The Reality Behind the Hong Kong Immigration Department’s “4 Weeks” Visa Application Consideration Time Frame
Posted in Employment Visas, Family Visas, Hadley Says…, Investment Visas, Long Stay & PR, Special Programmes, The Hong Kong Visa Geeza, Visitor Visas /
When you make most any type of Hong Kong visa or immigration application, you will find yourself in the Hong Kong ID’s infamous 4 Weeks Zone.
You see, the Immigration Department cite that they need 4 weeks to finalise an application once they have received from you all of the documents they need to decide on your case.
What is not stated, of course, is the time that is required to undergo the inevitable requests for information and documentation to enable the Department to enter into the 4 Week Zone.
Unless you are adept at reading between the lines in the official correspondence of the Hong Kong ID it is easy, therefore, to conclude that it should take just 4 weeks for an application to be finalized.
In fact, it’s usually more like 6 – 8 weeks from case submission to case finalization by the time the Immigration Department have on hand everything they need and, in the instance of a business investment visa application, more than 12-16 weeks.
However, in fairness to the Department, if the application is readily approvable once they have all the documents in hand, they more often than not do not need the full 4 weeks to finalise your case and the reality is that Immigration Officers genuinely do try their hardest to get cases completed in the quickest time possible.
They do, in reality, provide a truly excellent, cost effective service!
More Stuff to Help You Along
Checking the status of your Hong Kong visa application on line – yeah right!
ImmD – what an efficient organisation they really are!
Winning a Hong Kong right of abode application in record time – just 4 days!
How to Gee Up a Hong Kong visa application that is taking too long to finalise
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The Hong Kong Visa Geeza (a.k.a Stephen Barnes) is a co-founder of the Hong Kong Visa Centre and author of the Hong Kong Visa Handbook. A law graduate of the London School of Economics, Stephen has been practicing Hong Kong immigration since 1993 and is widely acknowledged as the leading authority on business immigration matters here for the last 24 years.
