New Content Daily Sign Up Here

Do the Hong Kong Immigration Department expect every foreign national employee of Hong Kong registered companies to have employment visas even if they have never worked (or never will work) in the HKSAR?

QUESTION

Is there any problem with a Hong Kong registered company employing someone currently resident in Malaysia for a role supporting one of our clients offices in Malaysia? 

I don’t think a Hong Kong employment visa is required because he won’t work here and in the short term at least he can work in Malaysia on a visitor visa as long as he is employed offshore.

ANSWER

Insofar as employment visa permissions for Hong Kong it’s very straightforward. The law says that any foreign national who intends to take up employment in Hong Kong, paid or unpaid, needs the permission of the director of immigration, which means that you need to have an employment visa for all practical purposes.

If a Hong Kong company on the other hand is planning to deploy staff into another jurisdiction to work in that jurisdiction, then it’s really the law of that jurisdiction that comes into play rather than the law of Hong Kong. If the employee is not going to be taking up employment in Hong Kong, no employment visa is needed, but if he goes to Malaysia and malaysian immigration law demands that he has an employment visa, then clearly he’s going to have to get an employment visa there and comply with the terms of malaysian immigration law. Now, I’m not entirely sure what malaysian law says about these things because it’s not my jurisdiction but I have a sneaking suspicion that they probably would have something to say about foreign national working on their soil without the requisite permission.

So it’s worthwhile really looking into that closely and not take anything for granted as such because there may be implications for the Hong Kong company who’s doing the deployment into Malaysia, and it could end up being that Hong Kong company gets itself in hot water with the malaysian immigration authorities that could come back to haunt you.

So, insofar as Hong Kong goes now, don’t have to worry about it. But I’d urge you to check out carefully the requisite immigration laws in Malaysia to make sure that you’re not inadvertently falling foul of the way that immigration in Malaysia is practised to. Okay, all the very best with this.

Check Out VisaGeeza.Ai

All Our Know-How : All Our Experience : Fully Interactive

100% FREE!

PODCAST ANSWER

Podcast: Play in new window