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What can you do about your dependant visa status in Hong Kong if you have sadly lost your much loved spouse-as-sponsor?

QUESTION

Hello,

I came to Hong Kong on a dependent visa (my wife, a PR, sponsoring me).

I have already completed 3.5 years and my visa is about due for extension.

The dilemma I face is that I lost my wife who died last year and now I am left with no sponsor in Hong Kong.

Will I be repatriated back to my origin of country or do have any chance to remain in Hong Kong?

My earnings here presently average HKD 345,000 per year.

Can I remain in Hong Kong as a dependant visa holder if my spouse has died?

Please advise. Thank you.

ANSWER

Unfortunately, due to the death of your spouse, the prevailing conditions that are needed to extend the dependent visa are no longer present. Therefore, the availability for you to get an extension to your dependent visa is really non existent. However, having said that, the Immigration Department are, in my experience, sympathetic to scenarios such as that which you face and therefore normally they will look to see if you have an existing employment that can form the basis of your ability to remain in Hong Kong as a resident, thereby clearly not penalising you through your unfortunate loss.

So, in essence what happens is that you need to make an application for an extension of stay on your own merits, and those own merits will be factored into your application given that you’ve got an existing employment and that, through clearly no fault of your own, your ability to get an extension of stay through the death of your wife is not going to be available to you.

So the Immigration Department look at these applications usually positively, they have a process called on own merits and I expect that when you make your application for an extension of state they will ask to see all the documents that you need, typically for an employment visa, and when I’ve seen this in the past they’ve actually approved these extension applications in 48 hours; therefore, I believe that you’ll probably be in good shape, all things considered. So head off to the fifth floor of immigration tower with your ID91 extension of stay form. I would also include the ID990A and ID990B from your employer. Assuming that you’ve uh, got an employer and you’re not working for yourself otherwise, it might well be that you need to use form ID999A and form ID999B along with the ID91, and all the kind of information that is normally required for business investment visa. As I say, typically I’d expect the Immigration Department to kind of approve you quickly on your own merits because of your circumstances.

I hope you found that useful.

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