What’s The Story When You Hold A Hong Kong Work Visa And Face Redundancy?
Posted by The Visa Geeza / in 60 Second Snapshot, Employment Visas / 12 responses
Losing your job in Hong Kong can affect your employment visa status in the HKSAR. This brief video outlines the legal implications if you find yourself in this situation.
The Hong Kong Immigration Department are highly sympathetic to foreign nationals who find themselves with an employment visa sponsored by an employer that has had to make them redundant.
In this situation you can expect the employer to notify the HKID of the fact of your redundancy and therefore you need to act on the basis the Immigration Department are fully aware of the change in your employment circumstances resulting from the loss of your job.
Best practice now is for you to independently write to the Director of Immigration and advise them of what has happened to you. Do this within 14 days of the notification to you of your redundancy.
You can then expect that the HKID will then write back to you stating that it’s ok for you to remain in Hong Kong until your current limit of stay expires.
Assuming it is your intention to remain in Hong Kong, this should then provide you with sufficient time to make alternate arrangements to stay in here, either to find another employer or, if you’re so minded, to start up a new or join in an existing business.
In the meantime it is lawful activity to look for, interview and accept a new job offer.
And also pursue the possibility of starting up your own company or investing in someone else’s.
However, it is not lawful to take up a new job until you have secured the permission of the Immigration Department to do so, nor indeed to commence activity in any new business which you are involved with until the HKID have agreed that is ok for you to do this.
So your next move is to make a new application to the HKID either to change your employment visa sponsor to work for an alternate employer or make an application for an investment visa in respect of your new business endeavours.
The availability of the consent of the Immigration Department to these ends will be determined on the individual merits and the circumstances of the new application and should not be assumed as automatically approvable.
You still needed to pass the approvability test for these applications in their own right but you can rest assured it is unlikely the HKID will force you to leave Hong Kong just because you have, through no fault of your own, been made redundant from your job in the HKSAR.
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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.
M.
Hi,
I currently have a working visa and my spouse holds a dependant visa and works thanks to that.
In the event i get fired, how long would it take for my visa to get revoked if it all?
Will i be able to travel in and out of HK? or can only leave but not come back?
WIll my spouse lose automatically her visa too? in how long? can she stay in Hk nonetheless the time for me to find a new job?
Can she travel as well? or only leave the country but wont be able to come back?
Thanks in advance if you have the answer
M.
The Visa Geeza
The substantive answers are all in here: https://hongkongvisageeza.com/hong-kong-employment-visa-sponsorship-2/
Your wife’s limit of stay follows yours so she will not be impacted in any way due to the loss of your job until your present visas expire when she, like you, will not be able to secure an extension to your current employment and dependant visas. If she’s working and is eligible, you might consider Swapping Status:
https://hongkongvisageeza.com/hong-kong-immigration-what-does-it-mean-swapping-status/
John
Hi,
This is useful, and I was not made aware of this by HR.
– I am now over the 14 day notification period as was not aware of this, but assume i can still write the letter to immigration.that I am going to be jobseeking?
Once my reduncancy period ends, and I am no longer sponsored, can my partner continue working on her dependent visa as she has been doing the last few years?
If we take any short trips / holidays outside HK after the reduncancy period has ended are we able to return under the permission to remain timeframe?
thanks
The Visa Geeza
– I am now over the 14 day notification period as was not aware of this, but assume i can still write the letter to immigration.that I am going to be jobseeking?
YES
Once my reduncancy period ends, and I am no longer sponsored, can my partner continue working on her dependent visa as she has been doing the last few years?
YES
If we take any short trips / holidays outside HK after the reduncancy period has ended are we able to return under the permission to remain timeframe?
YES
Peter Mason
Hi,
1) Which form should I use to advise HKID of the change of employer.
2) My new employer is a UK company with a HK registered company. Initially my new contract will be from the UK (Parent Co) How/what is the most appropriate way of informing HKID of this and for them to apply for / notify HKID of change of sponsorship
The Visa Geeza
Hello Peter – you need to make a Change of Sponsorship application. Please see: http://www.hongkongvisageeza.com/tag/change-of-sponsorship/ for a complete discussion and the resources required. The forms you need are the ID990A and ID990B and also the ID91 if your current limit of stay is set to expire in the next 4-6 months. You will need the local entity to endorse your UK employment contract terms and reflect them in a local letter of engagement and submit this as part of your application bundle. Thanks for stopping by and asking your question. Cheers!
The Visa Geeza recently posted..What Is the Bare Minimum Income & Accommodation Arrangements to Suitably Sponsor a Hong Kong Dependant Visa?
Sammy
Hi
thank you very much for this very informative website, it contains so much valuable information.
About the fact that we can keep our right to reside in Hk after we face redundancy (so through no fault of your own), is it the same thing if I resign from my current job ?
I have no other job but as my visa expires in 1 year and a half, and I can afford spending a few months trying to find a new job, as things are not going so weel in my current job, I am not fired, but I would like to quit : am I in the same situation than a staff facing redundancy and will HK Immigration let me stay in Hk untill my visa expires?
Understand from most of your posts this should be possible but wanted to ask you if you already encountered some cases like this before ?
thanks so much
The Visa Geeza
Yes – this is invariably not an issue. Your privilege to reside continues (unless expressly revoked by the Hong Kong Immigration Department) whilst your privilege to work ceases. This point is discussed in this post: Will a Break in Continuous Employment Mean a Break in Continuous Residence For the Purposes of a Hong Kong Right of Abode Application? Thanks for your question and good luck in your job search!