Caught out using a Tourist Visa

Porky Pig · 24-07-2010, 09:05 AM

My partner and I are from Australia and have been living in Hong Kong for about 18 months now. I have a working Visa and we are not married.

Australians get a 90 day tourist Visa on entry. My partner goes back to Australia for a few weeks every six months, and we have been travelling in the region and ensure that my partner's tourist remains current. A few weeks ago we went to Macau for the third time since we have been here to get the Tourist Visa renewed and got "caught" by immigration. Immigration said that we should not be going to Macau to renew the Visa, that the incident will be recorded, and we should apply for an extension of the Tourist Visa rather than going to Macau (but we understand that this is only done in exceptional cicumstances and is not likely).

Anyway, we are planning to get Married in September and will be booking the registry office next week, but my partner will be going back to Australia for two weeks in August and we are wondering if she will be let back in again....

Can anyone help?? or been in a similar situation?? Have tried to call immigration but they seem to be always engaged. We'll go into the office on Monday.

Hairball · 24-07-2010, 10:23 AM

If you have to be together then I guess you'll just have to get married immediately and apply for a change of status to a dependent. Perhaps you could just have a civil marriage registration and the "celebration" later.

PDLM will have the details as he's the pro at suggesting that!

carang · 24-07-2010, 10:45 AM

why not do a civil ceremony ASAP and then do a "wedding" in september?

only you and your partner need to know that you are already married (and the celebrant at the "wedding").

Crocodile · 24-07-2010, 10:50 AM

After you go into the registry to book the wedding, add the proof of that to your extended visitors visa application. Immigration are quite reasonable with these things and you are not asking for a super-long extension, just for a couple of months until you get married.

I don't know the specific details, but I would expect that you should not have a problem.

PDLM · 24-07-2010, 10:56 AM

I guess that's the way - Extended Visitors' Visas are multi-entry, so apply as soon as you have confirmation of the wedding date.

And be suitably grovelling with ImmD - they''re doing your partner a favour by not fining her and kicking her out. She should be thankful she's not from a SE Asian country...

Hairball · 24-07-2010, 11:57 AM

Yeah I think most developed countries wouldn't find visa runs very funny. You're fortunate that Hong Kong is actually pretty lenient on some nationalities.

dizzydancer2005 · 24-07-2010, 12:51 PM

I've had lots of friends get extended tourist visa's so i'm not sure why you didn't apply for one in the first place, however now that you've been caught I would imagine your options will be limited.

Until her immigration status is sorted I am quite sure than permission to re-enter Hong Kong will be denied. You need to figure it out before she leaves.

Good idea to go see them on Monday. I spoke to immigration the other day, are you sure you're dialling the right number? I found their service fast and was able to talk to an officer right away.

Good luck!!!

Porky Pig · 24-07-2010, 03:35 PM

Well, thanks for the help.

Not long after writing this post I realised that immigation is open today (up to 11:30 am) so we shot down to Immigration Tower, dodging all the book fair people.

We went to level 5 (Visitor Visa) who told us to go to level 2 (General Enquiries). We explained the situation and the immigration guy said she shouldnt expect trouble getting back in , although she may need to answer some questions. He recommended she should have the marriage booking paperwork handy and a return ticket. Unfortunately our appointment for the Wedding booking is on Aug 3 and then we have the 15 day wait while the exhibit of notification of marriage is posted (by which time she will be back in Australia). We should have got married a while ago and planned to but had an issue which needed sorting first.

Visa extension wont work as she has to leave the country for personal reasons in August and come back in again in August.

Anyway, fingers crossed, it looks like we should be OK (I guess nationality does make a difference). I've told her to be extra sweet when she comes back in .

PDLM · 24-07-2010, 04:10 PM

You can get married quicker than that if you work through a Civil Celebrant - if you start the process on Monday I believe you should be able to get married on 10 or 11 August; Civili Celebrants can lodge notice immediately. We used Don Vong at Vong's and were happy with the service.

Porky Pig · 09-10-2010, 01:14 PM

Well, we had an excellent wedding in September (at the Gold Coast Hotel in Tuen Mun). We're now applying for the Visa and we have been asked to provide a "Letter to state the reason that the applicant is not able to apply and obtain the said visa prior to his/her arrival in Hong Kong". What is the correct answer to this question!!? I am thinking of responding that we like Hong Kong very much and saw it as an ideal location for a wedding and while my partner is here on a Tourist Visa we would now like to get a Dependent Visa so that she can join me in Hong Kong on a more permanent basis. How does that sound?