[Rambo]

Hi All

First off some background and then hopefully a bit of advice from anyone here who may have experience ....

My girlfriend is Thai and cam to HK on a Visitor Visa 30 days in second weel of March. We had no plans for her staying longer than 30 days as we had a changeable flight ticket home booked. We went to Macau and upon entry she was granted a further 30 days, at which point we changed her flight. We then extended her stay by a week at Immigration, net result she was in HK for 7 weeks. She then went back home for just under 2 weeks and flew back on the 30th April, no problem was granted 30 days.

She accompanied me to Macau on Saturday evening and upon coming back we were both taken to be interviewed regarding her stays in HK. They grilled her on the obvious questions like are you working, how are you funding your stay etc. No and me were the answers.

After answering all and advising she has a flight booked today for home, which she does, he commenced to explain that her pattern of stay was unacceptable as 'Visitor' and a future entry would have to be with extended visitor visa or other alternative.

I have a few questions .... 1, Does this mean she cannot come to HK again and expect to get 30days on arrival? 2, Does HK issue abroad extended visitor visas? 3,What are our alternatives as a working visa for her i think is out of the questions?

I will not go into detail regarding the Immigration officers unacceptable and thinly veiled racism towards my girlfriend, i will take that up with Immigration shortly, however suffice to say teh 'gentleman' was far from pleasant and would be interested to hear if any other people have experienced such behavious. We have decided to change her flight for her to go home on Thursday to make the most of the last 4 days here as i am unsure as to when she can come here next?

any input is appreciated adn btw i am a British National here on Working Visa for 2 years.

cheers

john

[hullexile]

Best bet would be to go to immigration tower and apply for an extended visitor visa. You can then post this to her. Unfortunately it takes a few weeks. Once she is here you could apply for an extension.

My wife is from the Philippines, but before we were married I spent several hours in the interview room even with the baby smelling the place out. The immigration process is undoubtedly racist (though I guess they have good reason as certain nationalities do abuse the system) but I am afraid complaining will do no good and may do harm to your case.

[PDLM]

1. Yes. Her record is now marked at Immigration - she is unlikely to be granted a 30 day stay in the near future.

2. Not sure - but even in HK you would need to prove serious plans to get married for her to get an Extended Visitor Visa.

3. Domestic Helper or Marriage are the only options frankly.

Immigration's attitude may also be clouded by any earlier history. Had she been coming to Hong Kong often before the arrival you mention on the second week of March?

[Rambo]

"Immigration's attitude may also be clouded by any earlier history. Had she been coming to Hong Kong often before the arrival you mention on the second week of March?"

she had never been to HK before in her life, this is her second visit. Only other stamps in her passport are two 6 month visa's for the UK where she did not overstay.

[hullexile]

Originally Posted by Rambo

Immigration's attitude may also be clouded by any earlier history. Had she been coming to Hong Kong often before the arrival you mention on the second week of March?

she had never been to HK before in her life, this is her second visit. Only other stamps in her passport are two 6 month visa's for the UK where she did not overstay.[/quote]

I think they are just getting tougher and tougher and are trying to put a stop to the Macau run now the Shenzen run is stopped. I don't think an extended visa would be out of the question but definitely would not try entry without getting a visa from immigration before travel.

[Claire ex-ax]

She has had one extension and "done" one home run and two Macau runs. To you, this might appear innocent but this can be enough for an immigration officer to decide to pull her over. You might want to check out the HKG-BKK-HKG flight schedules as you'll be doing the travelling for a while.

[PDLM]

OK, so, as hullexile says, you may just have got an immigration officer on a bad day, or there may be a general tightening going on. There does seem to have been some effort in recent months to crack down on SE Asians abusing the system here (not that your g/f was, but many do).

Make sure you are keeping good records (photos, e-mails, travel records etc) of your relationship. It will make things a lot easier if/when you decide to get hitched and apply for a Dependant Visa here.

[shilo507]

Originally Posted by PDLM

... or there may be a general tightening going on. There does seem to have been some effort in recent months to crack down on SE Asians abusing the system here...

Yes - there has definitely been a huge crackdown on SE Asian girls entering HK with an unprecedented number of prosecutions on those remaining illegally in HK with some extremely harsh sentences and removal actions.

[Rambo]

many thanks for your input .... i will go down to Immigration tomorrow with her and see what they say. I understand fully the need for stringent immigration and the need to weed out people abusing the system (working here on Visitor Stays etc), however she was staying with me, not working, and at all times has/had an open ticket to leave, but rules are rules in HK i guess.

[hullexile]

Originally Posted by Rambo

many thanks for your input .... i will go down to Immigration tomorrow with her and see what they say. I understand fully the need for stringent immigration and the need to weed out people abusing the system (working here on Visitor Stays etc), however she was staying with me, not working, and at all times has/had an open ticket to leave, but rules are rules in HK i guess.

I wouldn't ask for an extension this time though. You will not get a concrete answer from them as to whether a visitor visa will be granted or not in the future but at least it will go on her file that you made an enquiry and are being upfront. Any chance of a marriage? It would sure make things easier in the future (at least in terms of immigration!)