[bradd23]

Hi people I have got a problem and I hope somebody will help me on this. My Gf is HK born HK national and we are getting married later this year. After that I plan to take the dependent visa to stay with her in HK. I am an IT professional, so my question is when i visit HK later this year for getting married will it be fine to apply for depedent visa at that time or do i have to stay out of HK to apply for it? my GF is still a student so she is not earning anything.

I want to know how much savings I have to show to immigration authorities in my dependent visa requirements and what other documents i will require for that? I had emailed enquiry@immd.gov.hk regarding all the questions i've asked above but they just replied with general answers so i am more confused now. I hope someone can give me some concrete answer that will help us on this. I will be very grateful for that.

[jaykay]

Bradd,

I've been in the exact situation you now find yourself in. I am married to a girl from HK and trying to find out what to do is a nightmare! Both myself an my wife contacted immigration here on various occassions and got several different answers! Anyway here's how we did it.

We got married here in HK and then went down to immigration to apply for dependant status. Theoritically as soon as you are married to an HK permanent ID card holder you should be able to work. This isn't as easy as it seems as most companies want to see an ID card. Now again theoretically you should apply for depandant status while you are not in HK but we did it here anyway. When my Visa came through I had to leave Hong Kong and come back in to validate this visa. A day in Shenzhen did that OK.

Once the Visa is through then you can apply for an ID card. This wont be a permanent ID card but an ordinary HK ID card. It will make it easier to find work. For your information there are not a lot of IT professional jobs here. Most require that you speak Cantonese as well and most are not well paid. However persistance pays off.

As for money, well I had already opened a bank account here. I just took my bank book along with me as well as things like marriage and birth certs and of course passport. My wife had to take along her bank books and various other documentation as well. You don't need a lot of money! It's a bit of a drawn out process mainly to prevent mainlanders coming into HK.

Anyway, best of luck!!

JK

[bradd23]

Thanks JK, I really appreciate your help. So you mean to say I can come to HK and open a bank account there on my visit? I plan to apply for dependent visa soon after getting married which means even if i open a bank account in HK it'll be probably one or two months old. It'll take some time to transfer money from my account in my country to the one in HK. So will it be fine for me to just have an account in HK to show immigration authorities or I must show some good money it too? I'll appreciate if you can tell me about it.

[jaykay]

Hi Bradd,

Opening a bank account here in HK is quite simple although not as simple as it used to be due to the rules now trying to prevent people opening accounts to launder money!

When I first came to open an account I was refused at HSBC (where my wife had her main account) unless I could prove I had been living in HK for 3 months, you know have 3 months of bills, that sort of thing. We went to BEA who could open an account using my UK address although you have to put in a minimum of $HK3000 (just over £200). Make sure you have proof of your UK address, a driving licence should suffice although the more ID you have the easier it is. At the same time I bought a mobile phone here on contact. We had to do this by using my wifes mobile account and putting the new phone in my name. Therefore I started getting bills in my name. After a while I took these bills to BEA and they changed my adddress to my HK one. Eventually opening an account anywhere was ok.

As for money transfer, it is quite easy. I went to Lloyds TSB in the UK and filled out a tranfer form. Within a week the money has been tranferred to HK. When I came here I still had money owed to me, and once that had come through here I sent another form and again it was tranferred within 2 weeks. Updating bank books here is easy, you just walk into a branch and place your book in a machine and it automatically updates it for you, no waiting for a cashier!

So don't worry. As soon as you open your account you will receive your bank book and cashcard while you are there (no waiting weeks for a card and PIN to come through). Get your girlfriend to change your options at a cash machine first though, the cash machines will be in cantonese but this can be changed to English when you first use it. After that it will always show in English.

And I think thats about it! Any other questions just give me a shout!

JK :-)

[wing]

Actually, HSBC allowed us to use our US address to open an account in HK and they have been sending the statements to our home address in US monthly.

I suspect that banks like Citibank will allow any foreigner to open an account in HK without any kind of HK ID.

[jaykay]

It seems that HSBC, like so many other entities here, have different interpretations on what they will allow people to do depending on where you go. Our local branch would not open an account for me, and that wasn't even a language problem, my wife was with me at the time so spoke with them in Cantonese!

Suppose ultimately it depends on which branch you go to, and if the people working there know enough to allow you to open an account or not. Like dealing with HK immigration you can get several different stories or interpretations!!

JK