Newbie questions - thinking to move back to HK with my husband

[albatrossella]

I was born in HK and many years later moved to US & married an American. I have acquired a green card only and still cannot decide if I want to become a US citizen.

We are seriously thinking to move back to HK but we have some questions... hope you can help us..

1) If our kids are to be born in the US, can they still somehow get the HKID card? or work/live in HK?

2) How can my husband be able to work in HK? will he need a work visa or can he acquire any sort of HK resident status thru our marriage just like I did in US? (we register our marriage in US not yet in HK)

3) If I become an US citizen and move back to HK, what will happen to my HK residency?

Please help.. Thank you so much!

[carang]

i suggest you contact HK immigration department directly. They are usually very good about answering questions.

But they will most likely need dates as well as whether you are Chinese or not and if you have Right of Abode here.

If you have right of abode, then your husband can get a dependent visa. This will allow him to work.

HOWEVER, American citizens pay US tax on GLOBAL income. So you will still have to pay US tax IN ADDITION to HK tax.

I think you need to seriously consider this too. I would check with an accountant as well as immigration. You might be better off staying where you are.

HK has "residence" not citizenship. So, you could still be an american citizen with right of abode (permanent residence) in HK.

[PDLM]

As Cara says, but I believe if you already have a permanent US Green Card then your tax obligations to the US are not dissimilar to those of a US Citizen.

[TBJ]

Hello, I (an American) just recently moved here with my wife (a HK resident) from the US. We are exactly in the same boat as you and your husband.

Your children if born in the US can work and live in HK. They will qualify for a dependent visa, the same goes for your husband. The dependent visa is good to work/live in HK. That is the visa that I am going for under my wife.

Your husband can get a work visa but he needs a company to sponser it. That is pretty difficult to do without internally transferring here from a US company. It's easier to go the dependent visa route.

If you have become a US citizen, I think you will still have HK residency as long as you have your HKID. At least that was the case with my wife.

As for the US taxes, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PAY DOUBLE TAX. You are actually quality for a tax credit on whatever tax you pay here in HK. You still have to file tax forms though. It probably doesn't matter though. The US government would have no record official W2 forms to know what your income is here in HK. You could actually probably get away with not filing it. I wouldn't recommend doing that however.

[PDLM]

As for the US taxes, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PAY DOUBLE TAX. You are actually quality for a tax credit on whatever tax you pay here in HK.

Only up to a certain limit - I believe it may be US$85K of taxable income (which is much less than many expats here earn).

[PDLM]

Your children if born in the US can work and live in HK. They will qualify for a dependent visa

Dependant Visas for children are only available up to age 18.
The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region - Immigration Department

[TBJ]

There are other methods of excluding some foreign income besides using the $85k (maybe $75k, for filing as single) tax deduction. Double check with a tax advisor on that, they will know exactly what you have to do.

Anyone else think it's absurd on the US taxing its citizens all around the world? Do any other countries do this? I have never heard any.

[TBJ]

Dependant Visas for children are only available up to age 18.
The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region - Immigration Department

True. However, if your child was to live here for 7 years, I believe they qualify as a HK resident. So if the child was born in the US but you moved back to HK when they the child was still young and they went to school here, they would be a HK resident.

[rebekah]

Just discussed this on my blog. My husband is thinking of dropping his US citizenship, taxes are only one of the many reasons. I'd drop mine too, but I feel that if something happened to him i might need to return in order to go back to work quickly, and I'd need the support of family with a baby. We are talking to lawyers, accountants etc. because it's actually much harder to renounce your citizenship than one would think, and we have to also get him citizenship somewhere else first, and it's a big commitment to decide to be a citizen of a new place.

The entries if you are interested:
www.rebekahbrinner.com
www.rebekahbrinner.com

[PDLM]

I believe the US tries to tax you for 10 years after you renounce your citizenship anyway, which is quite outrageous frankly. Unfortunately, once you have US citizenship you're saddled with the consequences for a very long time so the moral of the story is - avoid at (almost) all costs!