Kiwi moving to HK - many questions - help please!!

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  1. #1

    Kiwi moving to HK - many questions - help please!!

    Hello everyone

    I am a kiwi, currently living and working in Australia, and moving to HK wiht my boyfriend at the end of this year as he has a new job there.

    I have a lot of questions which I am hoping some of you may be able to help me out with...so here goes!

    1. I have british passport and a new zealand passport. Will I need a visa to work in HK?

    2. I am a lawyer. My area of practice is civil litigation. I was admitted in NZ in 2007. I was admitted in Australia in 2008. I understand from recruitment agencies I have spoken with that I will not be able to be admitted as a solicitor in HK until I have worked in HK for approximately 3 years. Is this correct? I would consider junioring for a barrister if this was an opportunity open to me with a view to being admitted to the HK bar as a barrister. Can anyone help? what are good litigation firms in HK? Open to all options...Would it be easier to get admitted in HK if I could get admitted on the papers in say the UK before coming to HK? Thoughts?

    Hope to hear back from someone! Thanks for your help...no doubt I'll have more questions but it would be useful if someone could point me in the right direction as to where I can get answers to my questions...Thank you!


  2. #2

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    1 Yes. The easiest option (assuming you are female) is to marry your bf and get a Dependant Visa which will allow you to work freely without further paperwork.

    2 I'll leave that to a lawyer...


  3. #3

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    1. Yes, you will need an employment visa to work here. Not difficult to process if you are a lawyer employed by an international firm.

    2. HK Law Society has all the details on admission:
    The Law Society of Hong Kong : Hong Kong Solicitors

    Re: good litigation firms - there really is not much international litigation work in HK. The usual international firms (magic circle, NY firms and places like deacons) have dispute resolution practices of various sizes, although at quite a few the focus is on arbitration work. Most legal recruitment agencies can give you a pretty good picture of the litigation environment here, but for the most part foreign lawyers (both HK qualified and foreign registered) practice in various corporate disciplines. Working at a smaller local firm probably isn't an option unless you speak Cantonese...and it would do very little for your career unless you plan on staying in HK long term and working on local matters.


  4. #4

    Thank you sou much for the information. Very helpful


  5. #5

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    But I heard from somewhere that from 1st of june..now if you marry and you get a dependant visa, you will get a visa to stay here but you will not be allowed to work here? or was that just a rumour!?


  6. #6

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    Re the legal stuff... I have a friend who moved here with her boyfriend, also lawyer. Did not want to marry and wanted a job - searched for nearly 2 years and found nothing. She was also Australian qualified.
    The overseas lawyers I have worked with seem to do this (note, this is an outsiders view of what is going on!) have "overseas qualified lawyer" on their business cards, and then do various exams here and then qualify here. Some NEVER qualify here, they continue to practise as "overseas qualified" lawyers, which is fine for some and depends entirely on what you do. Probably NOT a good idea if you want to litigate in a HK court!


  7. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by kokoyashi:
    But I heard from somewhere that from 1st of june..now if you marry and you get a dependant visa, you will get a visa to stay here but you will not be allowed to work here? or was that just a rumour!?
    It would be news to me (and there's no change on the ImmD website: http://www.immd.gov.hk/ehtml/id998.htm#VI ). Last time they tried that (during SARS) there was a huge outcry and the ruling was reversed a few months later. I strongly suspect that you have been misinformed.

    (Note that Dependants of people on Study Visas cannot work.)
    Last edited by PDLM; 20-06-2010 at 05:58 PM.

  8. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by kokoyashi:
    But I heard from somewhere that from 1st of june..now if you marry and you get a dependant visa, you will get a visa to stay here but you will not be allowed to work here? or was that just a rumour!?
    We're in the process of applying for a dependant visa. Wife's in HK, I'm in London at the moment. I certainly do not think what you said is the case. Reading up on this issue for hours in the past few months there was a time when people on a dependant visa could not work but that was ages ago it seems. I'm no expert (actually I know very little about HK immigration!) but I certainly think you have been misinformed.