HK Perm. ID and Home Return Permit

[staceyyy]

I am about ready to rip my hair out, one at a time here. If someone could be so kind as to help me, that would be great. Sorry for the amount of questions...it's just that I have been searching various sites for about a month and only have more questions than when I began!

Basically, both my parents were born in China, moved to HK for a number of years before moving to the US, where I was born. According to my mom, she never lost her HK permanent residency (I haven't asked whether this is also true for her Chinese citizenship, nor have I asked my father). But being born in China means that they have no British Citizen passports or anything. I would like to see if I can get ROA/become a permanent resident in HK.

My main concern right now is that I am currently in mainland China, living full time here. My visa will run out in September, and I would like to see if it is possible to either get a good (e.g. at least longer than 3 month stay) visa for China, or, ideally, a Home Return Permit that would allow me to stay. I need to stay here for about one more year.

My questions are:
1. What is this about a Certificate of Entitlement, and do I need it since I am currently residing in China? Does this also mean that I need a One-Way (exit) Permit as well?
2. Is it even possible for me to get ROA in HK?
3. To get a Home Return Permit, does one need to also have a HKSAR passport? Because I don't know whether or not I'm eligible for that, either.
4. If these aren't possible, is there an easy way for me to get a visa in HK that would give me a longer stay in China than applying in the US?

I guess I'm just confused about all the applications and different permits and certificates there are, and I'm not sure how they're each used, and why. So I don't know what to do first. I am pretty sure that I should just apply, but I'd like to know what order to go about doing things in.

thanks in advance

[Hairball]

1. I think this is for Chinese citizens born in the mainland to HK residents.

2. Since you were born in the US and have US citizenship, if you were born before either of your parents had a green card or citizenship in the US, you would also be a Chinese citizen, and also have HK ROA if one of your parents had HK ROA.

3. Currently, I believe it is yes.

4. Not sure.


I wrote up a guide on this earlier, take a look:
http://www.geocities.com/icehairball/

[PDLM]

{deleted - hairball's page says it better than I}

[staceyyy]

Thank you both for your quick responses! Seems like this Home Return card will continue to remain a mystery. Maybe I should call CTS. I already tried emailing them but have gotten no reply.

And Hairball, that's an interesting site. I'll have to take a look at it mroe in-depth later.

Thanks again.