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Thankfully, Hong Kong immigration is not overly bureaucratic or legalistic so what appears to be an intractable problem more often than not is not such a big deal after all… This post details the Dependant Visa Proof of Means

First Published August 24, 2017 – Still of interest today

QUESTION

Hello,

My wife and I were married earlier this year. I am a US citizen, but she is an HK’er. 

We are presently in the US and soon plan to apply for a dependent visa.

I am a small business owner in Chicago and have been offered contracts on the condition that we relocate to Hong Kong.

The contracts start in late 2017 and my dependency visa will surely not be ready by then.

We intend to fly in for early December, and to work together in the business. 

If we were to set up the business in her name until my dependent visa has been issued, how can she prove her ability to support me, if many of our previous invoices are in my name?

Is there another way around?

I want to do this as cleanly as possible, although I have accepted the fact that I will be spend the winter in Hong Kong on a visitor visa, where only my wife can work.

In short, can I save this contract without jeopardizing the chances of my dependency visa?

ANSWER

At first blush, this immigration question seems to involve a bit of a Catch 22, somewhat of an intractable problem as regards how to satisfy proof of means in the context of a dependent visa application for Hong Kong where a couple are effectively resident outside of Hong Kong and they’re doing business there.

One of them is effectively a Hong Kong permanent resident. The other is not in possession of any immigration status. But as they’re married, they’re going to make an application for a dependent visa, and because their business interests overseas are effectively their means of being able to satisfy proof of financial worth for the purposes of the dependent visa in Hong Kong.

Subsequently, how can that scenario positively impact on the consideration of a dependent visa for the trailing spouse, as it were in this application? Well, for all practical purposes, the answer to this question is to have both of you relocate to Hong Kong as planned. You come as a visitor, put in place the necessary business infrastructure to allow your new business in Hong Kong to be legally carried on here, and in the process of that demonstrate the ownership of that vehicle being in the hands of both yourself and your spouse.

As part of the application for the dependent visa, you’re going to have to show that your wife conceptually can put a roof over your head and also food on your table. And the food on your table piece will be satisfied by the establishment of your business in Hong Kong that you have contracts that are being brought to Hong Kong with you from the US in this instance, show to the Immigration Department your track record in the US previously, and allow the Immigration Department to be satisfied that in the context of you and your wife’s plans for Hong Kong and this business and the confirmed business that you’re bringing with you that will give you the necessary income to satisfy financial means for the purposes of the dependent visa.

Naturally enough, you’ll have to have some resources sitting in your bank account – won’t have to be a great amount, but certainly enough to tide you over until income starts flowing through to your Hong Kong business. And in the context of that particular story, I think you’ll find that the Immigration Department will be satisfied that conceptually your wife has the means to put food on your table and that you are not going to end up being a charge on the state and that will work for the purposes of independent visa applications.

So, as I say, what looks at first blush to be somewhat bureaucratic Catch 22 scenario, how can you satisfy the Immigration Department that you do have the means to be independently active in Hong Kong, both socially and as a family, and also commercially, and if you look at your situation in the round, ensure that you’re compliant on the ground for business purposes when you make your application for the dependent visa here, show your track record prior to coming to Hong Kong, and I think you’ll find the Immigration Department will be more than satisfied with that arrangement. So I don’t think you’ve got too much to worry about.

So, yes, by all means, come as a visitor, put in place the elements of your new business entity in Hong Kong, and then use that reality together with the reality of what you were doing previously in the United States, and how you’re going to be working together in Hong Kong going forward, and show that you’ve got those contracts together for yourself and also that you’ve got some means sitting in your bank account to allow you to tide you over through to you start working in that business and generating income to the new entity.

Okay, that’s it. Straightforward in my view. I hope you find it useful.

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