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Is it possible to lose your job (your Hong Kong Employment Visa), cruise through 12 months without working here, spend three months away in China studying then make an application for the right of abode with no questions asked?

First Published October 6, 2013 – still of interest today

QUESTION

Hello, I have lived and worked continuously  in Hong Kong for the past 6 years, and less than 1 year away from applying for my PR (right to abode application). 

I am currently unemployed, but have an active work visa from my previous employer which doesn’t expire until November 2014.  I intend to submit my HK PR application in August 2014.

I am keen to study mandarin in China for a short duration of time (less than 3 months), but will be required to apply for an F visa to study there (due to my nationality). 

As that time away from Hong Kong is less than six months and I intend to keep my rental flat in Hong Kong, will the application for stay in China for my studies in any way affect my status for the HK PR application next year? 

I don’t want in any way to risk jeopardizing being turned down for my right of abode.

ANSWER

The key issue here is that during the time when you have an employment visa, but you don’t hold a job, what has your efforts been during that time to show that you have maintained continuing intent to be settled? So there’s a kind of an expectation that if you stop working, then you’ll be engaging in activities that would allow you to restart work again as soon as the right moment came along, and that you weren’t just sort of cruising your time all the way through to the seven year mark.

So you do have a burden of proving your continuing intent to settle during the time just prior to making your application for the Right of Abode if you don’t have an employment at that time. So if you then factor into that challenge, desire to go and spend three months away in China studying that’s not excellent evidence in of itself, as to your intention when you are leaving Hong Kong because it depends on what you did before you went off to study and what you do immediately upon your return from studying.

So you need to think about that particular challenge and what this next phase of your life represents, how you can articulate that to the Immigration Department, come the time that you have to pass the approvability test for the Right of Abode.

Okay, I hope you found that useful.

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