Professional Foreigners: Moving To Work In Hong Kong With Spouse And Children

By Clarence Colburn 5 years ago

When you move to Hong Kong for the purpose of your job, you will need to apply for a visa under the General Employment Policy. A visa under the GEP scheme is usually issued only for a specified period of time, such as 2 years for the first time. You may apply for an extension of 3 years, one month before your working visa expires. After the first 5 years, you may apply for a further 3 years if you are still going to be working in HK.

Applying and actually getting a Hong Kong work visa as a foreigner person may be a bit tricky in the beginning. You probably have no idea how to and where to start. No one in the world would enjoy filling in application forms and preparing documents. But unfortunately that is what it takes to get the visa. The one most important step is to actually get an employment offer from a local company in HK. Without this job offer, there is no way that the Hong Kong Immigration Department can approve the visa.

  • You must also consider the following items for working visa.
  • The company who is to employ you must be your sponsor for your visa application.
  • You (i.e. the foreigner applicant) should be clean of criminal record.
  • You must have exceptional educational background with a relevant degree, excellent technical qualifications, and the right experience in the chosen field of work for the particular job you have applied for.
  • Some researches must be perform. The objective is to identify the job vacancy.
  • The salary you are being offered must not exceed the reasonable standard of the same industry in Hong Kong by a very large margin.
  • The sponsor company offering the job to you must be able to prove with evidence that the vacancy is indeed very difficult or impossible to be filled by a local resident in HK, but may be filled by a foreigner employee, based on the skills and experience required.
  • This job must be confirmed to be able to enhance HK’s economy in a positive way.

When you are a married person with children, it makes sense for you to bring along your spouse and children to Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, international schools are available for parents to send their children to during the days. The schools mostly would offer a very familiar curriculum that are also available in nations such as the UK, the US, Australia, Canada, France, or Germany. This makes it simple and quick for your children to catch up academically.