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If you find yourself often in Hong Kong as a frequent Visitor is it lawful and / or possible to rent an apartment in order to keep accommodation expenses down…

QUESTION

I’m an Expat based in Thailand & often come to Hong Kong for meetings or transit for business trips to China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan.

 Let’s say roughly 10-14 days a month, with an average of 2-3 entries.

Since hotel costs are ticking up & I can’t leave documents in a safe place, I’m considering renting a 850 sqf apartment in Wanchai.

Would this be a problem for Immigration?

Can I rent an apartment in Hong Kong as a Visitor?

I’m on the frequent traveler program & get 3 months entry visa.

Thank you for your feedback

ANSWER

In actual fact there are no immigration implications of a decision to rent an apartment by a frequent visitor in Hong Kong. For the purposes as you’ve enunciated them, Immigration won’t really have anything to say about that per se because there’s no real forum for them to have an opinion about it.

As a foreign national granted visa free privileges upon arrival, then you don’t have to seek any prior clearance of the Immigration Department. So there’s no questions ever asked in relation to your accommodation proposed for Hong Kong. Moreover as a travel enrolled in the frequent traveller programme, you don’t actually have to meet face to face an immigration officer who would ask you questions that speak to your accommodation arrangements while you’re in Hong Kong and therefore it doesn’t raise itself as a practical issue for you.

In reality the real challenge that you’re going to face is that as a visitor to Hong Kong you’re never going to be able to get Hong Kong identity card and the landlord that you may find yourself negotiating with may require a copy of a Hong Kong ID card before he or she’s comfortable in entering into a tenancy agreement with you.

And, whilst there are no, as I say, legal preclusions from entering into what actually is a private arrangement when it comes to a tenancy agreement for residential purposes, you may find that the landlord when he realises that you don’t have residence visa status here, may suddenly demand a much higher deposit or try to leverage a premium on the rent, but that is ultimately a negotiation for you to engage in.

But in a nutshell, there are no immigration implications to what you’re proposing as such and I wish you all the very best with it.

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