FDH for friend

[MXZ]

Hi guys,

I have a friend who's staying in Hong Kong and is waiting for his visa application to go through. He has his own funds so he's not working and so he's really on an extended holiday. He's a British passport holder.

He's met a FDH who he'd like to employ but although her contract is about to end, he cannot employ her because he isn't yet a HK resident. However they get on well, she cooks excellent vegetarian food, and she's very hard working.

I'm a HK resident on a dependents visa (my wife is a HKPR). The property my friend is staying is about to be renewed and the landlord is happy for the lease to be put in my name.

So here's the question - can I legally employ her to live / work as a FDH in that property? I really don't want to break any laws, especially immigration ones as I don't want to lose my own visa.

If this isn't possible, does anyone have any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance as always!

[PDLM]

Well if you put the property lease into your name and then employ her there (And assuming you don't already employ an FDH at your real home) then I suspect you'd get away with it. Better would be to put it in your wife's name since she is the PR and doesn't have a visa to lose!

I'm curious what sort of visa your friend thinks he is getting that allows him legally to reside her on an extended holiday? I guess only the Capital Investment Entrant Scheme does that, so he must be loaded, and apparently unmarried, so I guess the FDH fancies her chances of a Dependant Visa herself soon

[MXZ]

Well as far as I can tell, although I may be bending the spirit of the law, I'm not actually breaking it. I will ask my wife to see if she is interested in signing - but hopefully even if I get 'caught' I won't have my visa revoked...

Or would I? :S

[Claire ex-ax]

If your friend's visa (whatever kind it is) is in process, it should only take a few weeks. So why subject yourself to all this hassle and worry for the sake of a few weeks?

[MXZ]

Alas he gas applied under the skilled worker visa and immigration have advised that the next meeting for determining this sort of visa will be in feb or march. Otherwise you're right, far too much hassle

[PDLM]

"skilled worker visa"? No such thing. I guess you mean Quality Migrant Admission Scheme. That takes a long time, as vmlinuz (who has been going through the process for many months) will tell you.

If ImmD decide that you are breaking the Immigration Regulations then your visa would certainly be in serious jeopardy, and you would undoubtedly be prosecuted, fined and get a criminal record.

Good DHs aren't that hard to find. If that's genuinely all he needs then he can wait until his visa is approved. If there's actually another agenda then he should just marry her and be done with it.

[vmlinuz]

"skilled worker visa"? No such thing. I guess you mean Quality Migrant Admission Scheme. That takes a long time, as vmlinuz (who has been going through the process for many months) will tell you.

I come when I am summoned...

Yes, the QMAS takes ages. I applied at the end of July, I got an informal approval-in-principle (yes!) a couple of weeks ago, I have an undelivered registered/recorded letter card from yesterday which I think is probably the formal approval-in-principle, and I don't expect to actually get the visa until mid-late January at the earliest. It's slow.

The last couple of approval-in-principle announcements have come 3-and-a-bit months after the previous one. Mid-May -> late August -> early December, so I predict mid-March at the earliest, and that's only the end of stage one of the process.