There are discussions on Chinese forums about how to cancel the household registration. You may take a look. Or simply get your relatives in China to check with the local police station about the procedure and requirements. Good luck!
There are discussions on Chinese forums about how to cancel the household registration. You may take a look. Or simply get your relatives in China to check with the local police station about the procedure and requirements. Good luck!
Thanks for your valuable sharing, clear and logic!
OP is not us citizen, right?
Interesting. Thanks for posting your experience.
However, based on the interpretation of the nationality law adopted at the 19th Session of the Standing Committee of the 8th National People's Congress in 1996, "a Hong Kong resident is of Chinese descent and was born in the Chinese territories (including Hong Kong), or where a person satisfies the criteria laid down in the Nationality Law of the People's Republic of China for having Chinese nationality, he is a Chinese national."
Why didn't HK government regard you as a Chinese national once you obtained the working visa entering HK? You became a Hong Kong resident at that time, 7 years before you verified the HKPR status.
How did you obtain your China visa while you were a HK resident? Any questions were asked by the Chinese consulates officials?
You're correct that someone in the OP's position magically becomes a Chinese national again the moment they become a HK resident.
Hyper-technically, you're a HK resident if you're eligible for an ID card, which happens if you're over 11 and granted a limit of stay greater than 180 days — so there's a weird unintentional exclusion if you're under 11 (which they seem to ignore in practice), and a deliberate exclusion if you get, say, a three-month study visa.
Well, when I entered HK with a work permit and becomes a HK resident, even though in theory the interpretation of the nationality law by NPC for HK recognises my Chinese citizenship, I am not qualified to obtain a HKSAR passport (being a Chinese citizen does not automatically give you right to get a HKSAR passport). At the same time, Mainland China implements the Chinese Citizenship Law in full, so I cannot renew my Chinese passport. Therefore, the first 7 years in HK is effectively an overlapping period. During this period, I would still be regarded as a foreign citizen by Mainland China immigration authority, so I can obtain China visa using my foreign passport for entering and exiting Mainland China. In HK, theoretically I am a Chinese citizen, but I cannot obtain a China or HKSAR passport, so I can still use my foreign passport together with HK work permit to enter and exit HK. Even if I held a Chinese passport at the time, I would still need work visa for HK during the first 7 years anyway.
Regardless, as I said, I am not a lawyer, so I am not entitled to interpret the law or give anyone any advice on the legal ground. I am simply sharing my experience and my personal opinion. Please decide what to do or what to believe with one's own judgement.
You are right. Neither HK nor mainland authority would issue a passport to you when you were a HK non-PR.
I thought the interpretation was a part of nationality law, which is implementing in whole China including HK, so your visa application would have been denied. Instead, the commissioner's office of China's foreign ministry shall have issued a travel document (中國旅行證), just like to those who are born to Chinese parents and also gain dual citizenship by jus soli.
Although HK ID card doesn't show the holder's nationality, the holder must claim one in the form ROP 1.Did you claimed the foreign nationality? I'm just curious.
Again, thanks for sharing your unique case. I think it is so uncommon that the government still hasn't figured out how to administrate it.
HK has more restrictive immigration rules for "Chinese [citizen] residents of the mainland", who in general need permission from the mainland authorities to emigrate and have to give up their Hukou.
But a Chinese citizen from the mainland who has emigrated legally, to another country, can get a visa on much the same terms as a foreigner (or a Chinese citizen born outside the mainland). So assuming the OP emigrated legally, they'd have been eligible to apply for a HK visa on the same terms as a foreigner.