[wid]

Hi everyone,
I am a 38 year old married man. My wife and I both born in HK and came to the US 20 years ago (living in NJ now, and both of us are US citizen), we have a 4 year old boy.

with the recent housing boom, if we sell everything we have here and go back to HK, we can having some money to start some business and buy a small condo.

here is my question, if anyone can help,

1) from what I read, since both of us born in HK and lived in HK more than 7 years before coming to the US, we can re-activate our ID card ? if yes, can that ID card let us work in HK ?

2) can my son, born in the US, allow to live in HK and get free public education ? and free medical ?

3) not sure why the International school are so expansive, any better one that is not over-priced ? any waiting list for these schools ?

4) since both my wife and I are in IT field, it seems like it will be very difficult to get a IT jobs in HK. how is the small business opportunity in HK ? very competitive ?

5) what is a good area to buy a condo that is close to the good schools ?


the reasons that we are thinking about moving to HK is the followings:

1) the future for our son maybe better if he is bi-lang. (both reading and writing), since a lot of the good jobs here in the US maybe outsource to Asia in the future.

2) HK's education system is not bad compare to the US.

3) other than living space, food and 'things to do' are just as good, in HK or in US.

4) IT jobs maybe going down in the US in the next few years anyway.


not sure if these are the right assumption or not.

any opinion ?

thanks in advance

[nivantj]

An opnion...

(1) As far as i know, you should easily get back your ID in HK. The only difference could be now you will have RTL status instead of ROA if you havent visited HK every 3 yrs regularly since you left. Neway, RTL and ROA has no difference as far as your purpose is concerned. Both of you can work and live as local person
(2) Yes your son can have free edu, medical as long as he is your dependant

(3) Many options for school ranging from Free government school, Govt. Aided (i.e. Little fees), Direct Subsidy School (i.e. Fees ranging from lower to Medim Range), Private Schools (i.e. Fees ranging from Medium to higher range) and ESF schools (i.e. Higher Ranges). You have to make your own choice.

(4) Yes. IT market is really competitive and hard to find a job. As far as Business is concerned, its a bit vague question and depends on what you want to do. Generally speaking, mkt is good and people are making money with improving sentiment.

(5) Forget about buying a condo at the moment. The best way is to come here look around for month or two and then make ur own dicision about size, location, budget etc..etc..

[nivantj]

And regarding your reasons to move hk.....

(1) Well.. generally speaking two is always better than one so bi-ling is definitely an adv. but the reason lot of good jobs may be outsource to Asia is a debatable subject in my opnion in the context of your child's future. Yes outsourcing is a trent for short to medium term but who knows there might be another wave of go-west after that. By the time your son gets ready to enter job mkt he may wish to move west again... The way i see outsourcing is that they are simply moving once considered high profile job to Asia and thus making it low profile and over a period of time Asian IT industry will become like China's Manufacturing Inds. wherein so-called whilte colour people like you and me will be scratching our head for 10 hrs a day to make a piece of bread at the end of day. On the other hand, those think-tanks in US will add values and create layers of new roles on their side to regulate us.... no need to mention they will be eating cream seating there and we will be drinking buttermilk.... Neway this topic can go endless... i better stop..

(2) Again a very relative quesion.. Hard to say HK Edu is even at par to US. In my opinion NO.

(3) Living things and food should be fine.

(4) Yes, i do agree IT jobs will be going down in US and you may need to find a niche to survive.

[fly]

wrt #1, I believe they will need some sort of proof of your prior history in HK before granting you a new ID (or reactivated) ID card, so it may be better if you have old utility bills or anything that will support your case.