resources too before you make a decision about  the best way start your application.

In any event, if your visa is approved, the way you activate your new status is to receive a visa label from the HKID, leave (if you’re here as a visitor – and you can go to Macau or China, it doesn’t matter – the key is to terminate your visitor status as you go) and then enter Hong Kong with your new visa label affixed inside your passport. This will then activate your new visa and start your period of stay as a resident.

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QOTW: What Happens If My Hong Kong Entrepreneur Visa Extension Application Is Refused?

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

What is the story if your Hong Kong entrepreneur visa extension application is refused by the Immigration Department?

QUESTION  OF  THE  WEEK

If my Hong Kong entrepreneur visa extension application is rejected, is there a grace period after the visa expiration?

If there is a grace period and during which I secure an employee visa, will it reset the permanent residency time counting to zero?

Thanks for your help!

ANSWER

As a business investment visa applicant the test for approval is that you need to show you can make a substantial contribution to the economy of Hong Kong once you get your approval.

The Immigration Department are essentially at the point of approval satisfied of your ability to make that substantial contribution.

If unfortunately, during the time that you’ve held the investment visa your business plan doesn’t really come to fruition, the question is will the Immigration Department deny your extension application or will they, in some way, give you an opportunity to sort of make good on your business plan understanding of course that when

planning a business, no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy.

The Immigration Department usually keep those applicants who have been granted a

business investment visa who upon review are not looking as though they’re

actually fully implementing a business plan that was originally projected they keep those people on a very short tight leash so the chance to get refused is of course manifest but by the same token the Immigration Department don’t want to

pull the rug from underneath you if you haven’t been able to fully deliver on

your plan; so in the instance where they’re not satisfied and there’s the potential for you to be refused an application in my experience they prefer to grant you an extension but as I say keep you on a short leash and give you an opportunity to deliver on your plan the next time around and the next time you’re around that you go for your extension usually after 12 months they have another good look at it to see

whether or not you are making a substantial contribution to the economy of Hong Kong; if you get refused what will happen is the Immigration Department will typically grant you a very short extension potentially if you’re here as a visitor by now, because your original investment visa has expired and you’ve been in the Twilight Zone and the only immigration status available to you would be a visitor visa.

They’ll usually give you sort of three days to 5 days to in a sense prepare your arrangements and then you can exit and then come back into Hong Kong in order to finalize your arrangements, close down your business and ostensively leave if on the other hand you decide that you want to stay even though your business investment visa extension has been denied then you will be able to seek to adjust your status subsequently from visitor through to employment if you have received a job offer for which you are obviously a professional, that you possess special skills knowledge and experience of value to and not readily available in Hong Kong and that the compensation is broadly commensurate with market rates in those circumstances you’ll also expect the Immigration Department to receive from you an undertaking that you’re going to close the business down and not engaging in any further so that they will be satisfied that you won’t be tempted to engage in the business on the side which would be unapproved activity if you’ve been granted an employment visa subsequently and in so far as the issue as regards permanent residency goes as long as you have a relatively short time spent on visitor status converting through to employment status then that will typically not break your continuity or residence of course as long as you’ve been in Hong Kong throughout all of that time and your settled purpose for being in Hong Kong hasn’t been in any way compromised.

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Do You Need Degree To Get A Hong Kong Work Visa?

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

This post deals with the importance of a degree in getting a Hong Kong work visa

The short answer is no, not necessarily.

Having said that, having a degree certainly helps on the road to visa approval, especially if you have post graduate qualifications as well.

The Hong Kong employment visa approvability test calls for special skills, knowledge or experience of value to and not readily available in Hong Kong. In the case of the employment visa specifically, the test is silent as to the specific need for a tertiary level qualification.

So this is basically good news, right?

In one sense it is, for sure.

Thankfully the Hong Kong Immigration Department, pragmatic as ever, recognise that a diverse, highly dynamic economy is actually comprised of skills sets from all walks of life.

To their eternal credit, ImmD have never fallen into the trap of assuming that an education at the University of Life carries no value, unlike so many other national immigration agencies amongst developed economies.

This is especially true in the case of inter-company transferees.

Wanchai’s finest do not often second guess the motivations of international businesses seeking to transfer their employees from one country to another, not least to Hong Kong, so these employments very rarely fail due to want of visa consents from  Hong Kong’s Director of Immigration (unless you are a ‘Bookseller’ – but that’s another story).

That said, a handful of O levels, a High School graduate certificate or the international baccalaureate diploma is not really going to cut the mustard if you do not have at least several years of direct experience in the line of work that is bringing you to Immigration Tower seeking an employment visa to further your career in the HKSAR.

Having said aaaaaaaall that, there certainly have been instances down the years where we have successfully secured employment visa permissions for clients who had only the barest of qualifications (the example of our 18 year old eel farmer and a 32 year old Samoan “water feature rock and boulder placement technician” spring immediately mind).

In the final analysis, the Immigration Department are on the look-out for genuine human capital.

They recognise that Hong Kong is competing for the brightest and best from amongst the world’s developed economies and if we are not alert to talent when it arrives on our doorstep, irrespective of letters after placed after a name, we will miss out and lose ground competitively.

Of course, the protection of local jobs is a key consideration in the application of the employment visa approvability test, but if the Hong Kong ID can make it work, they usually will.

See What Hadley Says… about this.

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What You SHOULD NOT DO When Renewing Or Extending Your Hong Kong Working Visa!

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Family Visas, Investment Visas, Musing, Special Programmes / 2 responses

Extending your Hong Kong working visa?

The beauty of the Hong Kong immigration services professio is that there is a ready pool of customers for both our professional services and also our free-of-all-cost information resources (on both this Blog and also our flagship D-I-Y  Guide Hong Kong Visa Handbook.)

Some foreign nationals come, some go and many even stay forever. So there’s always a lot going on and in my professional practice, I meet a whole lot of interesting people, each with their own unique story.

As I spend quite a lot of time producing these free resources  to enable current or intending residents of the HKSAR to make informed decisions about their immigration status here, it is a very rare pleasure to come across, as I did recently, a resident of Hong Kong who learned the hard way (then blogged about) the pitfalls of getting his residence visa extended.

Jonathan Ervine works for an IT firm  in Hong Kong (Novell) and  eight years ago he published on his blog, A Table For 1, the trials and tribulations of getting his employment visa extended.

Jonathan tells quite a story. Go and read it now.

I will be waiting for you when you get back.

Actually, Jonathan’s experience is not at all unusual, even today.

Nothing much has changed since he wrote his piece in 2009.

Whilst many companies in Hong Kong take responsibility for managing and maintaining the working visa status for their foreign national employees, very many employers do not (including the cabin crew for Cathay Pacific too – or at least it was when my wife worked for them.)

So, if you are stuck with the challenge of getting your own Hong Kong visa extended, year in, year out, why not download our Hong Kong Visa Extension Kit.

It’s completely free of charge and covers every type of Hong Kong residence visa, not just employment visas.

 Download the Hong Kong Visa Extension Kit Now

A 100% Free Service of the Hong Kong Visa Centre

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Is There Any Sure Fire Way To Get Defacto Extensions To Your Hong Kong Visitor Visa By Frequently Undertaking The Shenzhen Shuttle?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Visitor Visas, Your Question Answered / 1 response

Is there any way to turbo-charge the Shenzhen Shuttle?

 

QUESTION

Hey Visa Geeza,

I am a citizen of  Russia and unfortunately have a very short visitor visa which is just 14 days, but I need to stay in Hong Kong for longer as I want to find a job here (I am a graphics and game designer) and been on couple of job  interviews already and plan on doing more.

I’ve reset my visitor stay a couple of times through Macau, but on the third time got questioned upon arrival and got only three days stay.

Later went to Shenzhen and got questioned again by Immigration, but luckily got full 14 days.

So is there any good way to extend visitor stay or get hassle free solution to frequently visit Hong Kong?

ANSWER

What you’ve experienced here is very typical of the way that the Immigration Department manage those nationals with two week upon arrival privileges, such as you in your case as a Russian national.

As you can see that they, in a sense, keep you on a very tight leash, making you exit Hong Kong within 14 days. And, if you then border hop, they can be quite demanding of you when you arrive. So it isn’t a long term sustainable strategy, I’m afraid; the only solution that I might suggest is available to you is if you leave Hong Kong and go back to Russia, then make an application for a two month visitor visa in advance of arrival with the support of somebody in Hong Kong to serve as your sponsor.

Then you might be able to secure a two month limit to stay, which will allow you to attempt to achieve all your recruitment objectives and get an application for an employment visa in before you have to think about leaving the expiry of those two months.

But apart from that, I’m afraid you’re just going to have to try to satisfy the examining officer at the border each time you arrive as a visitor, that you are a bona fide visitor to Hong Kong. Then whilst it’s permitted activity to interview, look for an interview for work it’s not permitted activity to take up that work.

And I think if you were to articulate to an officer at the border that it was your intention to be here to look for work, I think you might struggle to persuade him at your border, I’m afraid: but, I wish you all the very best.

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