Tons of questions, dependent visa/visa runs,..

evathecorgi · 15-07-2018, 06:14 AM

Hi everybody,

I'm new to this forum and I wanna apologize if I ask something other people have asked a few times before already(plus im sorry for making grammar mistakes and stuff, english isn't my first language)

So, my boyfriend proposed in April and we're planning to get married. We have been in a long distance relationship for over 5 years now, I'm German and he's from hk.
I'll start with this question first: How bad are visa runs in general? I've been in hk since November last year to attend my bf sisters wedding. I planned to stay till April. it seems like I've done some visa runs I wasn't even aware of cause I didn't know its a thing. we traveled to Taiwan for 3 or 4 days on 31st December to celebrate the new year there. Came back, no problems at immigration, got my 90 days tourist visa.
Flew to Japan in February for 3 or 4 days, I done remember right now.
Came back to hk for one month and then I went back to my home country for another month(march till april) to get some health checkups done.
Came back to hk in April and flew to Japan the next day where we stayed for 10 days. Came back to hk and again, no problems at the immigration.
I then stayed in hk for continuously 3 months and left 3 days ago for a one day trip to Macau to renew the visa. First of all, I did never know doing something like this would be risky cause I thought I never did something bad as I never worked or so. Now im worried about my visa ah. plan to contact the immigration office about this because I will need to extend the visa. I'm waiting for my birth certificate which I need for the wedding but it'll probably take a good 4-6 weeks to arrive here so I doubt that we will have enough time to get married and get my dependance visa approved before October. Do you think its possible to extend the visa or should I apply for a Visiting visa and let my bf sponsor it? is it even possible cause I did the unintentional visa runs before?

I do have a question about the dependance visa as well. My bf does have a loan because we recently bought a laptop and he bought the engagement ring. I calculated he could pay it all off by early/mid September. But then we won't have any savings left. Is this going to be bad when I want to apply for the dependance visa? should we state in a letter when we apply for it why exactly we did have a loan shortly before application and why we dont have any savings right now? Should we ask his parents to write a letter as well stating they'd be able to sponsor me in any case? Should we write down how we are going to spend our money in future , like my bf earns about 18.000hkd, our apartment will be 6200hkd, we spend x amount of this on food and x amount of this for the transportation when we take the mtr, x amount of the money for electricity and so on?

Im very sorry for asking so many questions , Id really appreciate if you guys have any tips or anything for me. Thanks a lot!

emx · 15-07-2018, 07:13 AM

How old are you?

Why not apply for a working holiday visa if you are under 30?

evathecorgi · 15-07-2018, 07:38 AM

I thought about that as well but it requires having a health insurance and mine expired in April. If I get a new one it will be around 3500 hkd which is a lot of money for me and I’m a little scared to basically lose the money if the visa doesn’t get approved. Actually I’m not really sure do I need to get the insurance before applying for the visa or not if it’s ok to get if once the visa is approved .. ah guess I really gonna have to go to the immigration to ask about it. Thanks a lot and I’m 22 ^^

hullexile · 15-07-2018, 08:12 AM

Do not mention visa runs to immigration! Your trips abroad look completely legitimate.

AJZ · 15-07-2018, 09:25 AM

Your husband-to-be has to show sufficient funds to support you. If he can't afford a laptop, he likely can't show enough money in his bank account.

emx · 15-07-2018, 12:52 PM

Stop buying rings!

sinespe · 15-07-2018, 01:41 PM

Look through this subforum first, there's a lot of posts about dependent VISA and I'm sure you can get in touch with some people who gone through the process.

What's more worrying is your economic situation. Getting a loan for a ring is very sweet, but very stupid. You maybe ok in the short term, but economic hardship is going to be a strain on your relationship.

Do you have a sturdy job in Germany or prospect of finding a job in Hong Kong?

HK_Katherine · 15-07-2018, 03:00 PM

Your visa runs are fine - you are basically a tourist doing trips all over Asia, not living in HK and not working. You've done nothing wrong. You WILL be doing something wrong if you keep doing it and living in HK etc etc...

To get a dependent visa, your husband (when he is your husband, and not before) need to be able to show he can support you. That's going to mean a salary of perhaps 12k a month at least, or some savings. With no savings, a higher salary would be a good idea. His parents can write a letter saying that you are staying with them rent-free - that helps - they cannot "sponsor" you as such. Only your husband can sponsor you.

You do not mention your age or skills or current job. The economic concerns mentioned above (which are very real) are mitigated if you can get a decent job once you have a dependent visa. If, however, you are basically a barmaid or something similar, that's unlikely to be the case.....

chuckster007 · 15-07-2018, 06:07 PM

For your upcoming trip before your visa runs out, try to get a cheap flight to somewhere like Clark (Philippines) where if you buy early can cost around 1000 HKD, stay there for a few days and come back because doing the one day macau trip too many times will bring suspicion on yourself.

1. Your so called visa runs are fine as what everyone else had said, if immigration ever asks you tell them that you were a tourist visiting all the nearby countries with your BF at that time.

2. Never mention any loans unless they ask for a trans union report (credit report in HK).

3. Local lad with German wife should not be a biggie, when submitting dependant visa application, provide all photos and whatever evidence of your relationship, give as much as possible to show your relationship is not a recent thing as you said its 5 years long but best to have evidence.

4. Letter from his parents to show they will support you both is a good thing

evathecorgi · 15-07-2018, 10:53 PM

Originally Posted by sinespe:

Look through this subforum first, there's a lot of posts about dependent VISA and I'm sure you can get in touch with some people who gone through the process.

What's more worrying is your economic situation. Getting a loan for a ring is very sweet, but very stupid. You maybe ok in the short term, but economic hardship is going to be a strain on your relationship.

Do you have a sturdy job in Germany or prospect of finding a job in Hong Kong?

Thanks I will try to

I admit it is kinda stupid to get a loan for buying a ring, but I didn't know about it and it already has happened so I guess all we can do now is to pay it back. I figured out a way of paying it back before the end of the month and told him to never get a loan without telling me again. We know we won't have that much money in future, but we should be able to save a little after paying off the loan and he gets a salary rise every year so we should be fine.

I don't have a strudy job in germany tho, I basically just got part time jobs in supermarkets or so, saved the money and then used it to come to hk to visit my bf. I don't think I'll be able to find a job here as I don't have a university degree but I'm planning to open a online shop if my visa gets approved.