Is There Any Special Visa Type For Foreign National Media Professionals Seeking To Live & Freelance In Hong Kong?
Independent media professionals often occupy a round-pegs-in-square-holes situation when it comes to being able to practice their trade in Hong Kong and this question discusses how they might go about being able to do so.
QUESTION
Hi!
My partner and I are media professionals from Canada. We have 10 years experience each in our respective fields. I am a journalist and my partner is a producer and cameraman.
We are really keen to explore employment opportunities in Hong Kong, but jobs in our field are very rarely advertised. Is it possible to acquire a visa to allow us to work as freelancers until we secure a job offer?
Thanks.
ANSWER
There is no such animal as an ‘interim’ or ‘specialist freelance’ visa in Hong Kong: only a sponsored employment visa based upon a job offer or an investment visa where you have to ‘invest’ and demonstrate that you can make a ‘substantial contribution to the economy of Hong Kong’.
In your situation, therefore, it appears as you’d need to apply and qualify for an investment visa.
This is visa type that some people are prepared to use to ‘buy time’ until a job offer materializes but, frankly speaking, it’s quite a challenging exercise which you might find too burdensome just to ‘buy time’.
Moreover, if you do get an investment visa approved, it will effectively legitimize a ‘freelance status’ that you may, in the end, find more conducive to your objectives for your time in the HKSAR that working for a single employer.
What Pathways To An Employment Visa Exist For A Fresh, Foreign University Graduate Arriving In Hong Kong Seeking Career Opportunities Here?
Whilst the Immigration Arrangements for Non-local Graduates afford a clean pathway to working permission for foreign nationals freshly graduating from Hong Kong universities, the situation is very different if your degree is from overseas and you’re seeking to work in the HKSAR straight after university.
QUESTION
Hi Stephen,
I would like to ask, I’m a fresh grad student in interior design from Australia. I am seeking an opportunity in Hong Kong.
I had a few companies that are willing to hire me here in Hong Kong, but the problem is that the employment visa / working permit is an issue for them.
I would like to tap your expertise in this situation.
What other alternatives exist to manage this immigration issue?
ANSWER
Naturally in Hong Kong like any other jurisdiction that cares for its younger population and wants to ford the best possible opportunities for their graduates as they can, it is the position of the Immigration Department to not approve applications for employment visas from completely fresh graduates of foreign universities that come to Hong Kong looking for opportunities here.
And it’s hardly surprising because you know the vast majority of countries as I said would also implement the same policy to protect jobs for their new graduates too. So if you do have a very strong commitment to pursuing a career opportunity in Hong Kong you need to in a sense stop anticipating that there’s a simple solution available to you and start considering that you’re going to have to start making an investment in relation to Hong Kong in a way that you might not have anticipated until now. So just blue-skying this and thinking about the way to bring about a possible positive outcome for you.
One opportunity that might exist is if you find yourself a job offer from a company in Hong Kong that has an office in Australia where perhaps you could spend six months in Hong Kong on a training visa with the expectation that at the end of those six months you would then be sent back to the Australian arm of the group of companies where you would spend two years in Australia working on the ground for the same organization and then at some stage after you have qualified as a professional for the purposes of the general employment policy under Hong Kong immigration rules, then be transferred back to Hong Kong to work for the Hong Kong arm of that business as a full-time employee.
So in those circumstances, you would qualify as a professional because you’d be a graduate and you would have at least two years relevant working experience in your field assuming of course that you have undertaken duties of a supervisory and managerial nature during all of that time. So that’s one way to think about it.
Another way to think about it is well, why not further your education in Hong Kong and go on to get a master’s degree – spend one year studying in Hong Kong. You won’t be allowed to work during that time. But spend one year studying and get yourself an advanced degree. And then immediately take advantage of the immigration arrangements for non-local graduates, which will effectively see you move straight into lawful employability without the need to have a particular job offer, at the point of converting your student visa into the one year fresh non-local graduate arrangements under the immigration arrangement for non-local graduates.
So that’s another key way that you could get in. If you come from a background of commerce and you can master up the requisite finance and you’ve got a half-decent business plan and the sufficient business acumen to think about going into business for yourself. Quite a risky strategy gave that you freshly out of university but if you’ve got all those resources collected around you, you might think about starting a business in Hong Kong and securing the consent of the Immigration Department to join in that business.
There you’d have to show that you’re in a position to make a substantial contribution to the economy of Hong Kong. So that’s the business investment visa and then finally if you come from a particularly well-heeled family and you can show that you’ve owned assets in your own name for at least two years to the tune of a minimum of 10 million Hong Kong dollars you could make an application under the capital investment entrance scheme which would take six to eight months to finalize but at the end of that process, you would find yourself being lawfully employable in Hong Kong without any further questions asked. So that would represent an expensive albeit quite realistic chance of securing the outcome that you’re what you’re looking for so that you can be in Hong Kong to carry on your career here.
So those are the options in a nutshell from 39,000 feet and I hope you found this useful.
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
I Was Convicted Of A Crime And Removed From Hong Kong – How Do My Visa Options Look Now?
First Published November 6, 2018 – Still of Interest Today
Life in Hong Kong can throw up many challenges, none too much greater than the following:
QUESTION
Hello, and thank you for the opportunity to ask my question! I have questions, but I will frame my situation first.
In June of this year, I made a big mistake and got in an altercation with another woman and ended up hurting her. In September, I was convicted of the crime of Wounding and sentenced to a prison term of 14 days in Hong Kong.
I had been working in Hong Kong for 2 years.
Prior to the conviction, I stopped working and remained in Hong Kong on a Visitor Visa while awaiting trial. My Visitor Visa was set to expire before the trial so I visited Immigration and requested an extension of 90 days. My extension was not granted and I was told to come back to Immigration following my court case. As I stated earlier I was then sentenced to a prison term, so I was unable to come to Immigration and my Visitor Visa expired whilst I was incarcerated.
Consequently, following the completion of my sentence, I was transferred to the Castle Peak Bay Immigration Centre and made subject to a removal order. I chose the option of voluntary repatriation and took a flight home to New Zealand three days later.
Prior to departure, my HKID card was confiscated by the Immigration Department. I asked my case officer at Immigration (and several other officers), as well as the Enquiry section on the Immigration website, and they all gave me the same response about my potential to return to Hong Kong on either a Visitor Visa or Employment Visa: “Please be rest assured that the entry of every visitor to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region would be considered fairly and reasonably in accordance with the law”.
Question #1
I am now in New Zealand, but I would like to return to Hong Kong in January 2013. I would like to return on a tourist visa and take care of many responsibilities and possessions I have left in Hong Kong. I just fear arriving in Hong Kong, being detained at the border and then being sent back to New Zealand.
Question #2
I have a job offer in Hong Kong and I would like to accept it. However, I also don’t know how Immigration is going to view my employment visa application. It would be embarrassing and damaging to accept the job offer and then have my employment visa rejected. Also, would Immigration inform my potential employer of the reason for the employment visa rejection?
Thank you very much for your time!
ANSWER
I feel really bad for you because it seems to me as though you’re in a situation where you could be getting punished twice for the same mistake that you made and that’s not good.
But anyway, firstly, dealing with the questions. I understand that you want to come back to Hong Kong after you sort out your affairs, after having had your time in Hong Kong so briskly snatched away from you. I think your fear about being turned away at the border is valid and justifiable. My advice to you would be to make an application for a Visitor Visa in advance. And whilst there’s still no guarantee that if you possess a Visitor Visa the Officer at the border will let you in because they do still have discretion to admit or to refuse entry and you being removed from Hong Kong. At least you’ll be able to test the temperature of the Immigration Department in advance of coming to Hong Kong by making that application and seeing what they make of it. So yes, that would be my advice in relation to question one.
In relation to question two, like all things, if the Immigration Department determine that for security reasons they don’t want to admit you, then they will basically stop you from coming. Whilst they may be ready to give you a Visitor Visa to come and sort your affairs out, they may be less receptive to the idea that you can be a long stay Foreign National Resident again. Until you make your application you’re never going to know what sort of response you’re going to receive from the Department. I can say that essentially it’s an uphill struggle as you probably concluded for yourself. But in so far as being rejected for your Employment Visa, if you’re able to make that application, The Immigration Department will not advise your proposed employer as to the reason for that refusal so you don’t need to be concerned about that.
In the final analysis, it’s the department having a good look at you, what your track record has been, what the circumstances were surrounding your conviction and the comments of the Magistrates will be important too and their deliberations. And if you don’t make the application you’re never going to know. And in so far as the representations that were made to you prior to your departure by the Immigration Officers and what you heard or picked up from the Immigration Department website, effectively what they’re saying is just a restatement of the law and they will say that they are going to consider it fairly, and of course they will consider it fairly, but that doesn’t give any clear indication as to what sort of reception your applications might make.
I think the thing to bear in mind too is that when these representations were made to you, they were made to you while you were incarcerated so I wouldn’t read too much into what they have said. The key thing is to get your applications in and then see what the Immigration Department make of it. If you get a positive reception to your requests for a Visitor Visa prior to arrival then you may receive this, initially a positive response to your application for the Employment Visa. But at the point of them agreeing to you taking up that employment then you will have to show that you possess special skills, knowledge, and experiences that are not readily available in Hong Kong and that the Employer is justified in engaging your services as opposed to those of a local person. Do bear in mind that Mike Tyson, who was convicted for a considerably greater crime of rape, was granted an Employment Visa in the past, although it was only for one day. But it does give you an indication what the Immigration Department make of these circumstances and how they go about applying as you have been told the Application, the policy, being considered fairly and reasonable in accordance with the law.
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
This question gets to the heart of permitted activity as a Visitor and the ability to remain here on an indefinite basis on that status.
QUESTION
Hi, I am a New Zealander currently staying in Hong Kong with my partner who is a permanent HKID card holder.
I do not have a HKID card, just a tourist visa, and I wish to study a university degree via correspondence (online study) from a UK university.
Do I need a Hong Kong student visa or a visa of any kind to do this?
ANSWER
The final analysis, whatever is deemed to be permitted activity as a visitor visa holder is actually driven by the determination of the Immigration Department to prosecute for breach of conditions of stay. And so, in my experience, if you’ve made the decision that you want to remain physically in Hong Kong and undertake a course of study with a foreign education institute, doing it online remotely, I believe you’d be very unlucky or unfortunate for the Immigration Department to want to prosecute you for breach of conditions of stay.
So, I’d certainly hazard a very positive guess that you’d be perfectly okay to undertake that course of study while you’re in Hong Kong as a visitor. But that’s not the real issue here. The real issue is the fact that you’re obviously intending to remain here on an indefinite long stay basis, and the visitor visa category isn’t really designed for people to stay in Hong Kong on an indefinite long stay basis; therefore, you need to have a formal rationale for being in Hong Kong on a long stay indefinite basis. However, considering the current circumstances that you find yourself in, unfortunately you’re in a round peg square hole situation – you’re here with your partner who’s a permanent identity card holder, but you’re not married to him and therefore the rationale of dependency and family reunion doesn’t strictly apply. Thus, you can’t get yourself a legal dependence visa. If you have had a history of prior cohabitation with your partner, particularly overseas, prior to arriving in Hong Kong, it becomes possible to conceive of you procuring a prolonged visitor visa on the strength of your pre-existing relationship and that in a know would couch you as de facto spouses.
However, if it’s a boyfriend- girlfriend-type situation and the relationship is relatively new (and relatively new for these purposes is sort of two years or less) you may struggle to persuade the Immigration Department to grant you a prolonged visitor visa for you to remain in Hong Kong under his charge, as it were.
Apart from that, what you’re then left with, is running the gauntlets of the Shenzhen shuttle or frequently coming and going across the boundaries in other ways, flying possibly back to New Zealand every now and again when your 90-day period of stay as a visitor comes up for renewal.
So unfortunately, what you have at the moment is quite an unsustainable situation that is going to, at some stage or other, catch up with you.
I’ve included in this post a number of resources that deal with the question of being a long stay visitor in Hong Kong, and how the Immigration Department view these arrangements.
So, as I say, love will conquer all. I’m certain that you’ll be able to come to some sort of arrangement that will allow you to solve your problem, but it’s certainly not going to be plain sailing from here on in, and there’s certainly no visa category degree that addresses the rationale of remaining in Hong Kong in order to undertake a course of study with a remote foreign university.
I hope this helps!
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
Can I Get A Depedant Visa For An Elderly Parent If I Have A Permanent HK ID Card?
I get 30-40 questions each week and not all of them merit a podcast answer. Some are answered quickly via email and for the next few days I’ll post some of these anonymised replies here.
A Depedant Visa For An Elderly Parent If I Have a Permanent HK ID Card?
QUESTION
My brother is an Indian born in Hong Kong. And he is holding a permanent ID card for Hong Kong. Currently, he is working in Hong Kong with a salary of HKD15,000 per month, speaking fluent Chinese. But his mother is living in India. She is about 72 years of age with no one looking after her. She wants to join her son in Hong Kong. Please let me know if her son can get her a permanent ID Card or any residential visa. To stay with him in Hong Kong.
ANSWER
Your mother can apply for a dependant visa sponsored by your brother. Apart from the application form and travel document, they need to show proof of employment, accommodation, and financial standing. They have to prove that they have arranged under the same roof in Hong Kong by providing a tenancy agreement or proof of ownership. A bank account with deposits covering rental fees of at least one year will be ideal.
It normally takes six weeks to process a visa/entry permit application for residence as a dependant upon receipt of all the required documents.
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
How Important Are Employment Testimonials In A Hong Kong QMAS Visa Application?
The Quality Migrant Admission Schemeis designed to attract ‘top notch’ talents to the HKSAR and, by my reckoning, only about 5% of applicants ever receive a Golden Ticket. Of course if you happen to have a Nobel prize or you are an Olympiad with a medal to your name, the odds of an approval are a lot higher. However, if you’re applying under the General Points Test, your educational accomplishments, professional background and career achievements to date are of vital importance. As is documenting them…
QUESTION
“Hi,
The QMAS visa documentation requires “Copies of testimonials from every employer claimed as relevant to your application.”
– Is it same as experience letters from current and ex-employers?
– If not, is there any particular format of these letters?
– Is it a mandatory document?
Thanks so much!”
ANSWER
The Quality Migrant Admission Scheme, the quality of the documentation and supporting information that you’re going to submit in support of the application is of utmost priority.
Therefore, when you ask whether the copies of testimonials from other employer claims as relevant to your application and/or if they are the same as experience letters from current or ex-employers? Well, you could say it’s the same, but really what the immigration department are looking for is for tacit and express confirmation of the work experience that you’ve actually had once you were in those employments and it must go beyond just written confirmation that you say worked from this time to that time and you have such a job title. So, it really does go to the heart of the work that you’re doing when you’re working for those organizations.
There is no specific format, but you should try hard if at all possible to engage with past employers to speak in detail about what you actually did and contributed during your employment with them, as this is the only way immigration department can collaborate your claim on the application.
In terms of the mandatory nature of these testimonials, you could say that everything is mandatory if you expect the immigration department to approve the application. Typically, if they ask for something you should try your ever best to give it to them. If you find it is practically impossible as it can be because of sensitive area by past employments, if it’s practically impossible to get current and past employers to speak to the exact experience and quality of your work, or indeed your proven accomplishments while you were working for them, you might want to consider providing an independent third-party validation of the work that you were doing through, for example, the parties you interacted with who are credible and are able to substantiate in a roundabout way. The representation in the sections that you marked on the application but you find yourself unable to get the express confirmation from your prior employers.
So yes, thinking that would be, well actually could help to get such information in the hands of the immigration department without specifically putting your ex-employers to the task and the challenge in terms of authenticating what you achieved in the past while you were working for them but that should be taken as an adjunct to the confirmation of your employment and shouldn’t be a replacement for those testimonials.
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
Is It A Good Or A Bad Sign That The HKID Keep Coming Back With Further Requests For Information?
This question seeks to understand what you should make of repeat requests for information from the Hong Kong Immigration Department (HKID) during the course of your visa application.
QUESTION
“Good day.
In the course of what would appear to be a straightforward application, two sets of requests for further information have been sent by the Hong Kong Immigration Department.
One would have thought that they would have put all the relevant questions in one letter.
Is is usual to receive multiple requests like this?
Thanks”
ANSWER
The answer to this question very much depends on the type of visa application that’s in play.
For example, if it’s an investment visa application, that is a business investment visa application. Having three to four submissions subsequent to the initial application paperwork is not unusual at all and that usually plays out over the course of three to four months.
If it’s an employment visa application then two, three, four isn’t completely out of the ordinary, although four tends to be on the on the heavy end as it were.
Two to three is the middling range, and the reason why the immigration departments are making these requests for additional information is because they are building the story for themselves so that they can have specific clarification on the documents that have been submitted prior. So, it just depends very much on how substantial the first application is that went in.
It then depends on how the second request for information was dealt with, but a third and potentially a fourth could be a symptom of the weakness in the first set of information that you’ve put in or it could simply be that further questions have been raised as a result of the earlier information that they just need clarifying on.
So, it’s not out of the ordinary, I wouldn’t worry about it too much if you’ve got what you perceive to be a pretty straightforward case then it probably is a straightforward case. They’re just ticking some boxes and crossing and dotting the eyes and crossing the t’s to make sure that they can give the right outcome.
They do have a responsibility of course to consider all the factors and all the circumstances so I always view a request for further and better particulars as a good positive sign that things are going okay in the application rather than a negative sign. If it was a really negative sign you’d kind of expect that you’d get a denial rather than request for further information of the backend like that. Okay, hope that helps.
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
