Hong Kong Visitor Visa Extension
Transcript - for those people
who prefer to read, rather than watch, the contents
of the Hong kong Visa Handbook, we have prepared
the following transcript of the A/V dialogue of
our presentation Investment Visa - Preparing
Your Case
So, once you have been admitted into Hong Kong
as a visitor, first extensions to your stay as a
visitor are readily grant by the Immigration Department.
When you apply, you as a visitor visa holder must
be able to satisfy the Immigration Department that
you remain a bona fide visitor in Hong Kong. Particularly,
the examining officer is looking to ensure that
you will not be breaching your conditions of stay
if they allow you to remain in Hong Kong as a visitor
for a further period of time.
So, if you seek to extend your visitor visa, there
are three things that we need to discuss. The first
is the first extension. Well, when you approach
the Immigration Department down in Wanchai, you
are going to have to be able to satisfy them that
you are still a bona fide visitor. This will effectively
mean that they are going to do a little bit of analysis
as to why you have been in Hong Kong for as long
as you have, what have you been doing, and what
are your intentions if they are able to grant you
an extension? Whatever the reason is that you have
in your request to remain for a longer period of
time, you will need to submit that down in writing
and as part of your justification they will expect
that you will have a final date of when your visit
will terminate and that you will provide an undertaking
that you will in fact leave on or before that day;
but the reality is the Immigration Department is
very flexible, they are very receptive to these
applications and indeed they are readily granted.
The problems then begin to pile up for you if you
seek further extension subsequent to your first
extension. The key question will be why and particularly
because you have already given written justifications
previously and you have given a written undertaking
first time out. So, whilst this is not impossible,
certainly the Immigration Department will be looking
very carefully at your rationale for any further
extension in those circumstances.
But of course, many people believe that the easiest
way to secure an extension to a visitor visa is
to just do a visa run, go off to Shenzhen, go off
to Macau, perhaps spend a little money, go down
to Taipei or go down to Bangkok and then come back
pretty quickly and get an extension to your visitor
visa in those circumstances. It isn’t commonly understood
however that the Immigration Department are very
wise to this activity and that they are looking
for individuals who are spending more than 180 days
in any 365-day given period, and people who are
shown on record as having such lengths of visitor
stay in Hong Kong, particularly if they are not
going back to their home countries or taking flights
out of the territory. They will look carefully at
the motivations for such visitors and the possibility
of their breaching the conditions of stay. This
approach to extend the visitor visa is fraught with
difficulty because over time it will catch up with
you. On one time, coming back into Hong Kong you
may endorse SCL (Short Conditional Landing) in your
passport and the Immigration Officer will only give
you three days maximum to remain to pack up your
things, finish what it was that you are doing in
Hong Kong for a protracted period of time that has
kept you in the territory as a visitor and they
will then expect you to leave and that SCL status
will not be allowed to be extended, and after you
exited Hong Kong, the risk of you being refused
entry anytime in the 6 months which follow the SCL
or experience is very manifest.
So, the whole Shenzhen shuttle scenario is fraught
with difficulty, certainly not recommended and could
end up giving you a very nasty surprise.
