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Following girlfriend to HK - possible on tourist Visa?

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  1. #31

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    Quote Originally Posted by MovingIn07:
    If he is working for someone from back home (ie in the UK) then it's not illegal.

    Would you consider his girlfriend still to be "generous" if she was his wife? Do you consider the vast, vast number of blokes who support their girlfriends (and wives) to be "generous" or do you just consider that to be "normal"?
    I'm not sure Immigration or IRD would see it that way. If they intrepret him as residing in HK (as in it is where he ordinarily lives, doesn't have a place back home and spends the majority of his time here, whether on a residency visa or not) he would be considered working here, illegally, if he doesn't have the right visa. When giving advice on these matters where people actually can get fined large amounts, kicked out of the country or in extreme circumstances, instead of making such absolute statement of fact, as in "If he is working for someone from back home (ie in the UK) then it's not illegal." it may be more helpful for the poster if you give both sides of the what if. In the situation he has described I think that he would be considered to be residing here.
    Last edited by elliee; 28-05-2013 at 03:55 PM.

  2. #32

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gruntfuttock:
    What? That's complete bollocks!
    Unless on a dependent visa (non-study), which I assume Mr Min has. But the OP won't have.

  3. #33

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    Quote Originally Posted by chris_yang22:
    It has to do with the volume and frequency of the questions from people interested in moving here. A lot of which can just be answered by doing a quick search in the forums.
    ...

    or a quick search of the HK gov't's immigration web site, which is quite clear.

  4. #34

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gruntfuttock:
    What? That's complete bollocks!
    Where does it say you cannot continue your (non HK based) work while on a visit here? Does it make every tourist who replies to their work emails or edits a report while on holiday a visa-flouter?

  5. #35

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    Quote Originally Posted by MovingIn07:
    Where does it say you cannot continue your (non HK based) work while on a visit here?
    Is he visiting or is he residing? Its a very fine line between the 2 and the guys at the border usually make a judgement call on it.
    If a person comes in and out several times over a period of 1.5 years, the out is small and in is big, it would be easy for them to assert that he is residing and therefore illegal.

  6. #36

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    Quote Originally Posted by elliee:
    I'm not sure Immigration or IRD would see it that way. If they intrepret him as residing in HK (as in it is where he ordinarily lives, doesn't have a place back home and spends the majority of his time here, whether on a residency visa or not) he would be considered working here, illegally, if he doesn't have the right visa. When giving advice on these matters where people actually can get fined large amounts, kicked out of the country or in extreme circumstances, instead of making such absolute statement of fact, as in "If he is working for someone from back home (ie in the UK) then it's not illegal." it may be more helpful for the poster if you give both sides of the what if. In the situation he has described I think that he would be considered to be residing here.
    I agree that we should give posters a balanced view.

    From what he has said - words like "I might come for 6 months... " or "up to 1.5 years" rather than "I'm going to move with the girlfriend and stay with her all the time" especially since he said the girlfriend is coming for 2 years, I think he'd be quite able to make the case that his is visiting. He would obviously need to be careful. If I were him I would:
    1) ensure I have a "place back home" that could be referred to as my permanent place of residence, should anyone ask. (Parents are useful for this LOL!).
    2) not sign up a lease here (should be in girlfriends name only)
    3) not open a bank account here
    4) certainly not work here, nor volunteer here, nor study here, without the right visa
    5) stay away for more than 24 hours when leaving at the end of 6 months.

    I think the fact that the HK government don't see girlfriends and boyfriends as "important enough to be dependents" may work in his favour since he is male. It would be normal to come and visit a girlfriend overseas, wouldn't you think? They won't expect him to be dependent on her LOL. Several people on this site even seem to have trouble with that idea!

    But compared to many who come onto this site saying they are "going to move to Hong Kong" without any visa, this guy actually seems to make much more sense. British people can visit for 6 months at a time - what's he actually doing wrong if he does this a few times?

    Finally, I think that continueing to work for an OVERSEAS company actually strengthens the story. He's not "moved here" because he still works for a company "back home".
    Last edited by MovingIn07; 28-05-2013 at 04:27 PM.
    jgl and retepo like this.

  7. #37

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    6 months visa each time, living in a hotel, occasional trips to china or other Asian countries, out short, in long. I know quite a few of such people in our industry, manufacturer / trading, they dont have an office in HK but work out of HK on long buying and inspecting trips, they have never had a problem, no one asks them, on the immigration form they put business as the reason for visiting HK.


  8. #38

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    Quote Originally Posted by MovingIn07:
    Finally, I think that continueing to work for an OVERSEAS company actually strengthens the story. He's not "moved here" because he still works for a company "back home".
    That simply doesn't work. When I came to HK first I was employed by a UK company, my boss was in Shanghai, and (for a while at least) I had no staff reporting to me here. I also spent over 200 days a year outside HK on business. Are you suggesting I needn't have bothered with a visa?

    Also, what about tax? The OP wouldn't be liable for UK tax after being out for more than 6 months so are you saying he would be tax-free?

  9. #39

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gruntfuttock:
    That simply doesn't work. When I came to HK first I was employed by a UK company, my boss was in Shanghai, and (for a while at least) I had no staff reporting to me here. I also spent over 200 days a year outside HK on business. Are you suggesting I needn't have bothered with a visa?

    Also, what about tax? The OP wouldn't be liable for UK tax after being out for more than 6 months so are you saying he would be tax-free?
    Yes (maybe), and yes.

    We used the strategy of having staff employed by (and working for) our overseas parent (when we had one) but spending significant periods of time physically located in our office. The advice we were given was that it was the working IN HK, FOR HK that was the problem, not just "working" per se.

    My maybe (edited) above was if you were working on HK issues, then the answer is clearly no, you need a visa. But if you were just marketing in the region, you wouldn't have.

    To be clear, what I was saying in my other posts (which I thought was clear, but perhaps not) was that he can physically SIT in Hong Kong, working for a UK employer, on UK projects, without a problem. But the minute he starts working on HK projects for a UK employer, or works for a HK employer on anyones projects, that's an issue.
    Last edited by MovingIn07; 28-05-2013 at 04:40 PM.

  10. #40

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    And where were they residing?