Interview: What Was It Like Being An Immigration Consultant in Hong Kong During the Time of SARS?
Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Family Visas, Investment Visas, Long Stay & PR, Musing, Special Programmes, VG Front Page, Visitor Visas / 8 responses
First Published July 18, 2013
On June 6th, 2013 I was interviewed by five law students from the Chinese University of Hong Kong about my experiences practicing immigration here over the last 20 years.
We covered a great deal of ground in the 90 minutes we spent together and over the next few weeks I will be posting the interview broken down into 31 different segments, covering almost every Hong Kong related visa and immigration topic there is.
The students were: Dickens Roy Ken Lam, Sunny Wong, Toby Yip, Margaret Wo and the lady who asked most of the questions and organised the session on behalf of the group, Jacqueline Cheng.
In this segment the question posed was:
What was it like being an immigration consultant in Hong Kong during the time of SARS?
My friends and colleagues over at Astus Services Group very kindly hosted us in their facilities in Central for this interview.
 Other Questions Asked During the Session
How has the experience of Hong Kong immigration policy changed over the last 20 years?
Do you personally find Hong Kong an attractive place to live, work and do business?
How has Hong Kong’s attractiveness changed for you over the last 27 years?
Do your clients typically find Hong Kong’s attractiveness today as it was to you 27 years ago?
In what ways do you think the different entry schemes may affect Hong Kong’s socio-economic development?
Do you think that the Immigration Department suitably promote and encourage participation in the various schemes designed to attract foreign national talent to Hong Kong?
Has there been any demographic change since the introduction of the Admission of Mainland Talents and Quality Migrant Admission Schemes?
What do you think about the Immigration Arrangement for Non-local graduates?
Has Hong Kong ever been used as a kind of stepping stone into another immigration jurisdiction?
Is there a threshold to attaining a visa under the General Employment Policy?
What’s actually involved in getting a Hong Kong investment visa approved?
Can it be said ImmD are sometimes lax in enforcing immigration policy?Â
Which visa program would be most beneficial for Hong Kong’s society?
What was it like being an immigration consultant in Hong Kong during the time of SARS?
 We hypothesize that while the influx of non-residents into Hong Kong may benefit the economy in the short-term, the long-term negative impacts outweigh any short-term positives.  Do you agree with this statement?
 Do you think that there is preferential treatment to non-resident workers?
 What do you think is the most difficult challenge facing Hong Kong now, when it comes to competing for foreign talents and workers? (i.e. as compared to the 3 other Asian Tigers)
What’s your view on Hong Kong’s liberal visitor visa arrangements, especially regarding the large numbers of Mainlanders who come here now?
What about the possibility of a graduate management trainee visa for a foreign national applicant?
How well does ImmD respond to the lack of skills in Hong Kong through adjustments to the General Employment Policy from time to time?
Do you think any improvements could be made on the entry schemes? If so, how?
What do you think is the biggest problem in dealing with ImmD as an organisation tasked with the dual role of providing a public service yet serving as the gatekeeper to Hong Kong?
More Stuff You Might Find Interesting or Useful
The Hong Kong Visa Handbook – now available in good book stores everywhere!
Hong Kong employment visa – when all else failed we appealed to the Chief Executive – and won!
Must Read: True story of a deluded foreign national trying to sue his way to a Hong Kong employment visa
Is it actually becoming harder to get your Hong Kong employment or investment visa application approved?
What’s the minimum capital required for a Hong Kong business investment visa application?
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The Hong Kong Visa Geeza (a.k.a Stephen Barnes) is a co-founder of the Hong Kong Visa Centre and author of the Hong Kong Visa Handbook. A law graduate of the London School of Economics, Stephen has been practicing Hong Kong immigration since 1993 and is widely acknowledged as the leading authority on business immigration matters here for the last 24 years.
