Well what a palaver.
Background:
I have been resident in HK since 2008. My son was born in the UK in August and came to join me in HK in late October. I applied for his dependency visa on 8th November. Then I went back to UK for Christmas and his mum and him stayed longer, until end Jan. We heard nothing regarding visa but I was sure it would arrive any day.
On Monday, the little fella got ill. We took him to hospital at about 11am and they admitted him to the ward. I explained in A and E that his visa was being processed and I would go to the office on the Tuesday to get it. They said "no problem, just bring the visa when you are settling the bill". There was no sense of urgency, no suggestion I get it dealt with right away. The fact that I am a resident and he was my depenent was proved by the birth cert so I wasn't too worried.
Last night they were going to discharge him but he had a bit more diarrhoea so they said we should keep him in just to be safe though he was fine basically. OK I dutifully replied. Again, no mention of potential massive bill.
This morning, I went to immigration who said they had written to me asking for bank statements and marriage cert. I was able to sort out bank statements there and then and they already had marriage cert due to wife's visa app. They then said they could produce visa in an hour under the circumstances and assured me all would be fine with hospital.
Well, not so. Due to the fact that the visa starts from today, and despite my letter acknowledging application on 8/11 the Hospital policy is that he was not a resident ad so instead of 400 HKD our bill will be 8000 HKD.
To me, this is grossly unfair. These policies are designed to deal with medical tourists which clearly I am not. My son's application was in a bureaucratic long-winded system but the visa is a bloody formality. I pay my taxes and so why should I be made to pay this bill when it isn't my fault that the system takes so long.
I am wondering who i can complain to? I have tried patient liaison at the Hospital whose idea of help is to quote the policy back to me verbatim.
I am going to try to ask the immigration dept to backdate the application but I am not too hopeful about that.
What would happen if instead of paying I wrote a letter back explaining I don;t think he should be treated as a visitor and that if he was the implications of this were not made clear to me at the outset?
And if I refuse to pay?