Long Stay & PR – Hong Kong Visa Sherpa: Recent Episodes
Hong Kong Visa Sherpa
It happens occasionally that cancelling a Hong Kong visa application might become a necessary course of action.This post helps you undrstand the process and implications of cancelling a Hong Kong visa application.For various reasons, an application for a Hong Kong visa, whether it be for tourism, business, employment, or any other type, may have to be cancelled midway through the entire process, which can sometimes be complicated.
So, the pertinent question arises: how does one go about the process of cancelling a Hong Kong visa application effectively and efficiently?
The answer to this query is quite straightforward and can be easily followed. If you find yourself in a position where cancelling your Hong Kong visa application is the only option, you simply need to draft a letter to the Hong Kong Immigration Department. In this correspondence, it is important to include your complete name, your passport number or Hong Kong ID card number, as well as the file reference for your visa application. This file reference, crucial for identification purposes, is something you would have received when you initially submitted your application or shortly thereafter.
Interestingly, there is no requirement for you to explain or justify your reasons for deciding to withdraw or cancel your Hong Kong visa application. The Immigration authorities only require that you state your intention clearly—that you no longer wish to pursue the visa application at hand.
After you have submitted your withdrawal request, which involves cancelling a Hong Kong visa application, you should wait for about two to three weeks. During this time, you will likely receive a formal letter back from the Hong Kong Immigration Department. This letter will typically confirm the receipt of your request to cancel your Hong Kong visa application and will also include an advisory note stating that your application has indeed been marked as cancelled in their records.
Overall, the process of cancelling a Hong Kong visa application is designed to be straightforward, ensuring that applicants can easily navigate these circumstances should they arise. Following these simple steps means that cancelling your Hong Kong visa application can be done with relative ease and peace of mind.
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The HKSAR passport is an excellent travel document affording visa free privileges to travel to and visit some 150 countries worldwide.If you are a foreign national permanent resident of Hong Kong you can consider, if you so desire, applying for a HKSAR passport, usually if your present country of origin does not offer you a convenient means to travel, needing visas for most any place that you might like to visit on a regular basis.
In order to do this you must first naturalize as a Chinese citizen and in the process relinquish your current citizenship as Chinese nationality law does not recognize dual nationality.
Broadly speaking, becoming a Chinese citizen means that you have to have some connection to China, possibly via marriage or an ability to speak Chinese, possibly own a business on the Mainland or have property there or in Hong Kong.
The rules are not hard and fast and very many non-ethnic Chinese applicants have been successful in their applications and so it is certainly worthwhile giving it a shot if Hong Kong is very much the only place you can possibly now call home.
There are mechanisms in place such that you do not find yourself stateless, giving up your current nationality before having Chinese nationality confirmed, and the process involves both the Hong Kong Immigration Department nd also the consulate of your current nationality.
Changing nationality is a serious matter and should not be pursued lightly.
However, once your Chinese citizenship is conferred, your ability to secure a HKSAR passport is a right afforded by law and the process of issuing the document is just a simple application exercise.
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This post will provide an overview of the various visa options available, helping you navigate the complexities of visa regulations and ensuring a smooth transition into your next chapter in Hong Kong.QUESTION
“I have been working in HK since 2007 on a working visa, which expired in August 2012. Is there any legal status that I can apply for, except getting another job in HK or investing HK10m, to extend my past 5 years so that I can apply for a permanent residency in HK in 2 years time?
I travel often to other countries but I have been practically living in HK and renting an apartment since 1997. I hold a Canadian passport. Currently I am here as a visitor.”
ANSWER
This is a very interesting question, but it’s also quite involved because it requires the essay of three particular visa categories that may be open for your consideration to assist you get back into residence visa permissions.
The three visa consents that you’re looking at applying under potentially, which don’t include getting an out and out employment visa, or investing $10 million under the Capital Investment Entrance Scheme visa.
The only other three options are available to you are the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme programme (QMAS), dependent visa, or in fact a business investment visa. Just dealing with these programmes very quickly.
The Quality Migrant Admission Scheme programme could be available to you if you’re particularly well educated or very well accomplished in your particular professional area of expertise.
The dependent visa could be that if you were in a loving, committed relationship with a resident of Hong Kong, and you’re not presently married, obviously, then you could make an application for a dependent visa and that would give you the residence permissions that you’re needing to continue your residence here.
Thirdly, if you are entrepreneurial in spirit and you’ve got a modicum of funds to invest in, you can show that you can make a substantial contribution to the economy of Hong Kong, you could consider an application for a business investment visa.
So those are effectively your options to bring your existing visitor visa into regularisation with a residence visa consent. And then we just need to deal with the issue about the impact that all of this, will have on your subsequent application after you’ve been here for seven years for a permanent residency status, getting a permanent identity card in the process.
The more time you spend as a visitor without taking any steps towards regularising your residence visa, will after the fact, count against you for the continuation of your ordinary residency. However, if you’re able to quickly get a new application into the system and subsequently go on to have that application approved, no matter how long it takes, then that time spent as a visitor should not count against your continuous ordinary residence; and I mention this particularly because the QMAS programme will take so five to seven months to complete. The Business Investment Visa application will take three to four months to complete. And a dependent visa is real, just an administrative exercise, so it only takes three or four weeks for that process to play itself out.
So there is a consideration that you need to bring into play as to what the most realistic way of getting status is available to you and how fast it will be for you to be able to bring your current tourist visa into residence visa status.
Okay, I hope that helps.
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The Hong Kong Immigration Department website is good for a few things but not very good at all where it counts – namely, indicting to you your chances of success in getting your Hong Kong residence visa application approved.You see, immigration policy in Hong Kong is governed by highly confidential guidelines which the general public or, indeed, even professional practitioners do not have access to.
And these guiding principles are dynamic and shift to suit the contingencies and needs inherent in Hong Kong’s economic circumstances at any moment in time.
So, it’s a moving feast and, unless you are dealing with immigration applications day-in, day-out, it is almost impossible to glean what the current approach the HKID are taking to in approving certain applications such as those for employment and investment visas.
In this regard, the Immigration Department website is designed to do just 3 things:
1 Firstly, it sets out the policy mantra (what I have couched the approvability tests) for each type of visa application describing the consideration criteria.
2 Secondly, it provides a general list of documents that need to be prepared to pursue your application – but doesn’t explain what they are looking for on these documents and in this respect they are inviting you, as it were, to lift up your skirt and show them everything.
3 Finally, it tells you how to go about initiating your application and sets up your expectations of, potentially, a 4 week case consideration time line to outcome notification.
The HKID website is informative but not especially useful as the the role of the Immigration Department is one of poacher and gamekeeper: their job is to inform and decide, not to advise.
Consequently, the Immigration Department website should not be taken as the definitive guide to application approvability.
The hundreds of people each month who search for ‘case refusal’ ‘application denied’ and ‘visa appeal’ on our Visa Handbook and the Visa Geeza websites is testimony to this fact.
The HKID website only tells you 2/3rds of the story!
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Short period of time away from Hong Kong break my continuity of residence?Sometimes, continuity of ordinary residence can inadvertently be broken due to factors outside of your control…
QUESTION
I recently graduated from a Hong Kong university after 2 years of permanent study.
Due to circumstances I had to return to my home country for a few months, however I am due to return to Hong Kong next month to take up employment and apply for a Non-Local Graduate Visa.
Will my absence from Hong Kong be viewed in the long term by the Immigration Department as a break in continuous residence for my right of abode application subsequently?
ANSWER
The test for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong is that you need to show that you’ve been continuously and ordinarily resident in Hong Kong for a period of not less than seven years, and that any absences from Hong Kong in that time need to have been of a merely temporary nature, as evidenced by what you leave behind to return back to at the end of each temporary stay abroad.
So to get to the heart of your question, there are a number of issues that need to be factored into the mix; the first is the time away from Hong Kong. If it has been more than a few months, then arguably you’re going to have to have a really good explanation as to why you have spent that time away from Hong Kong, and more importantly, as part of that explanation, be able to demonstrate that you still had continuing intent to remain settled in Hong Kong throughout that time, and therefore, an analysis of what you had left behind to return back to will definitely fall into the mix. And because there’s not a great deal of facts available to me on the question, it’s difficult for me to particularly drill down on how your circumstances might be perceived by the Immigration Department at the point of view making your application progressing your claim for unbroken continuity of ordinary residence.
Having said that, you also need to possess a residence visa in Hong Kong throughout all of that time. So if you have finished on your student visa and have not yet moved into the realms of the privileges under the Immigration Arrangements for Non-local Graduates, as a fresh graduate, then effectively, as I read your facts it seems that when you come back to Hong Kong, you’re coming back as a visitor.
So you’ve effectively relinquished a residence visa you’ve exited Hong Kong. You may or may not have left behind proof of your intent to remain settled here; and, for all practical purposes, you’ve given up your residence visa, now returned to Hong Kong as a visitor again.
And now you’re going to be making an application to adjust your status from visitor through to an employment visa predicated on the immigration arrangement for non-local graduates. Again, because you’ve had a break in your formal sort of back to back residence. That is, you haven’t gone directly from a student visa into a visa issue to you under the immigration arrangement for non-local graduates.
There is another question mark there as to the state of your mind, at the point of view making your exit from Hong Kong to attend to matters that you needed to take care of back in your home country. So, I mean, all things considered, usually if the break in back to back residence visas as a result, due to what I’ve called the state of administrative flux, then normally the immigration department don’t hold that against you and it tends not to break your continuity of or in a residence, and on the ROP 145 form, which is the application form for the right of abode that you will be completing subsequently, there is a section that you complete to indicate any absences from Hong Kong that have been more than six months. You offered an opportunity to explain what the purpose or what the reason underlying that absence from Hong Kong was all about.
If it’s less than six months, you don’t have to expressly state what that the reasons were for your time away from Hong Kong. But that notwithstanding, there is still an assessment of that time away from Hong Kong by the Immigration department to ensure that you have maintained your intention as regards your settlement throughout all of that time.
So for all practical purposes, then, you’ve got a little bit of a job of work ahead of you going forward, and in the final analysis, it will all depend on what the immigration department make of your explanations at the time that you make your application and what evidence you’ve got to show that even though you did temporarily depart it was your intention to depart temporarily.
And that the subsequent pattern of your behaviour and what happened immediately in the wake of your return to Hong Kong demonstrated that you had good reason for not being here during that time. And as soon as the circumstances overseas terminated such that you could get back to Hong Kong to continue your settlement, then you may be able to carry the day with the immigration department, but not clear cut, it will all depend on the exact circumstances of your situation.
Okay, I hope this helps.
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Hong Kong Unconditional Stay Status? One of the more upsetting parts of being a Hong Kong immigration consultant is learning that one family member alone, due to an unfortunate combination of circumstances, finds herself the odd one out by not having been able to correctly manage her visa status here – and all, essentially, through no fault of her own.QUESTION
“Hi, My mother married a Hong Kong-Chinese national (step father) and sponsored my stay in Hong Kong to study when I was a child. I stayed and grew up in Hong Kong for more than six years and was holding unconditional stay status. My parents opted to send me to Malaysia to finish my secondary school up to tertiary school. I was not able to come back within one year of leaving Hong Kong. Before I reached 18, my mother reapplied me for sponsorship, the immigration delayed the response for my application and when I ultimately reached my 18th birthday, then they informed me I was too old. I came back to Hong Kong four years after my departure and I was forced to be a Visitor.
I have heard some people with the same case as mine (departing Hong Kong for an extended amount of time for studies) and where able to keep their residence status because they were STUDYING when away. I really want to be reunified with my family even though it was more than ten years when I first left Hong Kong. Among my mother, father and two siblings I am the only one not holding a valid I.D. card because of this.
Any thoughts?”
ANSWER
This is a particularly vexing issue for the person who’s lost her unconditional stay status because as you can read from the question unfortunately it is meant the de facto segregation of her from the rest of her family members, which is a great shame in actual fact and I really feel for her.
The issue really boils down to the fact that once you get unconditional stay status effectively you have to meet the single condition of that stay, which is you have to make a physical entry into Hong Kong on at least one occasion in any given 12-month period of stay and if you don’t make that single entry into Hong Kong in those 12 months, the status of unconditional stay rue is relinquished by operation of law and that’s effectively what has happened to cause this problem in the first place.
And as we can read also the problems further compounded by the fact that as this lady was approaching her 18th birthday, although it’s not exactly clear how far in advance of our 18th birthday the application was made, but her mother made an application for a dependent visa for her and it would appear that by the time the dependent application was finalized by the department she’d crossed the 18th year boundary as it were into her birthday and she was no longer eligible for a dependent visa.
So consequently, the only immigration status that she has available to her is a visitor visa. Well that must feel terrible each time you come back to Hong Kong and know that all of your family members are complete residents and you’re just here as a mere visitor but as I say the problem stems from the fact that unconditional stays is simple and hard and fast rule: one entry over 12 months as is the dependent visa. Once you get to the age of 18 irrespective of the circumstances that surrounded the actual application itself, you’re no longer eligible for a dependent visa. So that’s kind of in a sense the bad news.
I do have a little bit of good news, which I’ll share with you subsequently but for the moment I’d just like to address the issue about these other circumstances that you’ve heard of where people who have departed Hong Kong for a period of time in order to study but have kept their resident status as a result of them studying. I suspect that what you have heard here is a slightly different situation.
It will relate to those people particularly the younger age who have had residence visas endorsing their passports and are then subsequently gone on to make an application for a permanent identity card and even though they’ve spent a great deal of time outside of Hong Kong whilst they were holding residence visas and the fact that they were studying abroad didn’t actually break their continuity of residence for the purposes of getting approved under ??the riot of a bowl?? which requires continuous boarding residents of a period of not less than seven years because any time that they would have spent outside of Hong Kong studying would have been done on the basis that each time they made an exit to go continue their studies overseas they were departing on a merely temporary basis only and consequently they subsequently returned to Hong Kong and had their residence status still valid inside the passports reflecting the fact that they do have the continuing connection to Hong Kong even though they were temporarily studying overseas.
So, I suspect that you can probably differentiate those cases from your particular circumstances, which as I say is really driven by the fact that you lost unconditional stay and then didn’t qualify for a dependent visa because of the timing issues.
Sad state of affairs but all’s not lost! You see my experience suggests that the Hong Kong Immigration Department will take your personal circumstances very much into account if you can get a job offer and then make an application for an employment visa, which would be in a sense your new rationale for remaining in Hong Kong because presently the Immigration Department don’t have any circumstances before them that will allow them to apply existing immigration rules and regulations to your circumstances to give you the opportunity to be together with your family.
That is normally a visitor visa that that’s out there for you. However, you can procure a job offer and get sponsored employment moving in your favor. I think you’ll find that the Immigration Department will take the extenuating circumstances of your family situation into account and so long as you’ve got an employment visa sponsor in hand, you stand a really good chance of being approved for an employment visa under liberalized consideration criteria.
So, I would suggest get yourself a job offer, make an application to the department, as part of your application reveal everything that you reveal to us on your question today and I’m 99.999% confident that the Immigration Department will grant your visa as a result of your personal circumstances. All the very best.
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The question of right of abode for Foreign Domestic Helpers in Hong Kong is a wound that continues to bleed…QUESTION
If a Philippine domestic helper has been in Hong Kong continuously for 30 years can she obtain permanent residency after marrying a foreign (British) permanent resident?
If not, can she remain in Hong Kong under any other visa category?
ANSWER
It’s now abundantly clear under the law in Hong Kong that any time spent in Hong Kong as a Foreign Domestic Helper (FDH) will not count towards ordinary residency for the purpose of a Right of Abode application. So in this instance, if you marry a foreign domestic helper as a permanent identity card holder yourself, and then you wish to live your lives in Hong Kong, then she must adjust her immigration status from foreign domestic helper through to dependent, which the Immigration Department will be happy to do.
And then after she has held a dependent visa for seven years, in her own right, she will then be able to make an application for the Right of Abode and will be able to adjust her status accordingly. So even though she’s had 30 years in Hong Kong previously as a foreign domestic helper, unfortunately, those 30 years don’t count for anything.
She’s going to have to adjust the status through to dependent after marriage, and then, after seven years of holding the dependent visa, make an application for the Rights of Abode. Okay, I hope you found that useful.
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The Right of Abode in Hong Kong is not (solely) based on the length of employment with a single employer. This entitlement is primarily determined by factors such as continuous ordinary residence in Hong Kong for a period of not less than 7 years and other specific eligibility criteria set by the Hong Kong Immigration Department.First Published July 20, 2012, still relevant today
7 years to get the Right of Abode in Hong Kong without changing employers in that time? To secure permanent residency in the HKSAR, you need to make an application for the Right of Abode. The Right of Abode, once granted, is manifested in the issue to you of a Permanent Hong Kong Identity Card.
So, you make an application for a Permanent Identity Card, once approved get the Right of Abode and in the process become a permanent resident of the HKSAR.
Under the Basic Law, the test for approvability for the Right of Abode is as follows:
(a) You must have been continuously and ordinarily resident in the HKSAR for not less than 7 years.
(b) Any absences outside of Hong Kong in that time must have been of a merely temporary nature (as evidenced by your intent at the time you made each departure and what you left behind to return back to after each temporary period of time spent abroad).
(c) You must have taken concrete steps towards making Hong Kong your only place of permanent residence.
(d) There must be no security objection.
(e) You must have no outstanding taxation liabilities.
Consequently, the answer to the question posed hinges on whether changing employers during the requisite time frame is activity which could be said to be ‘ordinary’ in the context of 7 years continuous residence.
And, of course, the answer is yes.
People change jobs and careers all the time in the ordinary course of their lives in Hong Kong. They also get married, divorced, have children, lose family members, start (and close down) their own businesses and go on to rejoin the workforce.
All of this is deemed ‘ordinary’ for the purposes of the approvability test for a Permanent Identity Card. None of these things impact on permanent residence eligibility.
The real concern, however, is if you:
(1) Spend more than 6 months outside of Hong Kong in any given year whilst holding a residence visa, or
(2) Have a lengthy and significant break in your residence visa status during the 7 years.
Both of these can conspire to defeat your eligibility for the Right of Abode and will require careful planning if you are able to anticipate them in the expectation of becoming a Permanent Resident in due course.
With good, advance planning, neither scenario need inhibit you from eventually securing the Right of Abode once the 7 year residence milestone has been passed.
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Can you realistically expect to work for yourself if your employment permissions have been granted under the Immigration Arrangements for Non-local Graduates (IANG)?QUESTION
Hi Stephen, thanks a lot for answering the questions on this website.
I must say that all the information on visageeza.com is of immense value.
I would like to pose a question regarding the Immigration Arrangement for Non-local Graduates (“IANG”) visa renewal.
Currently I am on an IANG visa which has been sponsored by my current employer.
I would like to know that shortly after the IANG visa has been granted (say few days or weeks after the approval), can I change my job or leave my job for whatever reason and start my own freelance consulting?
Is it really something permissible in the eyes of the immigration?
My second question is linked with my first one.
Let’s say if I leave my job and after leaving my job I cross the seven year mark, what impact would this have on my Right of Abode application?
I would really appreciate your help on this matter.
Thanks a lot.
ANSWER
To maintain your immigration status under the Immigration Arrangements for Non-local Graduates (IANG), each time you present yourself for an extension of stay, you need to have a valid employer, and you need to be able to demonstrate to the Immigration Department that you’re being paid a compensation that’s broadly commensurate with market rates and that you are engaged in that work that’s related in some way to your education and background.
Moreover, the sponsoring employer needs to be suitable and credible, all things considered. So, you can essentially get yourself an extension under the Immigration Arrangements for Non-local Graduates (IANG) sponsored by a current employer, and then you could cease working for that current employer and then conceptually you could start to engage in your own freelance activities.
Whether or not the immigration department would deem your freelance activities to be sufficiently suitable at the time that your next IANG application came up for consideration is another matter, again, because the Immigration Department in those circumstances expect you to have established a sizable business, which for all practical purposes means you need to pass the approvability test to show that you can make a substantial contribution to the economy of Hong Kong.
And in that regard, I’d suggest that you read the information on our websites about the business investment visa, because it’s no small challenge to be able to secure ongoing sponsorship in Hong Kong under the basis of your own, in a sense, freelance activities. So that answers the first part of your question, insofar as the second part of your question goes, let’s set the scene.
For example, let’s say that you’ve been here under continuous residence visa permissions for six and a half years, and that your current IANG visa has just recently been extended and you’ve secured a one year limit of stay, which is then going to take you conceptually to a full seven and a half years worth of continuous ordinary residence in Hong Kong, holding back to back residence visas throughout all of this time.
So at the point of seven years, of course you can make your application for the Right of Abode and at that point you have to show that you have been continuously a resident in Hong Kong for those seven years. There is no inquiry as to what you are doing in relation to your existing employment.
The Immigration Department will want to see that you do have a valid period of stay under employment status and they will typically not look for confirmation as to how you are gainfully spending your time under your twelve months of Immigration Arrangements for Non-local Graduates.
Therefore, conceptually it might be that you can get to seven years by having extended your immigration arrangements for Immigration Arrangements for Non-local Graduates visa and then gone off and freelance for a few months before making the Right of Abode application. And because at the time that you get your Right of Abode application approved, all conditions are lifted as to your continuing residence in Hong Kong.
You would then typically not be called to account for any time that you spent under Immigration Arrangements for Non-local Graduates whilst you were freelancing as such. So that’s the upshot of it and I hope you found that useful.
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This question comes up quite often so I’m grateful to this questioner for asking it. The answer is straight forward enough, but in my PodCast below, I set out why the reason it is as it is – and why trying to start your Right of Abode application earlier is essentially an exercise in futulity!QUESTION
“Hi there – just a quick question.
I know that you need to have lived in Hong Kong for a full 7 years before you can become a PR but actually, when does the 7 years officially begin? The reason I ask is that I lived in Hong Kong for 11 months as a visitor before my first employment visa was granted to me but in all of that time I was properly living here, renting a flat, bank account, my own bills etc. so I just need to know when it makes sense for me to apply for my PR.
Thanks for your help and excellent website!”
ANSWER
The answer to this question is relatively straightforward. Effectively, your continuous ordinary residence in Hong Kong for the purposes of a Right of Abode application commences on the date that you arrived in Hong Kong for the first time and activated your first residence visa. It doesn’t start counting any time prior to that, for example, on the day that your visa label was issued to you.
It doesn’t start counting on the date that your application was submitted. And it doesn’t count, when you first arrive, possibly as a visitor prior to making your application for residence visa subsequently. So the answer to this question means that the months that you spent as a visitor will not count.
So you need to start your application on the basis that seven years commenced once your first employment visa was activated. Now, actually, this is really a matter or a question of current Immigration Department practice because the Basic Law doesn’t actually spell out when residence commences. The basic law refers to the concept of settlement that you need to become settled in Hong Kong for the seven years.
And there is an argument that suggests that you can actually be settled prior to getting your first residence visa. But the way the Immigration Department practice this is, they take the view that just through the passage of time, eventually you will be able to arrive at the seven years complete, continuous residence, from the date that your residence visa was first activated in any time prior to that really should be discounted because of the saving.
Just the passage of time will allow you to secure the full seven years. So any applications that are argued on the strength of a settlement commencing at any time prior to the activation of your first residence visa, those arguments fall on stony ground or deaf ears at the immigration line because they know that in order for you to actually promulgate that argument, if they say no, you’re going to have to litigate, you’re going to have to go to court, and the expense of going to court and the time that it takes to actually cover this missing ground is such that through the passage of time, the problem goes away.
So the only way that you could possibly argue that your settlement commenced prior to your first residence visa being activated is to litigate. And nobody does that. So it tends not to be a practical problem for the British department, nor indeed for those people that are really settled here.
And, in due course, the seven full years will have accrued under an activated residence visit, and then you’ll go on to get your current residency accordingly.
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Could a prolonged visitor hope to get Permanent Residency in Hong Kong?Short and sweet question today, but an important answer so worthy of a PodCast answer (I get loads of questions each day and I answer all of those capable of an answer (many are not – eg “I want to work in HK can you get me a job and help with the visa”?) . The really simple ones get 2 or 3 sentence email responses, often containing links to previously answered questions).
Where an issue has not been addressed previously, its added to the PodCast immigration knowledge base which is slowly building over time. In any event, we’ll answer every question we receive so long as it falls within our remit to do so.
QUESTION
My female life partner has been staying in Hong Kong under a “de facto wife” visa of 6 months which has been renewed already for several years.
Would she be entitled to ask for permanent residency if she continues to get this kind of visa for a total of 7 years ?
ANSWER
When a foreign national secures a prolonged visitor visa in Hong Kong, effectively, the Immigration Department have done an assessment of the life circumstances of the applicant, together with their sponsoring partner in Hong Kong, and have determined that for the purposes of family reunion, they should effect a positive act of discretion and allow that person to remain in Hong Kong on an extended and a prolonged basis, subject to all the conditions of stay that apply to visitor visa holders.
Consequently, all time spent in Hong Kong as a visitor visa holder, irrespective of the rationale for the Immigration Department enabling the grant of the visitor visa to the foreign national, that time does not count towards permanent residency in the HKSAR because by definition it’s a visitor visa, it isn’t a residence visa and therefore it doesn’t qualify.
Consequently, this is one of the great downsides of having a prolonged visitor visa – it works in the short term to allow non traditional families to remain together, but, effectively it sets the couple on a dual track strategy. The partner who is sponsoring the visitor visa holder effectively is marching towards the potential for the Right of Abode after seven years whilst the prolong visa visa holding partner, unfortunately, he’s not.
So the answer to the question is in the negative, I’m afraid.
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Is it possible to lose your job (your Hong Kong Employment Visa), cruise through 12 months without working here, spend three months away in China studying then make an application for the right of abode with no questions asked?
First Published October 6, 2013 – still of interest today
QUESTION
Hello, I have lived and worked continuously in Hong Kong for the past 6 years, and less than 1 year away from applying for my PR (right to abode application).
I am currently unemployed, but have an active work visa from my previous employer which doesn’t expire until November 2014. I intend to submit my HK PR application in August 2014.
I am keen to study mandarin in China for a short duration of time (less than 3 months), but will be required to apply for an F visa to study there (due to my nationality).
As that time away from Hong Kong is less than six months and I intend to keep my rental flat in Hong Kong, will the application for stay in China for my studies in any way affect my status for the HK PR application next year?
I don’t want in any way to risk jeopardizing being turned down for my right of abode.
ANSWER
The key issue here is that during the time when you have an employment visa, but you don’t hold a job, what has your efforts been during that time to show that you have maintained continuing intent to be settled? So there’s a kind of an expectation that if you stop working, then you’ll be engaging in activities that would allow you to restart work again as soon as the right moment came along, and that you weren’t just sort of cruising your time all the way through to the seven year mark.
So you do have a burden of proving your continuing intent to settle during the time just prior to making your application for the Right of Abode if you don’t have an employment at that time. So if you then factor into that challenge, desire to go and spend three months away in China studying that’s not excellent evidence in of itself, as to your intention when you are leaving Hong Kong because it depends on what you did before you went off to study and what you do immediately upon your return from studying.
So you need to think about that particular challenge and what this next phase of your life represents, how you can articulate that to the Immigration Department, come the time that you have to pass the approvability test for the Right of Abode.
Okay, I hope you found that useful.
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It happens a lot more often that you might imagine. You’d think that the many early years in Hong Kong ought to count towards your right of abode but all too often disappointment is in the offing…QUESTION
Thank you very much for this informative website! I hope you’ll be able to answer my question, I’m not sure if its a common scenario or not.
I was born in Singapore and I lived in Hong Kong from 1994 – 2005 (11 years) and moved when I was nearly 11 because of my father’s job, and it has now been 7 years since I left to go and live in Thailand.
My mother has a Hong Kong Permanent Identity Card (and was working for an airline there) but I do not. I had a dependant visa endorsed in my passport at the time I left with my parents.
This usually wouldn’t be a problem after leaving Hong Kong, however there are two education sponsorship programmes that I would like to apply for in Hong Kong which requires you to have a permanent HKID.
I have gone to the immigration office about three times in the past 7 years as we do go back quite often, and every time we ask an officer, he says “if you are living in Hong Kong, you can apply for permanent residency.”
Is this true?
Seeing as I have already clocked up 11 years in Hong Kong, all I am missing in the application form is the current residency card.
Does this mean that if I go to university in Hong Kong starting August this year, that I could get my residency card, and then with that, apply for my permanent residency?
The way I see it, although I have been away for a considerably long time, but I am coming back, so this would technically be my 11th year total living in Hong Kong (and I have proof of having been there for 7 years ‘ordinarily’ with my school records, etc.)
I hope my question was clear enough and thank you very much in advance!
ANSWER
This is a very interesting question, and it does strike a chord with quite a number of people in Hong Kong who find themselves in your situation. So I’m grateful to you for having raised the question and hopefully I can shed some light on the situation and how your present immigration status in Hong Kong is affected by your life circumstances.
Your mother is a permanent Hong Kong identity card holder and on the basis that you had been born in Hong Kong and your mother had been a permanent identity card holder at that time, then at the point of your birth, your eligibility for a permanent identity card would have been established and effectively in the wake of that there could have been a very good opportunity for you to continue to argue now, many years later that you are a permanent resident of Hong Kong.
However, that’s theoretical and hypothetical in this situation because you weren’t born in Hong Kong, you were born in Singapore; so consequently your eligibility for a permanent identity card wasn’t established at the time of your birthday. And consequently it meant that the immigration status that was available to you when you came back to Hong Kong with your mother was that of a dependent visa.
And as you stated in your question, you held the dependent visa all the way through to the age of eleven, and then effectively, you left Hong Kong. Now the interesting thing is that after you had been in Hong Kong as a dependent visa holder, just after your 7th, possibly your 8th birthday, you could have, or your parents could have, made an application to have your eligibility for a permanent identity card verified, at the age of eight years of age, on the strength that you had been ordinarily resident in Hong Kong with your parents for a minimum of seven, and at that point you would have effectively been in the driving seat for a permanent identity card.
Subsequently, once you got to the age of eleven years, when the identity card is issued to you, and had that been, if that had occurred, in fact, then effectively at the age of eleven, you would have had your identity card issued to you possibly before you left Hong Kong.
And then on the basis that you have been back in Hong Kong on at least one occasion every three years thereafter, your permanent identity card status, your Right of Abode, in fact, would have been maintained. And uh, uh, effectively the question that, uh, uh, you’re asking today would have been answered in the affirmative.
However, unfortunately, because you only held a dependent visa for the first eleven years of your life in Hong Kong, at the time that you left with your parents to go off to Thailand, effectively you abandoned your continuous ordinary residence at that time; and what that means is that when you come back to Hong Kong in the future, you’re going to have to get a student visa.
The first eleven years of your life in Hong Kong effectively would have been lost. So, it’s unfortunate. It’s certainly not going to assist you with the sponsorship programmes that you’re lining up to make an application for. But if it is any kind of consolation, effectively what will happen in terms of your life going forward is you’ll come back to Hong Kong as a student.
One would assume that you’ll spend three years here as a student, you’ll graduate,you’ll be able to join the workforce straight away, if you start working for a Hong Kong employer within six months of you having graduated from university, because the Immigration Arrangements for Non-Local Graduates give you those privileges.
So that’s effectively going to take you to three and a half years. One assumes that a three to a four year working career in Hong Kong will have seen you continuously know an old resident in Hong Kong again for the requisite seven years and then you’ll be able to go on to secure the Right of Abode as an adult in your own right.
But unfortunately, in light of the facts that we’ve got in your question at the moment, you’re not going to be able to secure the Right of Abode at this point in time.
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Is the Right of Abode in Hong Kong passed along to the spouse of a permanent resident such that is claimable after the death of your PR holding husband..?First Published November 20 2013 – Still of Interest Today
QUESTION
This query is for my cousin who is an adult.
She was born in Pakistan and got married to a Hong Kong non-Chinese permanent resident.
She has been in Hong Kong many times first after her marriage in 1994 then various times up to 2003.
She has two children one of which was born in Hong Kong.
She currently resides in Pakistan.
She was in Pakistan with her 2 children when she found out her husband passed away in Hong Kong.
She returned once to Hong Kong to verify this,but then came back to Pakistan with her children who were infants at the time.
She now feels able to cope with life in Hong Kong without her husband now that he children are older.
My query: Is there any basis or chance that she may be able to gain right of abode?
I would be grateful if you could help.
ANSWER
As a foreign national seeking to become a permanent resident of Hong Kong, there is a very defined way to go about procuring permanent residency status and unfortunately it doesn’t transfer to the spouse of a deceased permanent resident by virtue of the fact of death, as the Right of Abode in Hong Kong is directly tied to having been continuously an ordinary resident in Hong Kong for a period of not less than seven years immediately before you apply for the status.
So if we look at your cousin’s immigration profile in Hong Kong, it would appear that sometime after 1994 when she got married, assumingly to a person who subsequently went on to become a parent resident of Hong Kong, after 1997 she would have during her time together with her husband have had a dependent visa sponsored by him.
So from the period after 1997, if she did not live continuously in Hong Kong for at least seven years in her own right, then she at best would have at the time that she made her last departure in 2003 have been merely a dependent visa holder, and if that dependent visa on the one hand was not extended whilst she was in Pakistan, and two, even if it had been extended, if she was not having residence in Hong Kong with her husband and indeed her children at that time, it would be very difficult to sustain the idea that she was continuously an early resident in Hong Kong after 2003.
But I don’t have any specific instructions as to what her immigration status was at that point in time, so I will just make the assumption that as of 2003 she was not a permanent resident, and that she would not be entitled to apply for permanent residency by virtue of the fact that she was not resident in Hong Kong. She was indeed at all times after 2003 resident in Pakistan.
So given that her husband subsequently died holding permanent residency for Hong Kong, unfortunately in her own right, notwithstanding her marriage to an individual with that status, if she’s not in Hong Kong herself holding a dependent visa, she can’t claim ordinary residence. So she’ll never be able to qualify for the Rights of Abode. So, unfortunately that closes the avenue in relation to her husband.
You also make the point that one of her two children was born in Hong Kong again without any evidence as to the immigration status of the child; it’s difficult to advise whether this would apply to her or not, but I will make an assumption that one of the children did secure, or at least have the eligibility for the Right of Abode established at the time of his or her birth. And on the basis that, until he’s 21, he can show that he’s been settled in Hong Kong, he will at the age of 21 be able to become a permanent resident in his/her own right.
And on the basis that, your cousin is then over 60 years of age, and this child who is holding the Rights of Abode can show to the Immigration Department that he’s settled in Hong Kong rather than being settled in Pakistan, then that child will be able to sponsor its mother who will be over 60 years of age for dependent visa permissions as a dependent elderly parent.
But thats a couple of initiatives sort of down the track, as it were. But that would appear to me an option going forward.
It’s not sufficient just to have the status at the age of 21 as a child. You need to have been settled in Hong Kong to be able to be a valid sponsor for elderly parents, dependent visa permissions and then assuming that your cousin comes to Hong Kong, lives in Hong Kong continuously for seven years as a dependent elderly parent sponsored by a permanent resident child who settled in Hong Kong, she will be able to then go on to secure Rights of Abode subsequently. But she won’t be able to do it while she’s living in Pakistan. She’ll have to be in Hong Kong.
I hope you found this useful.
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Life can get a bit complicated if you work in 2 places at the same time…
QUESTION
I work for a Hong Kong company in Macau and my wife is my dependent in Hong Kong where we live.
My colleague was the same but has now been employed by a Macau company.
Does this change his wife’s dependency status in Hong Kong?
And should she become a dependent in Macau?
He is, as myself, a Hong Kong resident.
Thanks!
ANSWER
The real crux of the issue here is if your friend is going to secure an employment visa in Macau and is going to be physically resident in Macau. And clearly, in that case, he wants his spouse also to be resident with him in Macau. If during this exercise, the employment arrangements in Hong Kong for your friend terminate, and at the time that his next employment visa extension for Hong Kong, when that comes due, he doesn’t have a Hong Kong employment, then he will not be able to secure an extension to his employment visa in Hong Kong, even if he has an employment visa in Macau.
And consequently, his wife, who has a dependent visa sponsored by him on the basis of his employment in Hong Kong, will not be able to get an extension to her dependent visa. So that will effectively leave her in a kind of immigration limbo between Hong Kong and Macau without any specific residency permissions, unless she goes ahead and makes an application to get a dependent visa on the strength of her husband’s employment in Macau, that’s a Macau dependent visa, not Hong Kong dependent visa.
So in reality, if they’re going to be living in Macau, then she needs a dependent visa to support her husband there, which will be granted on the strength of the fact that he’s got an employment visa in Macau; if he doesn’t have an employment visa in Hong Kong, as I say, she won’t be able to get a dependent visa for Hong Kong any longer because the conditions that are in play for successful application won’t exist.
Therefore, she’ll need to get a dependent visa for Macau. You can’t live in Hong Kong and have a dependent visa in Macau, and you can’t live in Macau and have a dependent visa in Hong Kong are two separate jurisdictions. It isn’t immediately clear, however, from your question, when you say that he’s a resident of Hong Kong, whether he’s a permanent resident or he’s in fact an employment visa holding temporary residence, the initial advice that I’ve given you is on the assumption that he’s a temporary employment visa holding resident.
If, on the other hand, he is a permanent resident, then he will be able to sponsor a dependent visa for his wife, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to work in Macau or will be working in Macau for the foreseeable future. So that kind of takes care of all of the issues in relation to dependent visa states and the circumstances and facts, if you essayed them.
One important thing to remember in all of this, however, is for any applicant that is planning to go on to secure a permanent residency in Hong Kong with the strength of having been continuously nor resident in Hong Kong for a period of not less than seven years, needs to appreciate that both Hong Kong and Macau are separate immigration jurisdictions.
And if you are living in Macau while still holding a residence visa in Hong Kong, and the amount of time that you are spending in Macau overshadows the time that you spend in Hong Kong and you are unable to show to the Immigration Department that you have been settled in Hong Kong throughout all of this time, even though you’ve been holding a residence visa for Hong Kong, but you’ve been physically living in Macau, time spent in Macau, unless you’re very careful about how you construct your affairs, may serve to break your continuity of ordinary residence for a Right of Abode application subsequently.
So, as I said in the title to this post, life can get a little bit complex where you’re effectively living in one place, but potentially working in two countries, or if you are indeed working in Hong Kong presently, and in the thrills of relocating to work in Macau, it can get a bit messy, a bit complicated.
But that notwithstanding, I hope you found this useful.
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Does time spent ‘between’ residence impact on your eligibility for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong after 7 years ?QUESTION
I am a Canadian citizen living and working in Hong Kong for the last 4 years.
My employment has ended and I have not yet been able to obtain a new offer of employment in order to arrange for a change of sponsorship.
Since my authorization for stay expires on 4 January 2015, I anticipate I will need to exit and re-enter as a visitor in order to continue looking for employment.
With a mind towards eventually hopefully applying for PR status, am considering the possibility of registering for language lessons in a suitable program and applying for a student visa.
The provider has verified they can sponsor a student visa for a certain length of course.
I am still under my current apartment contract in Hong Kong.
My question is, if I can file the student visa application on or before the expiration date of the work visa, will that be sufficient to support a claim later to claim the time as ‘ordinarily resident‘ in Hong Kong until I can find other suitable employment?
What if the student visa application is filed within 2-3 weeks after the expiration of the employment visa?
Finally, will transitioning from employment, to student, back to employment visa be a liability in an eventual PR application, or will ImmD only look at the fact that the time in HKSAR has been covered by residence visas with only minor ‘visitor’ breaks in the middle while the paper work is being processed by Immigration Tower?
So, all things considered, does time spent ‘between’ residence visas like this impact on eligibility for the right of abode in Hong Kong allowing me to qualify for PR after all?
Thank you.
ANSWER
Yes, you’d be surprised that this question presents itself in many guises quite often, and the answer is actually quite favourable for you given your circumstances. The Immigration Departments are looking for settlement from an applicant for the Right of Abode after seven years, because the test for approval is continuous ordinary residence for a period of not less than seven years, where any absences from Hong Kong in that time have been of a merely temporary nature; and if you find yourself not having a residence visa, qualifying under the concept of ordinary residence for a state of what I’ve called administrative flux, where you essentially are spending time on a visitor visa rather than a formal residence visa, due to you essentially moving from one visa category to another as you organise the permissions of the Director to allow you to undertake new residence type activity here, that time spent during a state of administrative flux doesn’t break your notion of settlement as long as you’re physically in Hong Kong during that time, and from an immigration perspective, earnestly trying to bring about the circumstances that will allow you to continue to reside in Hong Kong.
So in your instance, if your employment visa is about to expire and you decide that you’re going to become a student, then as you transition from your employment visa to your student visa, holding a visitor visa in the interim, then the Immigration Department will not allow that to break your continuity of ordinary residence.
And similarly, when you finish being a student and go back to employment, as long as you’re physically in Hong Kong and you’re not abandoning your settlement, and you’re earnestly trying to bring about the circumstances that allow you to argue that you’ve been settled in Hong Kong, that the time spent on visitor status, as I say, moved from one status to another, resident status to another, doesn’t break your continuity as long as you’re clearly settled throughout all of that time.
So essentially you don’t really have any problems, I would say as long as you are not on visitor status, if that’s what you need to hold. While the circumstances present themselves for you to get your student visa or subsequently your employment visa, you’ll find that your continuity of ordinary residence at the seven year mark will not be broken.
So, the amount of time that you cite in your question, two to three weeks after your employment visa ends, before you get your student visa issued, that’s certainly not going to break your continuity of ordinary residence. In my experience, it’s usually no more than three or four months visit or status that presents itself as a problem.
So, if you find yourself with a visitor visa that is going to be sort of three knocking on four months old, I would be a bit circumspect about trying to get yourself a residence visa as soon as you possibly can. But otherwise, in the circumstances as you’ve described them in your question, I don’t believe you’re going to be breaking your, continuity.
And I hope that it all comes good for you in a good timeframe, so that you don’t have to worry about it too much later down the track when you make your application for the Right of Abode at seven years.
Okay. I hope you found that useful.
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So, if you plan to leave your job a few weeks before your 7 year anniversary how will this impact on your application for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong?QUESTION
I‘m Australian, and have an employment visa in Hong Kong currently, but I wish to resign from my present job.
Having said that, I might not be able to apply for a new employment here so soon, but I wish to get right of abode in HK.
My 7th year anniversary is in July 2015.
However, if I resign now, my employment will cease in April; my resident visa ends 2016 Jul.
A few queries:
- Will my employment visa expire when my employment ends and will I still be able to stay in HK after April?
- If I stay in HK unemployed till July, can I still apply my right of abode then?
- If I leave HK in April, and return to HK in July, can I still apply for the right of abode in Hong Kong then?
Many thanks!
ANSWER
This question seems to raise its head very frequently, and I’m pleased to be able to address it one more time in the context of these circumstances. So, just to recap, when you get an employment visa, you get two privileges. You get the privilege to work and you get the privilege to reside.
The privilege to work is limited to the sponsoring employer. When you stop working for your existing employer, your privilege to work ceases, but your privilege to reside continues until your current limited stay expires, in this instance sometime in 2016, or until the Immigration Department take it away from you.
Well, the Immigration Department very rarely indeed take this status away from you. So, if it’s your intention to cease working for your existing employer in April, but you’re then going to have a continuing limit of stay manifested in your passport that allows you to reside through to July 2016, some 15, 16, 17 months later.
And clearly you’re going to be in the driving seat to maintain your residence in Hong Kong for the purposes of your Right of Abode application, where the test for approval is, you need to show that you’ve been continuously and ordinarily resident in Hong Kong for a period of not less than seven years, where any absences from Hong Kong in that time have been of a merely temporary nature, as evidenced by what you leave behind to return back to at the end of each temporary stay abroad.
Moreover, you need to have had back to back residence visas in Hong Kong in order to qualify and you need to be clearly settled in Hong Kong at the point of view making your application whilst you’re also making a declaration. To the extent that you’ve taken Hong Kong as your only place of permanent residence, so insofar as you leaving your employer in April goes, and then qualifying for seven years anniversary of continuous ordinary residence come July of this year, then you’re certainly in the driving seat to progress with that application, notwithstanding the fact that you don’t have an employment in play at the time that you do make your application at the seven year anniversary mark, bearing in mind that you need to show to the Immigration Department that you remain settled in Hong Kong, you need to be a tad circumspect about quitting in April and then going off on a jolly around the world doing all kinds of interesting things and thinking, well, then I’ll just drop back into Hong Kong around about the seven year mark, push forward my application for the Right of Abode.
As I said, I suggest that you be a tad circumspect about this, because your rationale for the residence that you’ve got is employment. Now, if you cease working for your employer prior to you having converted through to permanent residency, the onus is on you to show to the Immigration Department that during the weeks and months in the wake of you having left your existing employer, you’ve attempted to bring about the circumstances such as you can, to re invoke the essential rationale for you having been granted that visa in the first place, which in your instance, clearly is an employment visa.
So, yeah, by all means, you can go off and take some time away. It’s fairly reasonable. You stop working and you want to go for sort of blow out the cobwebs, that’s perfectly okay. But it’s really important to understand that you’ve got to leave behind in Hong Kong all the vestiges of your ordinary life such that you can return back to it and pick up from where you left off once you have been able to clear a pathway for your future endeavours here.
So, yeah, just to answer your question specifically, one by one, will your employment visa expire when your employment visa ends, and will you be able to stay in Hong Kong after April? Yes, clearly, as I’ve just explained, you will be able to do that; and if you’re in Hong Kong in July and you make your application for the Right of Abode, but you don’t have an employment at that point, yes, you can make your application, but stand ready for the Immigration Department to possibly come back and ask you some questions about what you try to do to bring about the circumstances for continuing employment in Hong Kong so they can be satisfied that you haven’t in any way abandoned your settlement with your determination to leave your work.
And then finally, if you leave Hong Kong in April and return in July, can you still apply for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong? Yes, you can. But again, the onus is on you to ensure that if the Immigration Department need evidence as to the state of your mind when you exited Hong Kong in April, that it was your intention to depart temporarily only and not leave on a permanent basis.
And that gets to the heart of settlement. So I would advise that if you’re going to go off, then leave behind in Hong Kong all the vestiges of your ordinary life, not least your accommodation arrangements and a mobile phone and everything else that goes with that. So that once you’ve blown off the cobwebs and you do return to Hong Kong, you’re in a position to make your application for the Right of Abode without compromising the notional idea of settlement at the time that you make that application, given that you won’t be in gainful employment at that moment in time.
Okay. I hope you found that useful.
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A relatively straightforward answer to, what can be, quite a complex question dealing with ‘Hong-Kong-immigration status-by-descent’ and, eventually, the Right of Abode for foreign nationals born in the HKSAR.QUESTION
I was born in Hong Kong (I am a British passport holder and of British parents). I do not have .***
My daughter was born in the US and has a US passport and a British passport. We have lived back in Hong Kong since 2010 and she has had a visa for school. She was born in 2003.
Does she need to spend 7 continuous years here in HK or can I apply for permanent residency for her because I was born here?
Thank you
ANSWER
Just reading between the lines of your question, it appears to me that as a British National, born in Hong Kong, you got your Immigration status here now by virtue of your birth in Hong Kong to British Hong Kong belongers prior to 1997, this gave you the right to land in the process; and this is an immigration status that is not quite the Right of Aboad, it’s just one notch below it. The Right to Land basically means that you have the right to land in Hong Kong, not be removed from Hong Kong, and not be subject to any conditions or limit of stay, including the amount of time that you can spend in Hong Kong.
However, with the Right to Land, you can’t pass this onto your daughter by descent. So, in practice, you will have found that when you came back in 2010, there was no immigration status available to her automatically, and therefore she had to be assessed on her own circumstances at that time.
So I suspect that you would have had to go on to secure immigration status for her, so that she could be here and study, and that would have been a dependent visa which you are able to sponsor for as a Right to Land holder. You could have, of course, made an application for student visa as well, and that would have been granted to.
Certainly she would have been entitled to a dependent visa had, you made an application, given that you do, on the face of it, possess the Right to Land. Therefore, as a temporary resident, whether she’s got a student visa or a dependent visa, she will have been, once she’s been here for a period of not less than seven years, she’ll be entitled to apply for the Right of Abode in her own right, and with that, her current limitations to her visa status will be lifted. And similarly for you, as I say, I assume when you say that you don’t have a three star ID card, you’re effectively saying that you haven’t yet gone on yourself to acquire the Right of Abode.
And after you have been here for seven years continuously, so looking at the dates, looks like 2017, you’ll be eligible to adjust your own immigration status from the Right to Land to the Right of Abode. And on that note, the three star denotation on your ID card itself basically just indicates that the holder is eligible for the issue of a Hong Kong re-entry permit from China, but only in the case of Chinese citizens, and that’s not routinely available to foreign nationals. But in and of itself, if you do possess three stars, it does indicate, as an implication that the ID card holder does have the Right of Abode. But that notwithstanding, it does state, the permanent identity card does state on the back that you have the rights of abode accordingly.
So, just to recap, effectively, once your daughter gets to seven years continuous order in residence, she’ll be able to make an application for the Right of Abode in her own right.
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This post deals with the requirements for getting permanent residency in Hong KongThe modern, connected economy throws up myriad ways for people to organize their lives and business affairs and, as can be seen from this great question, how might ImmD respond to an application for the Right of Abode where an internet entrepreneur bases himself here with his family but they choose to spend a considerable amount of time elsewhere?
QUESTION
Hi Stephen – I just stumbled across your website and found it to be quite informative, especially regarding the Hong Kong Right of Abode Application – Arguing Away Missing Periods of Residence.
It seems to fit my facts quite similarly.
My wife and I first arrived here in April of 2011. I was on a working visa but in some ways it was similar to an investor visa. I have always been an online internet entrepreneur, opening, running and closing dozens of online businesses. They have always been run from an offshore “haven” location where essentially there is no need to maintain books or file annual tax returns.
As my citizenships don’t require me to pay taxes on worldwide income and as I had been essentially a resident of nowhere, basically a perpetual tourist for the past many years, I haven’t really had to settle down in any way.
So, in early 2011, upon hearing from me that I wanted to move to and settle into Hong Kong, my lawyer arranged for my offshore company to buy a defunct Hong Kong company and then have that Hong Kong company sponsor me for an employment based visa in Hong Kong.
That all seemed to work quite smoothly and I was in HK in just a few months from start to finish.
Since arriving in Hong Kong with my non-Hong Kong wife in early 2011, we have recently had a baby. The problem is that we like Hong Kong and have made it our primary home, renting a nice flat, sponsoring a live-in DH, moved our bank accounts here, receive all of our mail here, pay our salaries annual taxes here, I own the business here, pay its fees, rent an office, pay the business profits taxes, etc., etc. – basically spend a lot of money in Hong Kong for all of these things to put up the appearance of being a full-time resident.
But, we really don’t like spending all of our time in Hong Kong. We have homes in several other countries, whether our own or family homes, and I really don’t need to be in any one location in Hong Kong or anywhere to run my business affairs.
Until our children are required to be in school for 8-9 months of the year, I’d prefer to keep traveling.
My work is all done via laptop and cell phone. Arguably I could say that some of this travel is necessary for work, as I do meet or host clients from time to time, but maybe 1/3 at the very most and I don’t keep receipts or claim them as business expenses.
The only employees of the Hong Kong subsidiary are me and two admins, and they really only take care of Hong Kong affairs and little else. We do like spending some time in Hong Kong, maybe a few months per year in total, but spend the rest of our time on holiday, as much as 9-10 months of the year. I hope to continue this pattern until we have reached the 7 year mark in early 2018, at which time I’d like to apply for and hopefully receive our permanent residency.
And, despite what may seem like lack of ties to Hong Kong, we have by far much more attachments to Hong Kong than anywhere else in the world , though my wife and I are each dual nationals of two different countries (4 passports between the both of us) so we certainly would call Hong Kong home above all else.
Would this pattern jeopardize our permanent residency application? It would be precisely at this time, when 7 years will have been reached that we’ll finally be forced to settled down and set our oldest child into primary school and we would plan to do so in Hong Kong.
I do want to ultimately obtain PR status, but also want to spend most of my time until that time traveling abroad. I’d like to find out now rather than later, for if I am wasting my time with this and there is a chance my PR application would be rejected, I’d just as well give up the HK office, the HK business, the 2 admins, the rented flat, the DH, basically all of it, move everything back offshore and rent a suite at the four seasons for the 2 months of the year that I might actually be in Hong Kong, for it would be a LOT cheaper.
So, am I wasting my money continuing this charade for many more years or will it all work out in the end as long as I maintain all of the things that tie us to Hong Kong?
So, can I get Permanent Residency in Hong Kong?
ANSWER
The test for Right of Abode for a long stay foreign national resident of Hong Kong is to be able to show that you’ve been continuously and ordinarily resident in Hong Kong for a period of not less than seven years, and that any absences from Hong Kong in that time have been of a merely temporary nature as evidenced by what you leave behind to return back to at the end of each temporary stint abroad.
You also need to show that you have settled in Hong Kong at the time that you make your application for permanent residency. So on the facts that we’ve got in this question it would appear that you’ve actually got in place all the necessary presumptive evidence to denote that you are settled in Hong Kong.
The fact that you’ve got a home, the fact that your child was born in Hong Kong, you’ve got a full time sponsored foreign domestic helper, you’ve got your business in Hong Kong, you’re reporting for tax purposes in Hong Kong, you have an office and you’ve got a couple of employees, and on the basis and on the assumption that you continue to maintain all of that in situ for the rest of the time that you spend in Hong Kong, on the strength of that evidence, there is enough presumptive evidence to show that you are, for all practical purposes, settled in Hong Kong.
Now this then turns to the nub of the question, which is how much time is expected for you to be spending in Hong Kong to settle the idea of continuous ordinary residence. Continuity is, on the face of it, established through the maintenance of immigration status, residents immigration status back to back throughout all of that time; and therefore we then just need to look to the number of days and how that impacts on the perception of your notion of being settled up to and including the seven year mark. If you’ve got a really good reason for you spending a lot of time outside of Hong Kong, then the Immigration Department will accept that, for what it is ostensibly in the vast majority of cases this is settled through the fact that your commercial activities, your commercial endeavours whilst ostensibly based in Hong Kong are keeping you away from Hong Kong.
Question is then begged as to what about the situation where if you choose voluntarily to spend time away from Hong Kong because that’s what you prefer to do? And how would the Immigration Department perceive that as, in a sense, negating your idea of ordinary residence; the law, in actual fact, the common law, allows you to have a place of permanent residence, believe it or not, in two different places. You can be ordinarily resident in more than one place, any one point in time. But that’s an argument that you don’t really want to be having with the Immigration Department. What it’s better to do is to sort of lay down the necessary sort of tracks. Now anticipating that you’ll have a really good excuse at the seven year mark as to why you’ve spent all of the time outside of Hong Kong that you have given of course that that’s offset by the fact that you have everything else in place that shows that Hong Kong is effectively your only place of permanent residence, because of the facts on the ground that you’ve created in that time.
I also assume that at the time that you make your application, your child will be in school. And that’s again further good evidence as to the fact of settlement at the time that you make your application.
So it’s a tough one to definitively advise you on. However, my best advice would be anticipate that it’s the number of days in Hong Kong that are going to be the issue, and the time that you voluntarily choose to spend away from Hong Kong. And that’s something to a large degree you can control. The requirements are that the continuous, ordinary residents, effectively, are structured in such a way that even on the application form for Right of Abode, any absences that are less than six months don’t need detailing or specific explanation at the time that you commence your permanent residency processes.
But the Immigration Department will go through a tally to look to see effectively how much time you spent in Hong Kong and all of that time. So my best advice really would be carry on with what you’re doing but don’t spend a lot of time away, in large blocks.
If you can organise your affairs such that you can come into Hong Kong for a week every two or three months or so, prefer a little bit longer than that, and maintain that sort of profile throughout all of the time that you’re in Hong Kong.
And then perhaps when your child gets a little bit older and the opportunity for your child to go to preschool then put the child in preschool. Perhaps that would be, you know, when he’s, he or she is three or four years of age, and show that the child’s been in preschool, even though when he’s not in preschool you’ve chosen to be elsewhere.
So the saving grace, as you’ve quite properly identified, is that you’ve got in place all the infrastructure to suggest that Hong Kong is your, effectively your only place of permanent residence, and the challenge then is just to map out how you decide, to experience your lives over the course of the next five years, and the choices that you make in terms of how much time you decide to spend in Hong Kong, in terms of number of days and also the number of trips that you make back to Hong Kong.
I mean, really avoid staying away for several months at a time, continuously, because that kind of sends the wrong message. But if you are coming back on a regular basis, even if you choose just to spend a small amount of time when you’re back here, I think you’ll find that the profile that you’ll build up over the course of the next five years should see you in good stead. And you’ll want to be able to persuade the Immigration Department that you’ve passed the test for approvability for a permanent residency application.
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Life in Hong Kong throws up many new opportunities and this question seeks to understand the implications for 7 years continuous residency in respect of an eventual right of abode application where an overall switch over in life plans sees a lady intending to relinquish her employment visa for a student or dependant visa …QUESTION
I am a Canadian citizen living in HK. I have an employment visa and want to leave my job. My fiancee (Canadian citizen) has an employment visa and we will be married in 10 months.
1. Can I leave my job (my employment visa has been extended until 2014), stay in HK on my employment visa until the wedding, and then transfer my visa to a Dependent visa linked to my husband?
2. Will this 10 month gap of non-employment, (even though I have 2 valid years left on the employment visa) count as a break in the 7 year continuous living requirement for permanent residency? I will remain in HK.
3. Will a dependent visa still count towards permanent residency?
4. Does permanent residency need to come from only one type of visa, or can it come from multiple visas?
5. Is there any benefit to having an employment visa over a dependent visa for permanent residency or privileges as a HK resident?
6. Can I attend a HK based university under the employment visa or must I change the visa to a student visa?
7. Will the time between the date of resignation and the beginning of my student visa (if I choose to do this, possibly 4-6 months) break the continuous living requirement for permanent residency?
ANSWER
I really love it when questions like this are laid out so logically and sequentially because I can just get to the height of the question without worrying too much about the facts to ensure that my advice is as accurate as it can be. So, cracking on number one question, the answer is yes. The moment you stop working for your current employer, your ability to continue to work in Hong Kong ceases at the point of your employment termination, but the privilege to resign continues on.
So, as long as in that time you’re maintaining all the vestiges of settlement in Hong Kong, then for all practical purposes the fact that you are not going to be working whilst you have an employment visa with a limited stay that’s still valid should not break your continuity of residence, specifically or particularly if you’re going to be preparing for nuptials in that time.
So, yes, you can transfer from employment visa to a dependent visa and expect that it’s not going to break the continuity of residence, which effectively answers your second question, as long as, as I said, you can show that all throughout this time you have been continuingly engaged in activities that can be said to suggest that you are settled in Hong Kong, and, as I said, preparing for your nuptials to a Hong Kong resident is certainly good evidence of this. So, yes, you’ll be fine in that regard.
The time spent as a dependent visa holder will definitely count towards permanent residency, so long as you’re going from your employment visa into your dependent visa back to back any state of administrative flux in relation to your change of immigration status should not preclude you from qualifying/having that time qualify under the seven year rule.
In reply to your question four – effectively you need a residence visa, and that residence visa can be reflected in any kind of visa other than visitor or indeed any of the other categories, such as a foreign domestic helper or if you’ve been admitted under the supplementary labour scheme. People admitted under these programmes do not have the privilege of being able to count time spent as a whole holder of that type of visa for the purposes of continuous ordinary residence. So, yeah, going from one employment visa to a dependent visa is not going to be a problem for you.
I think I’ve answered the question five – if there’s any benefit in having employment visa or the dependent visa for permanent residence privileges of Hong Kong resident. No, it doesn’t make any difference. It’s all about the act of settlement.
In reply to your question number 6 – Well, under the employment visa, you’re entitled to join in a part time course of study. If it’s your intention to engage in a full time course of study, then you need to relinquish your employment visa and change to a student visa. So for all practical purposes, in your circumstances, time spent as a student, which would then subsequently adjust to dependent (once you’ve got the marriage to your fiance out of the way) all of that will count as good time for ordinary residence purposes when it comes to your right of abode application.
Subsequently, and finally, the answer to your last question is again no. As long as you can show that you’re engaged in the act of settlement or continuing engagement in the act of settlement throughout all of this time, then it will not break your continuous ordinary residence for the purposes of a right of abode application.
Problems only ever come into play with breaking continuous ordinary residence, if you effectively relinquish your residence visa status and don’t do anything about reinvoking it or reinstating it, I should say within a very quick period of time after it’s expired. But if you’ve got continuous back to back residence visas throughout all of this time, and the ordinary pattern of your life suggests that you have been settled in Hong Kong throughout all of this time and in fact, any absences from Hong Kong during this time have been of a nearly temporary nature, as evidenced by what you leave behind to return back to at the end of your temporary sojourn abroad. And at the time that you make your application for permanent residency, you can show that you’ve got back to back tenancy agreements or you’ve got residential accommodation arrangements in place, for example, such that you bought your own property. And you can show that as long as you can show that you’ve got your tax returns all in good order and that, for all practical purposes, you’ve got an obvious manifest pattern of normal continuous ornament residence in Hong Kong throughout those seven years. The plans as you set them out for me in your list of seven questions suggest that you won’t have any problems at all when it comes time to making your application proponent identity card.
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Circumstances sometimes conspire against foreign national residents here who find themselves in a quandary as to whether or not their continuous ordinary residence here has been broken due to decisions made (voluntary or otherwise) earlier on in their lives in Hong Kong. In this situation, will an application for the Right of Abode fail?QUESTION
“I have been resident in Hong Kong for 6 years and 2 months. First as a dependent and now under non local graduates scheme. I have had a residence throughout this period, owned a property for part of the period (sold due to divorce). But I was studying in Beijing for 2 years during this time and returning to Hong Kong during holidays and at least every 2 months. I also have a child in Hong Kong who lives with my ex wife who visits me regularly. Will my period of residence only be deemed to start when I returned to Hong Kong in February 2011 and re-secured an employment visa? Essentially, has the period I was travelling in and out on a visitor visa stopped my period of residence for Right of Abode purposes even though I was ordinarily resident under the plain English meaning. You may assume I have all necessary paperwork to show tenancies, bank details, tax returns etc.”
ANSWER
In order to qualify for the Right of Abode in Hong Kong, you have to show that you’ve been continuously an ordinarily resident for a period of not less than seven years. You need to upheld a residence visa throughout all of this time, and any absences that manifested themselves during those seven years need to have been of a merely temporary nature, as evidenced by what you leave behind to return back to at the end of your temporary stay abroad.
So in this question, the issue is whether the two years that you spent not holding a residence visa, being outside of Hong Kong, studying in Beijing, and then ultimately returning back to Hong Kong, whether that in your life circumstances, together with the fact that you have family in Hong Kong, or there’s a child that you’ve been returned back to throughout those two years, will that time spent in Beijing serve to break the continuity of ordinary residence for the purposes of that Right of Abode application?
In my experience, the answer is I think that you’ve probably broken your continuity of residence. Unfortunately, although the concept of permanent residency is granted on the strength of the notion of settlements, and you certainly have an opportunity to put forward an argument once you’ve been here for seven years to suggest that even though you did spend a couple of years on a temporary sojourn abroad, you did have everything in place throughout that time to suggest, through your pattern of behaviour, and the fact that you returned back to Hong Kong once you set to a complete, that that time spent away did not in fact break the continuity of ordinary residents.
But it’s one of those situations where you only know once you have made your application. The challenge, I think, is going to be that the Immigration Department is probably going to apply the hard and fast rule against you. Suggest that because you didn’t have a residence visa during those two years, and perhaps the circumstances in your life precluded you from possessing that residence in any event or by suspect.
But my earnest advice is get to seven years and give it a try. It doesn’t cost you anything. Application argue forthrightly that you were settled in Hong Kong throughout all that time. You did have a child, you did come by, it was just that you didn’t have the necessary circumstances to avail you with a residence visa for Hong Kong and consequently you were in a position to possess one.
That’s the argument that I had at the moment usually only a time spent in Hong Kong as a visitor during the state of administered flux. But give it a try, good luck.
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Hong Kong is a small place with borders on our doorstep so how much time do you need to be physically in Hong Kong to retain your Hong Kong investment visa?QUESTION
I would like to know, if I am able to hold a visa in Hong Kong, then what is the minimum time per year I need to stay in Hong Kong to still qualify as a resident?
I travel a lot, but am looking to set up a business in Hong Kong and would like to become a resident in Hong Kong but am afraid I might be out of the country in large periods of time.
Thanks
ANSWER
Really good question, this one. And I think you might be surprised at the answer in actual fact. As part of an application to secure a residence visa, in order to establish a business in Hong Kong, you need to go through the processes of showing you can make a substantial contribution to the economy of Hong Kong and get yourself a business investment visa.
And, at the time that you make the application, there’s no need to disclose to the Immigration Department exactly how much time you think you will be spending inside Hong Kong and how much time you think you’ll be spending away from Hong Kong. So the emphasis at the point of application should be on passing the approvability test.
Therefore, assuming you get approved, if you then go on to spend the majority of your time outside of Hong Kong, this doesn’t need to be a preclusion to getting your extensions. As you go through the one, two to three year pattern extension process after your initial approval, so long as you’ve got a really good business reason for being away from Hong Kong, as long as you have been.
Upon any review of your business undertaken as part of the investment visa extension exercise, you can clearly demonstrate to the Immigration Department’s satisfaction that you are indeed making a substantial contribution to the economy of Hong Kong. So, with the investment visa, indeed, for that matter, all residence visas, you must demonstrate that you have a need for the visa, and that is that you intend to be genuinely resident in Hong Kong. And if you can satisfy the Immigration Department about your genuine need, the question of time spent inside and also away from Hong Kong will really only present itself as an issue for you for deep consideration at the seven year mark when you’ve been continuously an ordinary resident in Hong Kong for not less than seven years, when you make your application for permanent residency, seeking to secure the right of abode, because the test for the right of abode says that any absences from Hong Kong in that seven years, either of a longer or short duration, must have been of a merely temporary nature, as evidenced by what you leave behind to return back to at the end of each temporary stay abroad.
So typically, so long as you’ve got a genuine need to be resident and you’ve got a really good excuse or reason for why you’re spending a lot of time away and you’re maintaining the qualifying criteria all throughout the seven years that you, in this case, hold your investment visa, the time spent away shouldn’t represent itself as a problem.
However, come time to secure permanent residency, you will probably have a lot to answer for; and whilst it doesn’t suggest that automatically you might not get permanent residency, the analysis of what you’ve been doing while you spent all that time away from Hong Kong during those seven years will very much come into play.
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An excellent question on the Right of Abode came in just now. Raises a really interesting point of professional practice the likes of which very rarely present themselves these days.QUESTION
I have recently been declined Permanent Residency status from HK Immigration, but believe I have grounds to appeal, and would like your advice.
I am a Canadian citizen residing in Hong Kong as an Ordinary Resident from October 2004.
From June 2008 – January 2009 I was out of work (no employment visa), but still living in Hong Kong, staying on a tourist visa. HK Immigration declined my application based on this time period stating that:
“Being a person with visitor status at the material time, section 11(10) of the Immigration Ordinance Cap 115 under which any permission given to a person to land or remain in Hong Kong shall, if in force on the day that person departs from Hong Kong, expire immediately after his departure, is applicable to your period of stay in Hong Kong on visitor status.”
During this period I was searching for work, and was still paying rent and utilities in Hong Kong, holding and utilizing my Hong Kong bank account, and conducting myself with the intention of settlement in Hong Kong. I did have a new job contract which stated I could commence work when my new employment visa was approved which came through on the 12th January 2009.
I understand that there has been a break in my continuous ordinary residence of 7 months, however I believe I may have grounds to appeal based on:
I was residing in Hong Kong during this period searching for work (I have a contract stating that I would commence my new job based on this) with the intention (Which still exists today) of settlement in Hong Kong.
– I was paying rental/utilities, had a bank accounts in place with the intention of taking Hong Kong as my place of residence.
– The application for my employment visa was placed in November and the application timeframe has pushed out the period from 5 months to 7 months
– I have all taxation forms for the last 7 years proving it is my intention to settle in Hong Kong.
Listening to your podcasts, I understand I will only get one shot at an appeal.
My questions are:
– If I build an appeal based on the circumstances above, would I have a good chance of having the ruling over-turned and Permanent Residency granted?
– Do you know of other cases where there has been a break in the 7 year continuous period but Permanent Residency status was granted? And if so, on what grounds was the break in ordinary residence over-looked?
Look forward to hearing from you.
ANSWER
Hi, thank you very much for raising this question.
I think you’ve been hard done by and I can see your frustration. It’s an interesting example for me because it’s starting to confirm to me in my own mind that there could be a six-month rule in play which the Immigration Department are prepared to accept as being a reasonable length of time that could be said to be administrative flux in your continuity of ordinary residence. What I mean by this is that you find yourself between jobs, and in the meantime your employment visa expires and you don’t have your approval for your new employment visa, so in that time you are out of state employment visa status. So the only status available to you is visitor visa, and there is no hard fast rule exactly how long that can be. And because there’s no published Gazette which sets out those time frames, you only learn by experience. So it could well be that they’re playing a hard and fast rule against you.
So the trick really is to take it to the appeals process and seek to ask the Immigration Department to confirm is there such a hard and fast rule? And if so, you know, how long is it? And then you need to go on and make your case out on the merits of the evidence of settlement as you stated them.
And this should then give you a good shot of appeal at best. And at worst it will give you a good solid foundation of facts upon which to mount a higher appeal later on if you so choose to do. That’s the strategy I would adopt in this case.
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Can you be both settled in Hong Kong, have taken the HKSAR as your only place of residence, yet go and work overseas all at the same time?QUESTION
Thank you so much for your wonderfully informative website.
I have a question about the timing of starting a new job working for a non-HK employer and which job is not based in HK, in light of my interest in filing the Right of Abode application.
At the end of July 2014, I reach the 7 year mark required to file the Right of Abode application, and at which time I would have been with the same Hong Kong employer during the whole 7-year period.
I note that I have had a valid work visa since July 2007 and my latest work visa expires end of July 2015.
I also note that I’ve been sent to Singapore on long, albeit temporary, assignments that should not impact the Hong Kong residency requirement for my Right of Abode application.
I am interested in trying other jobs soon.
I have a job offer that is a one year contract for a company (that is in the same industry as my current employer) based in Singapore to work in Singapore.
The company is willing to wait for me to file the Right of Abode application before I start working with them.
Can I start working for the new company, say, a week or two weeks after I file the application (the new company will allow me to visit Hong Kong while the application is in process to fulfill any in-person requirements such as for any interviews) or is it advisable to wait longer or until I actually receive approval for HK permanent residency before I start working for the new company?
How long will the approval process take? I plan to return to Hong Kong at some point to work after gaining some interesting and different experience at the new company in Singapore.
Thank you very much.
ANSWER
Yes, this is always a tricky one because the test for approval for the Right of Abode is you need to show, on the one hand, that you’ve been continuously and ordinarily resident in the HKSAR for a period of not less than seven years immediately prior to submitting the application, and on the other, you need to show that you both settled in Hong Kong and that you’ve taken Hong Kong as your only place of permanent residence.
So clearly here, if you’re thinking that perhaps your future lies away from Hong Kong, then it’s arguable that the fact of making those steps to set up your new arrangements in Singapore could derogate from the notion that you are both settled in Hong Kong and that you’ve taken Hong Kong as your only place of permanent residence.
So, to be absolutely bulletproof in this respect, my advice would be to postpone any plans whatsoever that you have for a life away from Hong Kong, so that you can quite clearly and honestly put your hand on your heart when you make the declaration, to the extent that you’ve taken Hong Kong as your only place of permanent residence and that the facts of your life on the ground in Hong Kong clearly demonstrate that you’re settled here. And then if subsequently, once your Right of Abode application has been finalised, approved and you are a permanent resident of Hong Kong, if new facts emerge that suggest that you might want to take up an offer of employment or pursue some other kind of activity – in this instance away from Hong Kong in Singapore, then that’s what that is.
And, as long as once you’re a permanent resident, you return to Hong Kong on at least one occasion in any three year given period, you will be able to maintain your Right of Abode. So my advice to you would be – don’t do anything that would compromise the idea today that you are settled in Hong Kong and that you’ve taken Hong Kong as your only place of permanent residence.
Okay, I hope you found this useful.
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The Ultimate Guide to Unconditional Stay in Hong KongThe Second Cousin To The Right Of AbodeIntroductionUnconditional Stay? Since the enactment of the Basic Law and the implementation of the arrangements for the Right of Abode in the HKSAR, the role of Unconditional Stay status in the realm of Hong Kong immigration practice has very much taken a back seat although, as you can see from this presentation taken from the Hong Kong Visa Handbook above, there is a place for it today.
What is Unconditional Stay in Hong Kong?Unconditional Stay status in Hong Kong is not the same as permanent residence or the right of abode. It serves as an administrative convenience, offering certain benefits to foreign nationals. This status allows you to live and work in Hong Kong without worrying about visa restrictions.
Eligibility Criteria for Unconditional StayTo qualify for Unconditional Stay in Hong Kong, you must meet the following criteria:
– Seven years of continuous ordinary residence in Hong Kong
– Hold a qualifying visa throughout this period
Note: Foreign domestic helpers and those admitted under the Supplementary Labour Scheme are not eligible for this status.
Benefits of Unconditional StayThe primary advantage of obtaining Unconditional Stay status is the increased flexibility it offers in terms of permitted activities (unlimited) and the duration of stay in Hong Kong (unlimited). It essentially frees you from the clutches of the Hong Kong Immigration Department.
How to Apply for Unconditional StayTo apply for this status, you must submit an application form ID91 for each applicant to the Extension Section of Immigration HQ. The application process involves multiple steps, including providing various documents like:
– A copy of your resume
– Full copies of all passports held during the previous seven-year period
– Copies of salary tax returns for the last seven years
– And more…
For a complete checklist, you can refer to this Pre-Submission Checklist for Unconditional Stay.
Important Points to Remember1. Physical Presence: You must be physically present in Hong Kong at least once in any given 12-month period to retain this status.
2. Continuous Residence: Any absence from Hong Kong exceeding six months must be justified when seeking it.
Additional ResourcesFor more detailed information, you can refer to these resources:
– Am I Compelled to Apply for Hong Kong Permanent Residency After 7 Years?– Hong Kong Unconditional Stay Visa Information– Unconditional Stay Application– Crafting Your Application Plan– Official Application Form– How to Complete the Application Form– How to Submit & Manage Your ApplicationVisaGeeza.Ai – 13 Years In The Making
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One of the key components of eligibility for IANG Visa PR (Permanent Residency in Hong Kong whilst holding an IANG visa) is to demonstrate that you’ve ordinarily resided here for seven years for a settled purpose. Your settled purpose is a function of the visa type that you hold. So if you hold an IANG visa […]
Learn how to qualify for Hong Kong Permanent Residency after 7 years of living in the HKSAR continuously. Find out the requirements, challenges, and resources available to help you navigate a right of abode application 1. Hong Kong Permanent Residency – A Gold Medal In The Hong Kong Immigration Olympics Hong Kong Permanent Residency […]
First Published July 27, 2012 – Advice Still Highly Relevant Today
Hong Kong Right of Abode Application – Plan EarlyThis question comes in 2 parts. The first relates to positive planning in respect of an eventual Hong Kong right of abode application. The second touches on the mechanics of an aligned change of sponsorship application to the Immigration Department in the run in to the 7 year milestone where a permanent residency application comes into play.
I have updated this post today due to recent positive experiences we’ve encountered with ImmD who have demonstrated significant flexibility in a number of our Hong Kong right of abode application recently.
It’s clear that Covid has created something of a new dynamic as to what amounts to ordinary residence for those long stay foreign nationals who found themslves away from Hong Kong for several years due to the ravages of the pandemic.
QUESTION
“Hi Stephen, first of all, thank you very much for your website and the information you provide. It’s very helpful.
I was wondering if you could help me answer some of the questions that I have related to working visas and permanent residency. I have contacted the Immigration Department directly, but only got the standard vanilla answer pointing me to some of the documentation on their website which doesn’t have detailed information relevant to my particular case (or at least I haven’t been able to find it).
I would really appreciate your advice and time.
I have been employed and residing in Hong Kong for the last 5.5 years. The whole time I have been staying on the basis of a working visa sponsored my employer (Employment as a Professional). My current working visa is valid until April 2013.
I am now looking to change jobs and already have an offer from another company who are willing to sponsor my working visa. However, the new job would involve extensive traveling for business in South East Asia region.
I have the following questions:
1) I am concerned that the demand for traveling associated with the new job and the fact that I would be away from Hong Kong, likely continuously for up to several months at times, might negatively affect my permanent residency application which I will qualify for towards the end of 2013. Hong Kong has become my home and I am planning to remain here in the future. Therefore the ability to become a permanent resident without any difficulties is absolutely crucial to me.
As such, would you know if there are any restrictions on how much time I can spend away from Hong Kong on business?
– Is there a limit to how many days I can be traveling in a row?
– And similarly, is there a certain amount of days that I need to be present in Hong Kong during the year overall?
– Ultimately, will the extensive traveling cause any issues when I apply for the permanent residency next year?
The only specific information I found was in the application for permanent residency in which one must declare that they haven’t been away from Hong Kong for more than 6 months continuously. I haven’t found any info on how they treat if you travel for 2 – 3 months, then come back (say for 1 month), then go away again for 2 – 3 months, come back, etc., and repeat this process several times in a year.
Change of Employment Visa Sponsorship & Your Hong Kong Right of Abode Application Subsequently2) Ideally, I would like to finish my current employment and start the new one without any interruption. I understand that I am required to apply for a new working visa, sponsored by the new company.
– Would you know if it’s possible to apply for the new working visa while still being employed by my current visa sponsor?
– Do I need to hand in my resignation letter first?
– And what would happen in case my new visa application is unsuccessful?
– Would my current working visa become invalid (because I have stopped working for a company that sponsored it) and would I be required to leave Hong Kong immediately or would I be granted some grace period during which I could either reapply for the visa or look for another job opportunity?
Thank you very much in advance for your help.”
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Criminal Record For Shoplifting – Declaration Now Needed – Updated June 1st, 2023 –
In recent weeks , the government declared that various immigration programmes in Hong Kong would be modified, requiring applicants to declare their criminal record status before obtaining an entry visa (and not just those for employment).
Starting June 18, 2023 all applicants for these programs will now have to disclose any criminal convictions during their application. This rounded up the arrangements which came into force in February for just some of the visa types.
This change follows the controversy surrounding He Jiakui, a Chinese scientist who was granted a visa under the Top Talent Pass Scheme despite his previous criminal record.
Criminal Record For Shoplifting – Spent Convictions?Of course, the million dollar question right now is will the existence of a prior criminal conviction automatically disqualify an applicant? If not, what is the threshold? Will ‘spent’ convictions need to be disclosed?
The indiscretions of youth can come back and haunt you in later years and in this question, a criminal record for shoplifting quite some time ago is on the mind of an intending foreign national resident of Hong Kong …
QUESTION
I am very keen in settling down in Hong Kong in the long-term future. And I hope to start off by studying as a student in Hong Kong, then applying for work under the ‘Immigration Arrangement for Non-local Graduates‘ (IANG scheme).
However, I have a problem. I have a conviction for shoplifting, committed around 6 years ago. So I need to ask?
Will a Criminal Record for Shoplifting Compromise My Immediate and Long Term Plans for Residence in Hong Kong?I hope to find out from you, if that would be a bar to obtaining a work visa under the ‘IANG’ scheme?
Even if I am allowed to come to HK under a study visa, I am concerned that the Hong Kong Immigration Dept would conduct a background check on me from my home country – will they do that? (My criminal conviction back home has since been rendered spent as I have not committed any more offences).
And will they request a Police Clearance Certificate from my home country for a work visa, like they require of applicants under the ‘Quality Migrant Admission Scheme‘?
Lastly, I hope to be able to gain the right of abode after being in residence in Hong Kong for 7 years. At that point of applying for ‘right of abode’, do I have to disclose this past conviction – because I noticed that the application form for ‘right of abode’ does not question about past convictions?
And when applying for the ‘right of abode’, do I have to produce a certificate of police clearance from my home country too?
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Foibles of Hong Kong Visa & Immigration Applications
First Published April 29, 2013 – Updated April 3, 2023 (10 years on – somethings never change ….)
Hong Kong immigration & visa applications: both the Hong Kong Visa Handbook and the accompanying updates posted daily on the Hong Kong Visa Geeza Blog along with the DIY Visa Kits are all designed to help you make an application to the Immigration Department without any professional assistance and with the minimum of stress.
Recent Covid experience threw up all kinds of new challanges with Enhancement Measures and Temporary Measures and it has never been more apparent to me that ‘knowing what you’re doing’ when it comes to Hong Kong visa applications genuinely makes all the difference.
Whilst our content seeks to anticipate the myriad scenarios which can present themselves on your Hong Kong immigration journey, there will always be gaps in your knowledge and understanding of the process as an applicant using the system and it is to these particular foibles of the visa experience that I wish to speak today.
As you work your way through your application the dynamics of what’s going on may not make themselves immediately evident to you, for example, why a particular document has been requested or why the Immigration Department has asked for the same material from you twice.
Moreover, there is a fundamental logic which underpins every Hong Kong visa application dictating that the totality of your story and the documents you provide in support be consistent and don’t serve to undermine your argument in any obviously counter-productive way.
Finally, there’s the issue of emotion and the overwhelming significance of getting your application right.
When applying by yourself it is hard to distance yourself from the fear of visa refusal and this can impact negatively on how your argument is articulated and presented to the Immigration Department.
The bottom line is that your visa will be approved subject to policy considerations according to well established procedural guidelines.
So it is important to try to be professionally ‘removed’ from your application seeing it as an argument to be won on the merits of your case in light of the requirements of the approvability test applicable to your circumstances.
Getting your Hong Kong visa application approved doesn’t have to be a major drama all told – it is mostly a case of common sense, appreciation of the policy in play and a methodical business-like approach to the exercise.
People get into trouble with their applications mostly due to the fact that it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience only and I hope this video, along with all of our other Hong Kong visa and immigration content, helps you have a stress-free, smooth-sailing visa approval.
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First Published June 10, 2013
Once you have achieved 7 years continuous ordinary residence in Hong Kong, your long stay immigration options open up considerably…
QUESTION
My current working visa is due to expire at the end of September, (previously I was given an extension of 3 years in 2010), this I assume was so that I would be valid for Hong Kong Permanent Residency, (as I have been here for over 7 years now).
My question is should I seek Hong Kong Permanent Residency and/or can I just continue to add an extension to my working visa if I don’t want Hong Kong Permanent Residency?
In addition, for either of these cases, do I have to always change/add my wife’s and 2 children’s passports visa extension to reflect these changes, (my wife would have been here for 6 years and my kids were born here in 2008 and 2011 (do they also become PR’s on the back of me?)
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The question of criminal records and how they impact on Hong Kong visa applications keeps cropping up…
QUESTION
Hi, I have previously lived in Hong Kong, once as a student so obviously held a student visa and then a couple of years later working there so had an employment visa.
I’m a Canadian citizen and have a criminal record for theft dating back almost 20 years to my youth! I have no criminal convictions since this time.
With my previous student/employment visas in Hong Kong I don’t even remember being asked if I had criminal convictions.
However, I plan on returning to Hong Kong later this year to work again and am slightly worried immigration may have tightened up and may refuse me on this basis.
Guess my question is, will I be asked about criminal convictions in Canada?
And if I am will it prevent me from being granted an employment visa?
Also, will the fact that I’ve previously lived in Hong Kong twice and held visas there mean they might go easier when granting another?
ANSWER
Normally the Hong Kong Immigration Department undertake background checks for each applicant to ensure that there’s no known record of serious crime and most visa types in Hong Kong don’t actually require an applicant to make an expressed declaration as to their own personal status as regards to criminal record and their criminal record background.
And so, in the case of your application for employment visa on this occasion, it’s practice presently for the Immigration Department not to seek specific information about your criminal background or otherwise. And in this regard, I don’t think you’ve got anything to worry about.
Secondly, the fact that you have had trouble-free residence previously in Hong Kong, both as a student visa holder once before and also an employment visa holder once before suggests to me that your prior criminal record that notwithstanding, is not going to be an issue for you in relation to this particular application for an employment visa.
So, I wouldn’t be overly concerned about the chances of you being refused because of something that happened deep in your background, and that as I say, never mind that it has been dealt with previously by the Immigration Department to the extent that you’ve been granted resident visas twice before.
So, go ahead and make your application for an employment visa on this occasion, and I wouldn’t be too concerned about your past, which is long behind you coming back to haunt you on this occasion, and I wish you all good luck with your new residence in Hong Kong.
Okay, hope you found this useful!
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First Published October 29, 2014 – Still Relevant
Does being married to a Hong Kong permanent resident whilst living in China impact on continuity of ordinary residence for the purposes of a right of abode application subsequently?
QUESTION
Hi,
Your website is incredibly helpful! However, my situation doesn’t seem to have an answer yet, so here goes!
I’m a UK national and have been working in Hong Kong on a work visa since October 2009.
I have recently resigned from my position but my work visa is valid until February of 2015.
I am going to get married to a HK permanent resident (she was born in Hong Kong) before my work visa expires and apply for a dependent visa for Hong Kong.
My question is, will my 7 years continue through this dependent visa and in 2 years time will I be eligible to apply for my PR?
Separately, there is a good chance my future employer will relocate me to Beijing on a China work visa, but my fiancé and I will frequent Hong Kong since her family is here, and ultimately we plan to permanently return to Hong Kong within the next few years.
Will this disrupt my 7 years?
Thank you in advance for your advice!
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| PODCAST ANSWER | |
What a great question – never been asked this before!
QUESTION
I have been resident in Hong Kong for 5 and a half years on a working visa.
I lost my job over 6 months ago and thought that I had no option but to leave.
I obtained the MPF refund in May and signed a statutory declaration indicating that I would leave in early June.
I then realised that I had been too hasty and that I could still have applied for the right of abode at the end of the seven year residency period.
I now want to do this and either study or work if i can get a job until such time as I can apply.
Is it too late now that i have signed the statutory declaration and received the repayment?
Is there anything I can do to remedy the position?
Thank you in anticipation of your reply.
ANSWER
Excellent question this! Twenty five years, I’ve been in this business and I’ve never been asked this before.
There are two things going on here. The first is, what the situation is as regards to the obligations in respect of the statutory declaration that you made for the MPF refund on the one hand. And then secondly, the more important question from my perspective and that is: what does the act of having made that declaration in relation to MPF have on your subsequent eligibility for the right of abode once you’ve been continuously and ordinarily resident in Hong Kong for not less than the seven requisite years.
Dealing first with the MPF refund itself, I am not by any stretch of the imagination, well versed in how MPF policy is administered in Hong Kong. But it just seems to me that if you’ve made a statutory declaration to receive the refund, that release the funds to you in the wake of your determination to leave Hong Kong and then after having made the declaration and indeed receive the refund, you have a change of circumstances such that you are no longer going to leave Hong Kong, my advice to you would be to get back in touch with the MPF folks, explain the situation to you and see what process and protocols they have in place to reverse that situation. I can’t comment on how that will be experienced because I really don’t have any knowledge of that process myself. It just occurs to me that more than likely the MPF people would have seen this before and that they will be someway in a sense reverse that which you’ve already embarked down the path of.
So now turning ourselves to the question of your actual right of abode situation. Assuming you’ve been here five and a half years and you can maintain your residence visa throughout all of the full seven years, you do have an opportunity to make an application for the right of abode on the basis that you can show to the Immigration Department at the time of your application that you are settled in Hong Kong.
Now where you have a bit of an issue, is that you’ve, at this point 18 months earlier, taken very definite steps to indicate that you are not settled, you do not plan to be settled at the time that you will have been here for seven years because when you made the statutory declaration for MPF, you were saying that you were leaving for sure. So it’s important, I think, to undo that prior statutory declaration. On the basis that you are able to undo that together with the pattern of your life between now and the time that you get to the seven year mark, assuming that you’re able to maintain your resident’s visa permission all throughout either because you steady or you’re undergoing change of sponsorship application to change your visa, employment visa permissions from your immediate past employer to new employer going forward.
And as I say, at the time of seven years you can show to the Immigrations Department that you’ve got in place all the vestiges of a life that will allow them to conclude that you have become settled in Hong Kong and that you should be able to adjust your status from temporary residence to permanent residence and secure right of abode in the process.
So I don’t believe that the MPF scenario in your situation is fatal to your ability to secure the right of abode one and a half years down the road from now. But you do, I think, have two issues that you need to contend with. The first is you’ve made a declaration that you’re going to leave and now you’re not going to leave so I think you need to something with the MPF people and I think once that has been effectively sorted out, that will fade to the background and won’t have any negative impact on your application for the right of abode at the seven year mark because one would assume at that point in time you will have all the vestiges of a settled life in Hong Kong.
I hope this helps.
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Hong Kong being a small, dynamic city which punches above its weight in the region, this situation happens all the time. So what IS the impact on your subsequent eligibility for the Right of Abode if your employer wants to shift you off-shore temporarily to manage a project?
QUESTION
I have been working in Hong Kong now for 3 years on an employment visa and my company wants to send me temporarily for 6-12 months to Malaysia to manage a project. I will be on secondment as an employee of the Hong Kong branch still and will return to Hong Kong when the project is done so am wondering how this will affect my continuous residency?
Does this mean that I will have to start the 7 years again when I return to Hong Kong?
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Can you realistically expect to work for yourself if your employment permissions have been granted under IANG?
QUESTION
Hi Stephen, thanks a lot for answering the questions on this website.
I must say that all the information on visageeza.com is of immense value.
I would like to pose a question regarding the Immigration Arrangement for Non-local Graduates (“IANG”) visa renewal.
Currently I am on an IANG visa which has been sponsored by my current employer.
I would like to know that shortly after the IANG visa has been granted (say few days or weeks after the approval), can I change my job or leave my job for whatever reason and start my own freelance consulting?
Is it really something permissible in the eyes of the immigration?
My second question is linked with my first one.
Let’s say if I leave my job and after leaving my job I cross the seven year mark, what impact would this have on my Right of Abode application?
I would really appreciate your help on this matter.
Thanks a lot.
ANSWER
To maintain your immigration status under the Immigration arrangements for non-local graduates, each time you present yourself for an extension of stay you need to have a valid employer, and you need to be able to demonstrate to the Immigration Department that you’re being paid a compensation that’s broadly commensurate with market rates and that you are engaged in work that related in some way to your education and background and moreover the sponsoring employer needs to be suitable and credible all things considered.
So, you can essentially get yourself an extension on the immigration arrangements for non-local graduate’s sponsored by a current employer, and then you could seize working for that current employer and then conceptually you could start to engage in your own freelance activities.
Whether or not the Immigration Department would deem your freelance activities to be sufficiently suitable at the time that your next IANG application came up for consideration is another matter again because Immigration Department in those circumstances expect you to have established a sizable business, which for all practical purposes means you need to pass the approvability test to show that you can make a substantial contribution to the economy of Hong Kong, and in that regard I would suggest that you read the information on our websites about the business investment visa, because it’s no small challenge to be able to secure an ongoing sponsorship in Hong Kong on the basis of your own in a sense freelance activities.
So that answers the 1st part of your question and in so far as the 2nd part of your question goes, let’s set the scene for example, let’s say that you’ve been here under continuous residence visa permissions for 6 and a half years, and that your current IANG visa has just recently been extended and you’ve secured a one year limit of Stay, which is then going to take you conceptually to a full 7 and a half years’ worth of continuous ordinary residence in Hong Kong holding back to back residence visas throughout all of this time.
So, at the point of 7 years of course you can make your application for the right of abode, and at that point you have to show that you have been continuously and ordinarily resident in Hong Kong for those 7 years. There is no inquiry as to what you’re doing in relation to your existing employment. The Immigration Department would want to see that you do have a valid period of stay under employment status and they will typically not look for confirmation as to how you’re gainfully spending your time under your 12 months of immigration arrangement for non-local graduates. Therefore conceptually, it might be that you can get to 7 years by having extended your immigration arrangements for non-local graduates visa, and then gone off from freelance a few months before making the right of abode application, because at the time that you get your right to abode application approved, all conditions are lifted as to your continuing residence in Hong Kong, you would then typically not be called to account for any time that you spent under immigration arrangements for local graduates while you were freelancing as such.
So, that’s the, that’s the upshot of it and I hope you found it useful.
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Are tenancy agreement copies absolutely vital for a successful Hong Kong right of abode application?
QUESTION
For my Hong Kong PR application, what happens if I am unable to provide copies of my tenancy agreements?
I never thought I would still be here for 7 years so I every 2 years I get rid of old documents i.e. bank statements, tenancy agreements, utilities etc.
Also for years 3~7 I was living with my ex partner so the tenancy agreement was in his name or his employer’s name.
What can I do?
Will utility bills be enough?
ANSWER
A really good question that has been raised this week, that presents itself all too often, and I thought to take this opportunity to share a little bit of light on the whole question on Right of Abode and the kind of documents you need in order to get an application approach.
The test for permanent residency, otherwise known as the Right of Abode, is that you need to be able to show to the Immigration Department that you’ve been continuously an ordinarily resident in Hong Kong for a period of not less than seven years.
And then in the absences from Hong Kong in that time have been merely of a temporary nature as evidenced by what you leave behind to return back to at the end of each temporary stay abroad.
And the certain documents that the Immigration Department are looking for can sort of anchor you in Hong Kong throughout all of that time, and if you can produce those documents, if you can’t come up with the other sort of ancillary type of paperwork, then it doesn’t really sort of matter that much.
So, the key documents are back to back resident visas throughout the entire seven years claimed and also consistency-reserved tax filings so the Immigration Department can see that you’ve been engaged with the Inland Revenue department throughout all those seven years, which again speak very clearly to the fact of your ordinary residence in Hong Kong.
And the Immigration Department will also as part of the application due diligence look to see where you’ve been spending your time so that you spent an extended period of time outside of Hong Kong particularly on a consistent basis you may be asked to provide information about what was happening in your life at that time. But in so far as tenancy agreement and utility bill copies go, its normal that documents get lost – we move homes we don’t think about keeping a consistent pattern of documentation that will speak to semi-continuous residents.
So, if you can’t produce tenancy agreements for the time that you’re claiming as you haven’t been resident here, don’t worry about it just make sure you’ve had back to back tenancy agreements, make sure that you got good solid tax returns and just throw into the mix any other documentation that you can lay your hands on that show you with an address in Hong Kong throughout those seven years.
And it can be one document for each year and all things considered the Immigration Department will take that documentation in around focusing, as I say, particularly on your tax returns, and the fact that you’ve been holding back to back resident visas throughout the seven years so it shouldn’t be a problem and wish you all the best.
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First Published October 4, 2014
Got 2 very similar questions in yesterday so I’m taking the opportunity to kill 2 birds with one stone…
QUESTIONS
I have a residency visa and this is my 6th year in Hong Kong. I need to go back to my country due to some medical urgency. What amount of time can I spend outside Hong Kong so that my 7 years of continuous stay here remains unaffected?
&
I came to Hong Kong in 2009 as dependent child of my parent. I am supposed to apply for PR in 2015. But I spent more than a year out of Hong Kong to study within this period and I have my academic certificates to support my reason for my stay away. Will the Immigration Department approve my reason or count the 7 years all over again??
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How to skin the cat of the ‘missing tenancy agreement’ is an oft-faced challenge in the game of the Hong Kong Right of Abode Application after 7 years continuous ordinary residence by a foreign national intending permanent resident.
QUESTION
What happens if I am unable to provide copies of my tenancy agreements in support of my Hong Kong permanent residency application?
I never thought I would still be here for 7 years so I every 2 years I get rid of old documents ie, bank statements, tenancy agreements, utilities etc.
Also for years 3-7 I was living with my ex partner so the tenancy agreement was in her name or her employer’s name.
What can I do? Will utility bills be enough?
Thanks.
More Stuff You May Find Useful or InterestingHow can I regain the right of abode in Hong Kong if I have been downgraded to the right to land?Will you qualify for the right of abode if it is not your intention to live in Hong Kong permanently?I have a Hong Kong employment visa to take me through the 7 years but now I’m unemployed – can I ‘cruise’ the last year without working and still qualify for permanent residency?Will a short period of time away from Hong Kong break my continuity of ordinary residence for my eventual right of abode application?How to apply for the right of abode in Hong Kong – 10 Must Have Resources
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Can I ‘Touch And Go’ At Hong Kong Airport To Keep My 3 Year PR Active During Covid19? I’ve answered this question several times via email by now so it’s time to explain it here … Quarantine Procedures for entry via Airport QUESTION Hi Stephen It will be 3 years this festive season since I […]
First Published June 4, 2103 Do you need to be employed on the date that your 7 year anniversary of your residence in Hong Kong comes up which then allows you apply for the right of abode with the wrinkle that your current employment visa expires on exactly the same date? QUESTION I started working […]
Dead simple question this one with a very short answer (for a change!) QUESTION What paperwork/ piece of paper, if any, goes in to your passport to recognize that you are a permanent resident of the HKSAR? For the last 7 years I’ve had a dependant visa. I need to know as I have one […]
First Published December 13, 2013 Hadley has strong views about the value that Hong Kong immigration consultants add to the visa process in the HKSAR and in this short rant he sets them out for the world to know! Hong Kong visa consultant? More Stuff You May Find Interesting or Useful How can my FDH […]
First Published June 20, 2013 This question raises its head in many different guises but this is the first time that anyone has asked it in such a pointed way in the context of training visas – so I’m pleased to be able to shed some light! QUESTION Hi, Great that you provide this service! […]
What a great question – never been asked this before! QUESTION I have been resident in Hong Kong for 5 and a half years on a working visa. I lost my job over 6 months ago and thought that I had no option but to leave. I obtained the MPF refund in May and signed […]
First Published July 2012 This question raises a really good point of Hong Kong immigration practice and provides an opportunity to shed some light on how ‘continuity of residence’ is considered by the HKID when it comes to permanent residency applications from 7 year-resident foreign nationals in the HKSAR. QUESTION “Hi, I have been working […]
Question: Hi there, I am interested in migrating to Hong Kong, wasn’t sure what is the best route – getting employment take times, and I wonder what might be the alternative. I am going to open a domain company but not sure if that works. I need some help to explore some of options but […]
First Published October 9, 2012 Whilst the implementation of Hong Kong immigration policy is essentially very flexible, as an employment visa holder, until you have gone on to receive the right of abode (RoA) or unconditional stay after seven years continuous ordinary residence, your permissions to remain in Hong Kong are governed very tightly. I am […]
First Published May 13, 2013 HIV Health Checks Hong Kong Visa Application ? Amazing really. more than 20 years in the business of Hong Kong immigration and this is the first time I can remember this question ever being raised. So, now you know! QUESTION Hi Stephen, I do not see this issue addressed on […]
Is the Right of Abode in Hong Kong passed along to the spouse of a permanent resident such that is claimable after the death of your PR holding husband..? QUESTION This query is for my cousin who is an adult. She was born in Pakistan and got married to a Hong Kong non-Chinese permanent resident. She […]
Can you realistically expect to work for yourself if your employment permissions have been granted under IANG? QUESTION Hi Stephen, thanks a lot for answering the questions on this website. I must say that all the information on visageeza.com is of immense value. I would like to pose a question regarding the Immigration Arrangement for […]
So, just what immigration options for parents accrue to a foreign national holding a Hong Kong permanent identity card? QUESTION Hi there! A foreign national became a permanent resident after many years study and work in Hong Kong. Now he wants to sponsor his parents holding Canadian passports to become a P.R. In Hong Kong […]
What is the situation as regards the Right of Abode & Permanent Residence for foreign children in Hong Kong when they reach 21 years of age? Clearing up the confusion as to HKID cards at 11, 18 and what happens at 21? The Right of Abode & Permanent Residence For Foreign Children in Hong Kong […]
This post was first published on December 9, 2012. The question of what constitutes ‘ordinary residence’ in the determination of a Hong Kong right of abode application for a 7 year foreign national resident, can, ultimately, only be settled by the Court. The Hong Kong Immigration Department have their own means of assessing whether an […]
It happens a lot. You stay and work in Hong Kong for 3, 4, 5 years and get over the hump en route to the magic 7 years needed for a Permanent Identity Card. Then you find yourself having to spend time away from Hong Kong to further your career, education or due to special […]
First Published October 14, 2012 This is a popular topic that people query our websites about, so it’s timely that we received this question out of the blue yesterday. In my answer I refer to the following content resources: QMAS, Dependant Visa, Business Investment Visa. QUESTION “I have been working in HK since 2007 on […]
What happens if you work for a Hong Kong company but are stationed the majority of your time outside of Hong Kong? Less than 180 days in Hong Kong during the last three years – impact on PR eligibility? QUESTION I studied in Hong Kong for 4 years, and when I graduated, I got an […]
First Published November 19, 2017 Complex immigration scenarios sometimes present themselves with unforeseen consequences – which I am grateful to be able to explore in this excellent question just in… QUESTION I am Canadian and have lived in Hong Kong for almost 6 years. I recently quit my job and my working visa will expire […]
Will time spent in prison in Hong Kong break continuity of ordinary residence for PR purposes? First Published on April 10, 2016 QUESTION I am interested to know if there is anything I could do to strengthen the case of my application for the right of abode (permanent residency) and I am also unsure if […]
if you hold a Hong Kong employment visa, bringing elderly parents to join you in Hong Kong is an area of immigration practice that is fraught with difficulty – as well as uncertainty. Dependant visas are, as a matter of policy, not available for non permanent residents yet it’s a scenario that presents itself all […]
How is your dependant visa affected under the Mainland Talents & Professionals Scheme if your sponsor father is heading home? What happens to a Hong Kong resident dependant visa holder sponsored by a parent holding a visa issued under the Admission of Mainland Talents & Professionals Scheme where the parent is unlikely to remain in […]
If you leave your job and want to start your own business in Hong Kong, what are the immigration implications of this if you are a temporary resident foreign national employee? QUESTION Hi Stephen, I am in a bit of a pickle, I am currently waiting for my PR and I have a visa extension […]
Time spent outside of Hong Kong working for a Hong Kong employer? This question has come up before but the questioner has assumed that his training visa will be extended subsequently so… QUESTION I am married and have two kids aged 8 and 5. I have recently taken up employment in Hong Kong with a […]
IMPORTANT: Please note that we have no competency in Foreign Domestic Helper visas. Any such questions are best directed at an FDH agency who have significant experience in those types of visas. I receive 70-100 questions a week on this Blog and most of these are very succinct, allowing me to quickly drill down on […]
First Published September 22, 2017 Is it possible to hold an employment visa, not work for your sponsoring employer and travel, live and possibly even work outside of Hong Kong through to the 7 years qualification mark and still qualify for the right of abode? QUESTION Hi Stephen, I have a question regarding Hong Kong […]
Getting from the Right to Land to the Right of Abode is the same as coming from a temporary visa to a permanent identity card. It’s all about the magic seven years in Hong Kong… QUESTION I am a UK Citizen with the Right to Land. I understand that with Right to Land, I have no […]
There’s a lot of confusion about the Hong Kong Identity Card so today I’d like to clear it up a bit… QUESTION Hello, (1) Which visa categories require a Hong Kong Identity Card, and (2) If they require a Hong Kong Identity Card then will it allow for access to the public health care system, […]
First Published September 14, 2017 Tough question this – so what’s the answer…? QUESTION Hello Hong Kong Visa Geeza, This website is simply wonderful and resourceful!! Thanks. I had a question and was wondering if you can please help. I finish 7 years in Hong Kong in November and my current employment visa expires on […]
First Published 2012 (10 Years Ago – Look How Young I Am!) There is sooooo much chatter on public forums about the value which Hong Kong immigration consultants add to the overall process of securing residency in Hong Kong. What the majority of these people fail to appreciate is the very simple reason why the […]
Can I Extend My Hong Kong Visa Outside of Hong Kong Due To The Pandemic? So the question is whether or not you can get an extension to your residence visa considered while you’re offshore? Historically, you’ve needed to be back in Hong Kong in order to progress an extension of stay application, if you’re […]
How A Hong Kong Right of Abode Application Plays Out (Reprise)
I am grateful to a user of our websites who has sent me this report of his experience in his right of abode application recently to share with everyone.
28/01/2021 ROP145 submitted online (as Chinese citizen holding foreign passport, with one period of continuous absence over 6 months).
04/02 receipt of application reference number in the mail (with direct phone number of case officer printed on the letter).
24/02 receipt of letter requesting proof of Chinese citizenship, explanation of the 6+ months absence, and completion of ROP146.
25/02 submission of requested documents online.
17/03 called case officer citing processing time over 6-week and need of traveling, officer informed of “speedy process”.
18/03 case officer called back informing 1st April verification formality scheduled, online status also updated. (HK IMMD is truly efficient and reliable!)
18/03 changed appointment online from 1st April to 22nd March
22/03 went to Wan Chai (with online printout only, before receiving appointment letter from IMMD), completed verification formality on 25th floor (10 minutes), permanent ID card application on 8th (10 minutes), and HK passport application on 4th floor (10 minutes)
23/03 receipt of IMMD appointment letter, online status changed to “Application approved” .
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First Published May 21, 2014
It’s important to undertake one application at a time en route to your eventual right of abode in Hong Kong…
QUESTION
Hi. I need to extend my IANG visa by the end of July. As of the second week in September I will have been in Hong Kong for 7 years, thus eligible for permanent residency.
I currently do not have a employer sponsor. In negotiating an employment contract (I’m a consultant with no desire to start my own firm) it may be favourable to have a a contract term of 59 days, excluding my potential employer from needing to start an MPF account.
However, would Immigration look unfavourably on that contract term of less than one full year? I basically need an IANG visa for the “gap weeks” of August 2014 and first week of September 2014 as well as employment sponsor.
Your help is greatly appreciated.
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When would unconditional stay be an appropriate Hong Kong immigration status as opposed to the right of abode and, in any event, what’s the difference?
QUESTION
We’re considering to apply for a business investment visa, but we don’t really intend to live in Hong Kong in the near future.
If our application gets approved, we’ll get 2-3-3-year-visa, renewable up to 7 years.
My question is since we can’t be resident in Hong Kong during these 7 years, we only can apply Unconditional Stay after 7 years.
But then if one day we decide to really live in Hong Kong, after living in Hong Kong for a period of time (how long is required?) can we change our status applying Hong Kong permanent residence?
What will be the requirements to submit such request?
What are the differences between unconditional stay and permanent residence?
I read unconditional stay visa holder need to come back to Hong Kong once per 12 months period. But other than that, I didn’t find any other info.
I would like to know particularly the differences on income tax filling and social benefit for above two status.
Thanks a lot for your kind advice!
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First Published: December 8, 2013
This case study details a Hong Kong Right of Abode application where our client had, due to ill health, unexpectedly spent more than two years away from Hong Kong during the 7 years of continuous ordinary residence needed to lawfully establish permanent residency in the HKSAR.
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Can I Extend The 3 Years Needed To Keep My Right of Abode in Hong Kong?
Probably three or four times a week, I’m getting the same email these days.
Those emails are coming from permanent residents of Hong Kong who have been absent or are coming up for being absent from Hong Kong continuously for three years because of COVID.
And the question always is:
Can the Immigration Department make an exception for those foreign nationals who originally secured permanent residency after seven years continuous ordinary residence, but for one reason or another, find themselves away from Hong Kong during COVID times for this extended period of three years?
Namely, any chance of them being able to get some sort of waiver or other dispensation due to the challenges that COVID is bringing to everyone’s ability to get back to Hong Kong quarantine free?
Unfortunately, the Director of Immigration doesn’t have the power to waive the one-in-3-year-rule as the Right of Abode is an instrument of the Basic Law.
This means that unless and until as a permanent resident in Hong Kong, the foreign national permanent resident of Hong Kong you have been physically present in Hong Kong on at least one occasion any three year given period, you will be by operation of law automatically downgraded to the Right to Land in the event that you are unable to get back here for the one in three year criteria.
So what does that mean in real terms?
Well, actually, the Right to Land downgrade that occurs, while sits, you know, disappointing in order to say something positive about that bottom line is that the rights that accompany the right time, that’s the right to work, the right to respond to family members who are dependent loses the right to sponsor, elderly parents who depend on these as some of the other rights that accrue with the Right of Abode are not lost. You do not have the right not to be deported, but you can’t be removed from Hong Kong.
Functionally, the Right to Land is the same as the Right of Abode, albeit you can be deported.
The difference for the most part practically falls to whether or not as a permanent resident holding the Right of Abode you can qualify for things like the scheme HKD6000 and other free money giveaways that the government occasionally avails to Hong Kong to permanent residents.
It’s those types of things but in a very pure practical sense, if you are downgraded to the right to essentially it means you can come back to Hong Kong at any point in the process and pick up your life from wherever you left it off. You don’t need any permission of the Hong Kong Immigration Department to do that.
And seven years of continuous on residence later, you can then subsequently apply for Right of Abode once again.
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Never has this question has been posed in this way previously so I am grateful to receive it…
QUESTION
Great website! I hope this reaches you well.
I’m writing on behalf of my partner, who has been in Hong Kong for over 6 years. He’s coming up to his 7th year of continuous residency, and he hopes to apply for the right of abode next year.
He has a great reputation at work, employed at a well known institution, and has always paid his taxes on time. He’s the perfect candidate for permanent residency, and has worked hard to get here.
The problem is that we recently had a bit of trouble with the police. It was a minor domestic issue, we had a fight that got out of control, and the police were called in. No charges were made, but there’s definitely a record of the incident in the police files.
It’s extremely regrettable, and after the dust settled I realized that this may have adverse effects on his future visa applications.
Do you think this jeopardizes his application?
Could he have his application denied because of this?
I’ve considered going to the police to explain the situation and ask to remove or at least mitigate the record, if possible.
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| PODCAST ANSWER | |
Interesting scenario this one…
QUESTION
I have been continuously employed here for almost 7 years and will be eligible to apply for PR in Hong Kong this Sept.
If I leave my current job and start working for a different company outside of Hong Kong, is there any way I can still be eligible for PR in Hong Kong this September?
If the new company’s Hong Kong office hires me and then places me overseas as a temporary secondment, will it be OK to rent out the apt that I own when I go on the secondment?
If the new company’s Hong Kong office hires me and I take a month or two off in between jobs to travel before I start my new job, will this affect my PR application timing?
Thank you!
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| PODCAST ANSWER | |
First Published On July 17, 2013
Children born in Hong Kong to a Hong Kong permanent resident have their eligibility for permanent identity cards established at birth. But what if the child is born to a Hong Kong permanent resident not married to its mother and where the child was born outside of Hong Kong?
QUESTION
First, many thanks for your time.
I’m a permanent resident of Hong Kong and my son (now 2 years and 5 months) was born in Malaysia and has a Malaysian passport.
I applied for a dependency visa for him in 2012 and was granted a one-year visa in November of that year. He has spent 8 months in Hong Kong so far.
His mother is not a dependant (indeed I’m still married to another woman) but there is no conflict between us – we want what’s best for the child.
Is it correct to say that if I can get my son on the 3 x 3 dependant visa pattern he will be able in the end to apply for a permanent ID card?
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How to skin the cat of the ‘missing tenancy agreement’ is an oft-faced challenge in the game of the Hong Kong Right of Abode Application after 7 years continuous ordinary residence by a foreign national intending permanent resident.
QUESTION
What happens if I am unable to provide copies of my tenancy agreements in support of my Hong Kong permanent residency application?
I never thought I would still be here for 7 years so I every 2 years I get rid of old documents ie, bank statements, tenancy agreements, utilities etc.
Also for years 3-7 I was living with my ex partner so the tenancy agreement was in her name or her employer’s name.
What can I do? Will utility bills be enough?
Thanks.
ANSWER
Yes, I can completely understand how in your circumstances you have gone through a regular exercise of throwing out old not needed documents anymore.
And so seven years down the road you find yourself needing to be able to demonstrate to the Immigration Department that you’ve been continuously and ordinarily resident here for those seven years. And that you can’t lay your hands on documents to begin to substantiate the actuality of your formal residence.
Well look at it from this perspective: if you can’t come up with tenancy agreement documents then the Immigration Department will rely on other aspects of your file to allow themselves to be satisfied that you’ve been resident in Hong Kong, notwithstanding the fact that you can’t in your instance come up with formal tenancy agreements because of the passing of your life and how it was lived. They know from your movements into in and out of Hong Kong how much time that you’ve spent here.
And if it’s very clear and all the facts that A) you have been continuously working for your employers in Hong Kong with resident visa permission and employment visa permissions; B) you’ve paid your taxes throughout those seven years and that fact has been evidenced through the submission of the copies of your tax returns for the requisite period.
And then any absences from Hong Kong in that time have been of a merely temporary nature and typically not long in time, then it’s easy for the Immigration Department to conclude that unless you were sleeping in a tent in Tsim Sha Tsui, effectively you’ve been laying your head somewhere in Hong Kong safe and secure throughout all at this time.
So the Immigration Department won’t refuse your application because you can’t come up with the tenancy agreements but because it is an integral element of the application, my advice to you would be to draw a schedule and state effectively what your addresses were during the requisite seven years. And the time that you were in those premises accordingly with a short note against each entry, explaining why the tenancy agreement isn’t available.
So if you put that schedule together and perhaps you may be able to lay your hands on some other documents: utility bills, or telephone bills, or whatever that can speak quite clearly to the fact or testify clearly to the fact that you were constant at those addresses at the relevant points in time just to corroborate the explanation on your schedule, then you’ll find that the Immigration Department will usually respond positively to that and they’ll help you solve your tenancy agreement absence conundrum.
Okay, I hope you found this useful. Thanks. Bye.
More Stuff You May Find Useful or Interesting How can I regain the right of abode in Hong Kong if I have been downgraded to the right to land? What Impact Will A Temporary Yet Long Term Secondment Overseas For Work Have On My Hong Kong Permanent Residence Application 3 Years From Now? I have a Hong Kong employment visa to take me through the 7 years but now I’m unemployed – can I ‘cruise’ the last year without working and still qualify for permanent residency? Will a short period of time away from Hong Kong break my continuity of ordinary residence for my eventual right of abode application? How to apply for the right of abode in Hong Kong – 10 Must Have Resources
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QUESTION
I’m a Chinese National and now working in HK on IANG Visa.
I have been living in Hong Kong continuously for 6 years (I came here in August 2013, then 1 year study and 5 year work).
My current IANG visa is valid until July 2022 (all visas are back to back).
Theoretically I can get my PR if I continue working in HK until Aug 2020, but now there is a very good opportunity for me in the US.
I read many of your posts and most of them are moving out of HK due to company deployment etc., but for me, I’m going to work abroad on my own will, and not for an HK company.
What do you think about the probability to apply for a PR next Aug if I came back to HK every two to three months, and keep my MPF, bank account, credit card, etc?
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First Published On December 9, 2013
It happens a lot more often that you might imagine – inadvertent loss of ‘ordinary residence‘ setting back your application for permanent residence here in Hong Kong.
QUESTION
My wife and I came to Hong Kong to work in 2006. However she went to business school in Europe in 2009, sponsored by her Hong Kong employer.
So from her immigration record, the ordinary residence discontinued for the period of November 2009 to September 2010.
But throughout the past 7 years I myself have remained in Hong Kong and all our savings as well as properties are here and I recently got my own permanent ID (but my wife got refused).
My questions are:
(1) should my wife apply in-person again for a formal determination?
(2) if her application gets refused again and if she quits her job to take care of kids at home, can she still have a HKID and continue the 7 year accumulation?
Thank you.
My Follow Up Questions
In this time (November 2009 – September 2010) did your wife:
(A) hold a residence visa in Hong Kong?
(B) have documentation from her employer showing that the time in Europe was only temporary and that her Hong Kong employment contract subsisted – even though she was not getting paid – and that she was expected to return to her job here immediately upon graduation?
(C) did she in fact return to that job in Hong Kong immediately upon graduation?
Follow Up Answers
A. No. She came back a few times but on tourist visas
B. Yes. There is a letter from her employer stating explicitly that during 2009-10 she attended a company sponsored BSchool program in Europe during which period she was still considered an employee of the company.
C. Yes.
More Stuff You May Find Useful or Interesting How do lengthy employment secondments away from Hong Kong impact on continuity of ordinary residence for a right of abode application after 7 years? Will a short period of time away from Hong Kong break my continuity of ordinary residence for my eventual right of abode application? Can a newly qualified foreign national permanent resident of Hong Kong automatically secure the right of abode for his parents too? How to apply for the right of abode in Hong Kong without any professional help – documents required Am I compelled to apply for the right of abode after 7 years or can I maintain the status quoe of my current employment visa?
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