Working visa advice.

[TokyoRoss]

Dear members of the board,

I am looking for some advice regarding work in Hong Kong and wether or not I might be able to obtain a working visa.

I am very interested in receiving advice from long term resident teachers, especially those that have some experience of making applications for working visas with the Immigration department.

I guess I should outline my situation first.

I am a British native speaker of English currently on a short break from work in Tokyo, Japan (permanent resident since mid 2000s). At present I am working for a nationwide company that specializes in the teaching of languages and cross-cultural communication to the Japanese business community that was established more than half a century ago and employs more than 200 instructors and deals with approximately 500 different companies.

I am working on a full time basis and have worked with this company for 5 years in total (on two occasions). I have taught at offices, manufacturing facilities and training centres throughout Japan covering group and private classes at a broad variety of blue chip companies such as ANA, Bridgestone, Johnson & Johnson, Hitachi and Nippon Steel. I have taught general English conversation as well as English for business and special purposes such as presentation, public speaking and meetings.

Prior to this I have worked as a translator/interpreter within the sports promotion division of a large industrial electronics company and have experience as an internal/external cosmetology trainer (instruction in Japanese) for a TSE listed hospitality/service provider.

I am very interested in transferring my current skills to a similar role (corporate English training or adult learning) in Hong Kong.

I feel I have solid experience that would work in my favor to find employment but am worried that my lack of a degree would exclude me from obtaining a working visa in Hong Kong.

I have previously studied for 2 years at a private language school in Tokyo and also obtained a tertiary diploma from a Japanese college (completed entirely in the Japanese language). A Trinity TESOL certificate since 1995 and a pass at N2 of the JLPT test.

Obviously, most of my teaching has been to Japanese students but I also have experience with Chinese and Korean learners. Additionally, my wife is from mainland China (GZ) and we have 2 small daughters.

Over the years I have become accustomed to Asian working hours and usually have 150+ contact hours a month.

So, I guess the big question is the working visa without degree.

Any and all advice would be very much appreciated.

Apologies for the somewhat long post.

Many thanks in advance.

[carang]

I think with your experience, you should be ok. If you didn't have the experience to back you up, you would likely be in trouble.

Maybe others will think differently, though?

[Gruntfuttock]

The key thing is to find an employer who really wants you. Employment Visas here are tied to a specific employer, so it's down to them to justify why your experience and qualifications are better than any local permanent resident.

I'm not familiar with the "English for businessmen" market here - not sure if there are many employers in that space or whether it's done largely by freelancers (I know a couple of people making good money doing it freelance, but they are on Dependant Visas).

[TokyoRoss]

@carang and Gruntfuttock

Thanks for going to the trouble to answer my question. I guess it seems as though HK Immg are willing to judge individual cases on their merits/demerits in conjunction with strong supporting documentation from the sponsoring employer.

Would be nice to hear from anyone who has successfully been through a similar situation.

I did stumble across HKEnglish.com and languagekey.com that seem to be very similar to my current employer. Although, having never previously lived/worked in HK I am not sure if they are considered to be reputable places to seek employment.

[hktraveller]

I would contact Sam at visapro.com. I have recently dealt with him in a case where I needed some advice and believe he has good experience. But as Grunt says, the main issue is to find an employer. From my own experience I can say that they really look at the individual case, whatever the rules say and they sometimes do make exceptions.