Can the Employer Sponsoring a Gay Employee’s Hong Kong Employment Visa Assist in Any Way in a Visa Application For an Accompanying Life-Partner?
Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Family Visas, Visitor Visas, Your Question Answered /
With the prolonged visitor visa being a less than satisfactory yet ultimately practical solution to the issue of same sex partners in Hong Kong, it is hardly surprising that it throws up lots of questions and I am grateful to this questioner for raising the issues that he does.
QUESTION
Hi Stephen,
First a big thank you from me for putting out all this information so clearly and concisely.
Here’s my particular situation:
I work for a very large corporation based in Canada. and expect our Hong Kong office to offer me a full-time position sometime in the next couple of months.
I also have a same-sex partner. We are both Canadian citizens. We’ve lived together for a number of years and have enough required documentation (financial and otherwise) that I believe his application for prolonged visitor status would be successful. (His goal would be to eventually find employment in Hong Kong and apply for a change of status.
We both work in the same industry and he has decades of experience. I’ve listened to your PodCasts about keeping the Visit & Work processes and intentions separate from each other.
My question is as follows:
Should I raise this issue with my employer? I have a very good relationship with executive management and they value me as an employee. Is there any chance my Hong Kong based employer would submit my work visa application along with my partner’s prolonged visitor status application?
I’ve heard PodCasts from you saying that this might complicate my application. But is there a chance Hong Kong Immigration will respond more positively if both applications are coming together with the “backing” of a major international company?
What do you see as the pros/cons of doing it this way?
Alternatively, have you ever heard of a case where a company, as a goodwill gesture to their employee, will also sponsor an employee’s same-sex partner so that he/she has the right to remain permanently or to look for work in Hong Kong?
Or a case where a company will sponsor an employee’s same-sex partner and use them on a freelance or part-time basis, for a limited term?
I appreciate your guidance.
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