Why Do Some Hong Kong Visa Applications Take Months to Finalise (if Ever)?
Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Family Visas, Hadley Says…, Investment Visas, Long Stay & PR, Special Programmes, Visitor Visas / 41 responses
If your application for a Hong Kong visa is taking a very long time to process any number of things could be going on to cause the delay.
For example, the Immigration Department may be doing deep background checks on you or any of your accompanying family members to assess your bona fides in respect of your identity and your relationship with people included in your application.
They may also be looking into the details of any employer and related overseas entities to better understand their origins and whether or not they could be said to represent a security threat to the HKSAR.
Sometimes, however, the Immigration Department choose not to finalise an application, keeping it open and pending on an indefinite basis as they have concerns about the bona fides and suspect there may be an immigration office being committed by the applicants – but don’t have the jurisdiction to prosecute as it is all happening outside of Hong Kong.
Similarly, if the applicant is in Hong Kong and the Immigration Department have concerns about an application but no evidence of any wrong doing when it basically should be approved all things considered, they may deliberately not finalise an application expecting that prolonged processing time will cause the applicant to withdraw and thereby solving a problem without the department needing to actually come to a decision.
As you can tell, these issues all relate back to the role that the Immigration Department play as part of the Security Branch of the HKSAR, so the bottom line is this.
If it’s taking a very long time, you can be very sure they believe there is a problem.
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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.
KI
What does record checking mean from immigration?
The Visa Geeza
They are doing background checks and deepr diligence on your application.
Karen
I am applied for dependent visa for husband. I gave the interview last month and this is the 8th week that I have been waiting. Why it is taking so llong?
The Visa Geeza
How long is a piece of string? It could be ANY reason.
jagroop
hi i m on employment visa in hong kong. i applied my wife dependent visa on may 2021. revised i submitted all documents on july. now till dec 2021 there is no response. online status is in process
is there any problems with documents
The Visa Geeza
I have absolutely no idea.
Simo
Hello
I have applied for a change of employer visa 6 weeks ago and still haven’t gotten any reply yet
Me and my company called the immigration several times and the officer on the phone keeps telling us that everything is okay we just have to wait, the case officer have already pre-approved and we are waiting for the senior officer’s final approval
I would like to know if there might be a problem with my application, by the way, the case officer requested additional documents to provide which we did after 3 weeks of the application, and all the documents are okay, I am very worried about this
I am holding a 2 years working visa that have been approved 3 months ago, I changed employer because I have received a really good offer with an outstanding salary
The Visa Geeza
No idea. I don’t speculate on what ImmD might be doing with an application which we’re not responsible for. You just need to wait out the process.
Steven
Anyone know what kind of explanation letter my friend should write about?
He gave in the his cv and applied for a work visa but on the cv the dates were wrong and immigration are asking for an explanation and an ID468 to sign.
Does anyone have experience or know what the format of the explanation letter should consist of?
Could this effect the application?
Any advise would be appreciated
Thank you very much
The Visa Geeza
I answered this offline.
Eric
Interesting. I didn’t know that they would deliberately not finalize an application to wait out their decision and keep it pending.
Eric recently posted..7 Small Kitchen Storage Tips
The Visa Geeza
It’s a lawful strategy that is expensive to pursue…
CT
I have applied my visa since about late Feb and now (23/4) I still didn’t get the result. Is it too long or just normal time.
The Visa Geeza
Well it depends on the visa type. Delay at this stage is happening on most ImmD visa functions at this time.
CT
It’s student visa, I applied through the university.
The Visa Geeza
Yes all delayed – not deemed an essential visa type due to ImmD staff shortages. Looks like they are 100% back to work next week.
CT
So does it mean that I have to wait another 6-8 weeks?
The Visa Geeza
Quite possibly.
EA
Hi..
Same through as i am experiencing now,
I applied as medical practitioner in hk last May29 2019, my sponsor company was the one who went to the immigration to submit and apply for working visa last june 15 2019 and until now (Oct. 8, 2019) they haven’t recieved yet any information
Was it really take that long?
Help pls
The Visa Geeza
ImmD are taking a LOT longer due to the security matters in HK presently.
Steve
Hi
Im a prospective university freshmen student for HKU waiting for my student visa.
School notified me that my application docs were handed over to the immd on 9th of July and im yet to hear from them
The question is, my close friend who applied the visa with me only one day earlier than I did got his visa last week. We are both from the same country. How come the processing time vary so much?
Its not like im applying a complicated type of visa I don’t understand what could be the problem as the required papers were verified by my university already.
The only possible reason i can think of is that I used to hold a student visa back in 2016 when I was going to HKUST, and I cancelled the visa three months ago because the new school im going to attend which is HKU told me to apply for a brand new student visa.
Any help on this case please??
The Visa Geeza
Every case is different and you cannot glean one expected outcome from any other.
Kim
My niece is waiting her student visa for over 14 weeks now. Is there a problem with her application? Her school tuition fees are all paid up but until now nothing from immigration or school. She’s enrolled into a language centre that said they would get her a student visa like all other students in their school. What is the best thing to do now?
The Visa Geeza
Conatc ImmD and see what might be causing the delay. Could be the sponsorship credentials of the language centre.
Love
Have your niece got her visa?
Manuel
I have applied for a Training Visa in April, I got an answer on May, then on July requesting some documents again, and now I’m still waiting for the results. Is that possible? My internship starts on September so I think I should move in lately August, right? Like in one month and a half probably. I’m dying of anxiety. What should I do? Still waiting?
The Visa Geeza
You can but wait. It’s summer rush at ImmD and it always takes longer…
Duong Vuong
I got the same problem. my sponsor company apply the training visa for me from 23 may, now they said it’s still in process.
what should i do now, just wait?
The Visa Geeza
Not much else you can do really.
Duong Vuong
hi Manuel,
have you got the training visa? I’m applying from may and now i havent receive the decision.
Eric
Hello,
I have been working in Hong Kong for 3 years with 2 different companies. Now I am getting my working visa renovation with a new company. The matter is that while submitting my working visa renovation, Immigration found out that when I previously changed job they were not notified of that as no change of sponsor was done at that moment due to a misunderstanding between my employer and myself. Now they made me sign the form ID468 and write a letter explaining why I did not notify Immigration about the previous change of job. My concern is: will my renovation process be affected? are there any chances to be rejected? will the process take much longer?
Thank you so much!
The Visa Geeza
Usually, the ID468 rectifies the previous breach of conditions of stay so long as it’s a single occasion. ImmD prefer to look forward not backwards if the breach resulted from an honest misunderstanding. There’s always a chnance it will be rejected but experience suggests you will be fine.
Loretta
My son was born in Canada in 1979. he moved to HK in 2012 to find a job. as both his dad and myself were born in HK, i expected that he would be granted the permanent residency in HK. he was granted only temporary residency in 2014. was this a mistake on the part of the immigration office?
also recently I learned from the newspapers that HK government is granting permanent residency for overseas young people with professional skills. may I know if this rule still exists? my son is a chartered accountant. is he elligible to apply for the PR?
The Visa Geeza
Likely not a mistake> If you were settled abroad at the time of his birth and he acquired Canadian nationality at the time of his birth he would not get right of abode he should have received right to land). As for the new programme, please see: http://www.hongkongvisageeza.com/assg-announced/ (again, not PR).