[barrel]

Hi,

I am English and have been living in mainland China for 3 years and currently have a job offer in Hong Kong. I have no idea about cost of living there other than it is way more expensive than the mainland.

The salary is for 480,000 HKD a year plus bonuses. How does this compare to other salaries? Is a reasonable amount that could afford a decent lifestyle or would I be struggling on that and living on rice and instant noodles everyday?

The job is located in central so from what I understand I should expect to pay about 10k to 15k a month for a pretty small apartment, plus up to 2k for electricity and other utilities....is this accurate? Could anyone recomment a district that is not far from central but a bit cheaper for rental?

I have lived in London before and I know it is basically as expensive as you want it to be. But if I was eating at local cheap Chinese restaurants, drinking the local beer instead of import and cooking at home often what do you think my overheads would be for a month?

The other situation is I will be bringing my wife who is a Chinese national, the company says they will get her to HK on a spouse visa, from what I understand this doesn't entitle her to work, has anyone had a similar situation to this, what was the outcome, did you mainland partner find work? Do they have to renew there spouse visa every few months or is it annually?

Any advice would be very much appreciated, thanks for your time!!!

[MovingIn07]

but I save a huge proportion of my salary so I suspect you could live just fine on that amount given your habits as noted. we eat out from time to time at "western" restaurants, cook at home a fair bit, live outside central but have a huge place so that offsets the location, no kids and only one salary. No car but we do go on holiday a fair bit. I think your expecations on accomodation sound too low (from what I have heard from my colleagues who do live in/near central - more like 20k per month for something small but liveable) using an "english" approach to the words "small" and "livable"! Hope this helps. There are quite a few other threads on chinese wives I recommend you go searching as they have alot of info in them.

[PDLM]

On the question of your wife, in general wives of people on Employment Visas get Dependant Visas which enable them to work (there was a brief period post SARS where they were not allowed to, but that changed back a couple of years ago). They are issued for the same duration as the Employment Visa (i.e 1 year initially then renewed in 2 year increments)

BUT mainland Chinese are a special case. It is much harder to get a visa for a mainland Chinese spouse moving directly from the mainland. You should email the Immigration Department ( enquiry@immd.gov.hk ) and check with them, but my suspicion is that it may be impossible to get a visa for your wife.

[mjk]

You will do fine. We spend considerably less than that per month, eat out 95% of the time, go on frequent holidays, finance a university degree and language course, and overall don't feel restricted at all in our spending. We spend less than HK$ 8000 on a 700 sq ft flat with full facilities, just 30 minutes from central.
Friends are currently flat hunting on HK island with a budget of 12K/month and don't seem to have any problem.

[landreclaim]

Why is it nearly impossible for a Chinese trailing spouse to get a dependent visa? I see many Chinese couples here so assume one of them(usually the wife) is on that. I'd also like to know what job options there are for them assuming they are not fluent in English. $40,000 is very tight for a couple to live on.

[Jon.E.Kong]

"$40,000 is very tight for a couple to live on."
Considering the average local makes a lot less than 20K a month, I think you should be fine.
Almost every NET teacher in Hong Kong makes less than that, and they manage to struggle through it, lol.

[barrel]

Thanks for your advice/posts, it is much appreciated.

From researching dependant/spouse visa for a mainland Chinese wife I am getting quite confused, there are very mixed reports and I am not sure which is old/ up to date information.

It seems it is much harder (maybe impossible) to get a depandant visa for your wife if she is a mainlander.

Can anyone clarify what the situation is now?
Has anyone had this experience?

Thanks again for any advice offered

[PDLM]

Yes - the Immigration Department. Email them or call them.

enquiry@immd.gov.hk
+852 2824 6111