Permanent residence after 7 years - with gap ?

[hktraveller]

...Do anybody happen to know if the Immigration Department will take this as a reasonable excuse to be away from Hong Kong for 10 months ? I've heard people being away for longer than that for medical reasons, for studying, for taking care of terminally ill relatives etc and still qualifying the 7 year requirement.

Thanks for any advice.

Nobody will be able to answer that. You need to apply and see the outcome. If you ask immigration they will tell you that if you can explain things to their satisfaction... whatever that means.

[turret]

I believe you can have a gap of up to 6 months, but a year is too long. The clock would have been reset.

Hi there,

My personal opinion and experience is that it does not matter whether it is 6 months or 1 year gaps. My advice to those who intends to apply for Hong Kong PR with gaps during the 7 continuous years to preserve. Each of you may have different and difficult circumstances leading to the gaps during the 7 years' span and thus may call for extraordinary decisions.

I believe the ID looks at various factors like reason, your skillset, education trainings, earning power etc. How one acquire its Hong Kong resident whether by work or by marriage or by others is equally important. There is also this possibility of shift in Hong Kong immigration policy as well which affects the quotas in new immigrants. But these are policies which we outsiders will not be able to fully understand.

So there is no absolute answer, there are always exceptions in life! So first time application fails, appeal again and again but not to give up. Of course, they have every rights to reject your application so I urge you to use your sincerity expressed in the written reasoning to convince the officer that you are the exceptions and deserve to obtain the PR.

Still, there is no need to be rude or angry in your appeal if the initial application fails.

Sincerity and honesty is the best policy. Prepare to explain why you want to stay in Hong Kong. Next, explain in lengths why there are gaps away from Hong Kong in between during the 7 years.

As mentioned earlier, I have been away significantly away from Hong Kong but in my case, I took efforts to explain in lengths to Hong Kong ID for my continuous absence from Hong Kong.

The morale of this message to those prospective applicants - do not give up and keep trying!

[hktraveller]

Hi there,

My personal opinion and experience is that it does not matter whether it is 6 months or 1 year gaps. My advice to those who intends to apply for Hong Kong PR with gaps during the 7 continuous years to preserve. Each of you may have different and difficult circumstances leading to the gaps during the 7 years' span and thus may call for extraordinary decisions.

I believe the ID looks at various factors like reason, your skillset, education trainings, earning power etc. How one acquire its Hong Kong resident whether by work or by marriage or by others is equally important. There is also this possibility of shift in Hong Kong immigration policy as well which affects the quotas in new immigrants. But these are policies which we outsiders will not be able to fully understand.

So there is no absolute answer, there are always exceptions in life! So first time application fails, appeal again and again but not to give up. Of course, they have every rights to reject your application so I urge you to use your sincerity expressed in the written reasoning to convince the officer that you are the exceptions and deserve to obtain the PR.

Still, there is no need to be rude or angry in your appeal if the initial application fails.

Sincerity and honesty is the best policy. Prepare to explain why you want to stay in Hong Kong. Next, explain in lengths why there are gaps away from Hong Kong in between during the 7 years.

As mentioned earlier, I have been away significantly away from Hong Kong but in my case, I took efforts to explain in lengths to Hong Kong ID for my continuous absence from Hong Kong.

The morale of this message to those prospective applicants - do not give up and keep trying!

That is exactly how it appears to me. They have a lot of power to accept exceptions and they do use it at their discretion. Nobody can look behind the scene. Nothing to lose if one tries.

[turret]

That is exactly how it appears to me. They have a lot of power to accept exceptions and they do use it at their discretion. Nobody can look behind the scene. Nothing to lose if one tries.

To add on to the quoted message, the idea of a specified period for immigration policy is not new. Almost all the countries required a specified period to stay in a country before granting any citizenship. IN Hong Kong - unfortunately it is a rather long period of 7 years. Take for example in Singapore, I have seen real cases where people acquired the citizenship (including 2 years of permanent residence plus 3 months for application/approval) within 3 years but this is no longer applicable as the lax immigration policies over there have been tightened up.

The specified period is to show that you have a vested interest staying in this specified place which you want to call it a home. This is what you have to address very specifically in your application.

[pkreli]

To anybody who is interested, my application for permanent ID was approved It was approved in about 6 weeks of application. Many thanks to those who gave valuable suggestions. Detailed reasons for asbsence with plenty of evidence was presented and the application was quite straightforward.