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So, you’ve been hanging out in Hong Kong as a Visitor for quite a while and have now decided you wish to become formally resident…. will the extended time spent here previously impact your chances for an employment visa?

QUESTION

I’ve been staying in Hong Kong for nearly 2 years on a tourist visa, I’ve never overstayed  and I travel out of Hong Kong frequently.

I’ve actually gotten an eChannel pass which was suggested to me by Hong Kong immigration due to number stamps in my passport.

I have an American passport.

I’ve now decided to try to formally settle in Hong Kong and accepted a job offer for a position I am suitably qualified.

The paperwork has been submitted to HKID.

Will it be an issue that I’ve been in and out of Hong Kong so frequently?

Thanks

ANSWER

As a matter of standard practise, the Immigration Department do not usually factor into their deliberations for an employment visa, any time that an applicant has spent in Hong Kong previously as a visitor, as long as you’ve got a clean immigration record, which seems to be the case from the way that you phrased your question then it’s reasonable to expect that purely the Immigration Department will assess you on the basis of the employment visa provability test to show that you possess special skills, knowledge and experience of value to not readily available in Hong Kong and that there’s no person locally who could be doing the job rather than you, and therefore your prior record in Hong Kong as a visitor, should not compromise your ability to successfully address that approvability test in your application.

Just one point that is interesting about your question. It’s about you having the e-channel pass; the e-channel pass effectively means that you don’t have to queue up in the visitor lines and face an immigration officer and be assessed on your bona fide at that point; but mere possession of an e-channel pass doesn’t have mean that you can effectively come and go on an unlimited basis as a visitor without the Immigration Department effectively calling you to task for the amount of time that you spent in Hong Kong.

The way that it works usually is that if you spend more than 180-days in any twelve month given period in Hong Kong, then the systems are alert to you being potentially an extended stay visitor who might be engaging in activities breach of your conditions of stay.

So, at some stage in the future if you do possess an e-channel pass and you come and go on an extended frequent stay basis, it may one day suddenly stop and then an immigration officer will call you for interview, but that hasn’t happened in your instance and it certainly doesn’t impact on your application for an employment visa.

But, it’s the first time that on the blog that this question has been raised in the way that it is with reference to e-channel pass. So I thought I’d just mention it in passing. Okay, I hope you find this useful.

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