Hong Kong Visa & Immigration Topics

2015 Hong Kong Immigration Policy Update – Earthquake or Tremor?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Family Visas, Investment Visas, Long Stay & PR, Musing, Special Programmes / No responses

On February 10, 2015 I gave a talk at www.centreo.hk on my interpretation of the immigration policy changes announced by CY Leung earlier in January. In this final segment I ponder whether the changes slated are essentially good, bad or indifferent for the average visa applicant… More Stuff You May Find Useful or Interesting 2015 […]

Why I Hate the Hong Kong Quality Migrant Admission Scheme (& You Should Too)

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Musing, Special Programmes / 116 responses

The Quality Migrant Admission Scheme sucks. It really does. Granted, for those fortunate souls who go on to finagle a QMAS result out of the Director of Immigration, the programme is a complete godsend. And all power to them. If it gets them a visa to make a contribution to our fine city, that’s all […]

Interview: Do You Think that IANG Allows a Loophole for Foreign Graduates to Game the Immigration System Here?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Musing, Special Programmes / 8 responses

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 […]

Foreign National Entrepreneurs Starting Up in Hong Kong or China – Where is Better for Visas?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Investment Visas, Musing / 2 responses

   Image Courtesy of China Daily Mail Paul Bischoff recently laid bare the visa and immigration problems which entrepreneurs (and intending foreign national residents generally for that matter) face when seeking to set up in China in this provocative piece in TechinAsia.com (read the comments especially). China has always been a hard place to meet any level of […]

Interview: Has Hong Kong Ever Been Used as a Kind of Stepping Stone Into Another Immigration Jurisdiction?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Family Visas, Investment Visas, Long Stay & PR, Musing, Special Programmes, Visitor Visas / 2 responses

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 […]

Interview: Is the Hong Kong Immigration Department Website Actually Fit For Purpose?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Family Visas, Investment Visas, Long Stay & PR, Musing, Refusals & Appeals, Special Programmes, Visitor Visas / 16 responses

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 […]

Stephen Barnes What’s Up Hong Kong Interview: Immigration, Visas, the Universe, Life & Everything

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Investment Visas, Musing, Visitor Visas / 2 responses

Yours Truly was interviewed by What’s Up Hong Kong in my favourite corner of Pacific Coffee (Fenwick Street / Lockhart Road in Wanchai)  last week and today the session was posted on their website for download and listening. Travis Jones, the founder of the site, has a vision to interview folks in Hong Kong who have something […]

UPDATE: Hong Kong Prolonged Visitor Visas for British Nationals – the Jury is Still Out After All

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Family Visas, Musing, Refusals & Appeals / 1 response

I am really grateful to Paula Walker of Crown Mobility for engaging last week on the topic of prolonged visitor visas for British nationals seeking to join their loved ones in Hong Kong. Following on from Thursday’s post (where I reported that UK nationals are no longer able to persuade ImmD to grant them prolonged visitor visas) […]

Realistically, What is the Minimum Number of Points for a Shot at a QMAS Approval?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Special Programmes, Your Question Answered / 12 responses

The Quality Migrant Admission Scheme attracts a lot of interest from the Asian subcontinent, ostensibly because of the ‘if-you-don’t-try-you’ll-never-know’  nature of the programme along with the facts that it costs next to nothing in official fees to apply (compared with, say, Australia where you seemingly have to mortgage your first born in fees to the […]