Hong Kong visas for aged parents – the options for long stay visas for elderly parents of non-permanent residents here are quite limited…

First Published October 8, 2013 – Still of Interest Today

QUESTION

Hi,

I’m married (Singaporean) and working for a major financial institution here in Hong Kong right now.

I have a working visa.

My mother 60 yrs old (Singaporean) has been living with us since March ’13, exiting every 3 months out of the country to renew her stay.

We would like to get her a long stay visa of some sort so we don’t have to worry about her getting stopped at immigration.

Could you please advise if there are any Hong Kong visas for aged parents that we could apply for, for her?

Thanks.

ANSWER

Yes, this is a very tough one indeed. The problem that you’re facing is that your mother is not eligible for a dependent visa sponsored by you because you are merely a temporary resident at this time by virtue of having held or are holding, in fact, an employment visa.

Once you’ve been converted from a temporary resident to a permanent resident, or at the very least, a long stay unconditional stay resident. That is, once you’ve been here for seven years and have gone on to become a permanent resident or have secured unconditional stay or have the Right to Land, in those circumstances, you will be eligible to apply for a dependent visa for your elderly mother on the strength of her being dependent upon you, which conceptually at that time, but it’s not applicable now, as you can appreciate, as long as you can show that you can put a roof over her head and food on a table and that her medical needs are insured for, then this problem will go away over time.

But until such a time, unfortunately, because you’re a temporary resident, you don’t have any rights to sponsor your elderly mother to live with you. So, in a practical sense, you’re left really only today with the visitor visa and all the challenges that are associated with a three month limit of stay as you do with your nationality and running the gauntlet at the border each time that you make an exit and a re-entry, I’ll come back to this subsequently in this answer.

But there is one other visa class that you might be in a position to, or she might be in a position to qualify in her own right. That is the Capital Investment Entrance Scheme visa. And this is where if she has assets to the tune of HKD10 million and, um, has, uh, beneficially owned them for at least two years immediately prior to making an application for a capital investment entrance scheme visa.

Then after a due process of what only takes six to eight months, if she’s prepared to lock those HKD10 million into qualifying investment asset classes, ring fenced in a financial institute and managed by them accordingly, as long as she maintains those investments in Hong Kong for two years at a time, she’ll be able to get a two-year visa extended for two years all the way through to her having been resident in Hong Kong for a full seven years, whereupon she’ll be able to uplift the HKD10 million investments and convert her status through to permanent residency or indeed unconditional stay at her preference.

So, there is one option that would be suitable for her if she’s able to muster the resources to be able to lock into Hong Kong on that basis. Quite a big ask, I appreciate, but it is one category of visa that is available to you, assuming that she qualifies from a personal net wealth perspective.

So apart from that, realistically, unless she goes to university and gets a student visa, what you’re otherwise left with is the status quo of the visitor visa; you could attempt to secure a prolonged visitor visa on the strength of you being the last remaining relative and that she’s a emotionally, spiritually and financially dependent upon you, but this would be a positive act of discretion on the part of the Immigration Department. In my experience, usually the Immigration Department don’t respond positively to such applications. It’s not unknown for them to effect a positive act of discretion upon such an application, but it’s very much a long shot and it’s not something that you should rely on as being available to you as a matter of right and process.

So the final thing is to really, as I say maintain the status quo and undertake what I’ve called the Shenzhen Shuttle which you’re experiencing presently entering and exiting, and each time that she makes a re-entry, she satisfies the immigration officer over her bona fides as a visitor.

And on the basis that the immigration officer at the border is satisfied of her bona fide, she’s not a risk to the potential for breaching her conditions of stay. Then it’s quite likely that for at least for the considerable future, especially if you’re accompanying her in this exercise and already available to answer any questions that the officer at the border might have as to why she’s spending so much time in Hong Kong, then you might very well be able to carry this off on an ongoing basis until such a time as either you leave Hong Kong or you’ve been here for seven years.  It’s not recommended, but, you know, needs must and in your circumstances, it is what it is.

So, I’m sorry I don’t have much more positive news for you; in the final analysis, she’s a visitor and Hong Kong immigration is set up to manage visitors on that basis.

And because you’re merely a temporary resident, unfortunately you don’t have any rights in over yourself to be able to sponsor an elderly parent for any kind of more sophisticated, or indeed useful immigration status for her. So, whilst the news is not great, I hope you found this useful.

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