[TulipGumLeaves]

Hello,

My boyfriend has just been offered a job in HK to which has just accepted. The company is going to sponsor him.

- We were told by his company that there would be no problem with applying for a dependant visa for myself (his girlfriend) to come over to HK.

- We were also told that with new changes to the immigration system, spouses on the dependent visa will be entitled to work.

We are in quite a difficult situation.
My boyfriend is Dutch. I am Australian. I have been living here in the Netherlands with my boyfriend for the past year. (We have documents to prove this). We have been together for 5.5 years... plenty of photos to prove this.

How is Spouse defined?

We have just been approved a partnership visa here in the Netherlands (eventhough we are not married) which allows me residency here for 1 year and at the same time I am allowed to work. Will the same conditions apply. We can provide evidence that we have been living together and that he can financially support me (as he has been for the past year). We also have a joint bank account if that helps.

If... by any chance I do get approved, will I be permitted to work?

I have been reading lots of the threads... and there seems to be some threads which state that it is possible and some impossible. I am a little unsure and have doubts with some of the older threads as it appears the rules and regulations keep changing.

Please Advise if possible.
Thanking you all in advance...
Carol

[pumi23]

hey TulipGumLeaves,

the simple answer is: no. spouse means being married.
you need to be married, being a girlfriend of an expat who is holding a working visa is not enough.

in my case, my boyfriend is a permanent hong kong ID card holder. we could get a kind of "fiance" visa. but i wouldnt be allowed to work with that one.
and the officer at the immigration told us, it will be very hard to get it.
lots of documents and paperwork and so on....

so you have only two choices:
1. find a fulltime job and get ur own working visa.
2. you 2 get married and you get a dependant visa and you are allowed to work here

i hope i could help you.

good luck,
sandra

[TulipGumLeaves]

Hi Sandra,

Thanks for the response. Obviously not the response I was hoping. Don't know what to do now as my boyfriend is very keen on moving to Hong Kong. Big working opportunity. Strange that his work told him that we would have no trouble in the whole application process.

We don't plan on getting married just as yet as weddings are so expensive and we would much rather spend our money on travelling for now since we know we will be together for a long time anyway. We don't want to get married for Visa purposes... we want to get married when we have the money and when we feel is the right time.

In your situation what did you end up doing?

~~ Carol ~~

[pumi23]

hi carol,

yeah i know. no one would like to hear that.
but the immigration just doesnt accept girlfriends as spouse.

why you just dont look for a job too? what are u planning to do here anyway?

sandra

ps: weddings dont need to be expensive. the registration costs a few houndred dollars only here.

[Bobbybo]

Down on the similar threads field you can find this thread Senario: Hong Kong Dependant Visa for unmarried couple.
Maybe it helps.

[TulipGumLeaves]

Sandra,

I am a girl who wants an extravagant wedding! haha... oh well. You can't blame me right!?

I have been looking for work too... I have just the usual Admin, Sales, Customer Service experience (supervisory and team leader roles) which is in great supply in HK... I am also disadvantaged as I do not know Cantonese or Mandarin.

Hmm... know of anyone wanting looking to recruit?
_____________________________________________

Thanks Bobbybo.

I also checked out one of the links posted from a previous thread...
http://www.emigra.com.hk/HongKong/page80.php

"However, heterosexual live-in partners who are able to show a pre-existing co-habitation prior to coming to Hong Kong and who are prepared to undertake in writing that their relationship will eventually lead to a legal marriage are usually able to secure a Prolonged Visitor visa to allow the non-employment visa holding defacto spouse to reside together in Hong Kong with their life partner."

This we believe we can provide evidence for...

As for a Prolonged Visitor Visa... I still would like to be given the opportunity to look and apply for jobs in Hong Kong.

[carang]

not with that visa.. the other thing is that you have to prove that the marriage will take place in the near future adn not "sometime in a few years time:

[Bobbybo]

The question is how prolonged is the visa? And then if you go out of the country (I imagine a visit to Shenzhen maybe or a trip back to Holland) are you going to re-apply again?
I would ask the Immigration Dept directly.

[pumi23]

i agree with carang. its true, u need to prove that ure going to get married within the near future.

about the registration wedding: u can do the registration first and the party later. many ppl do that here ;-)

[carang]

when my hubby and i got married, we had two weddings. one in HK and one in canada, but we had the registration here in hk

you don't have to give up the "fancy" wedding, just do it later.

the other thing is, it isn't really the wedding that counts, it's the marriage.
if i had it to do over again, i would do it very differently!