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How is the Shenzhen Shuttle impacted where there is a history of long stay visits in Hong Kong combined with multiple employment visa refusals?

QUESTION

Hi,

I have been in Hong Kong for 2 years as a Visitor and my work visa application was denied for the second time a couple of weeks ago.

My visitor visa doesn’t run out until next week. I wanted to ask if my refused visa application will have an impact on my re-entry when I go to Macau to renew my visitor visa. I’ve been going to Macau for renewal every few months and there hasn’t been a problem but all of those times, I either wasn’t applying or it was in progress.

Now that it has definitely been denied, how heavy is the risk that I will be told to go back to Switzerland? (I have a Swiss passport).

I also applied for a Work Holiday visa a couple of years ago that was denied.

My boyfriend lives here with an Italian passport and so I’m very worried about possible separation.

ANSWER

When you present yourself for admission as a visitor to Hong Kong, the examining officer at the airport or at the boundary is assessing your bona fide as a visitor. And in this regard, it takes into consideration a number of factors. He does a risk assessment in terms of, you know, who you are, how old you are, possibly what you look like, an assessment into your means, have you got a return ticket, etc.?

They will also look to see your pattern and frequency of visits to Hong Kong. And essentially, if you’ve been coming and going nonstop for two years now, engaging in what I’ve couched as the Shenzhen shuttle, albeit going by Macau, you are, in any event, irrespective of what’s happened down at the Immigration Tower, regards your previous visa refusals, at risk of not being assessed as a bona fide visitor to Hong Kong if for no other reason that the officer can see you’ve been here for two years and may suspect that you’ve been breaching your conditions of stay by uptaking unauthorised employment.

So, presently, when you present yourself, you may get an experience with an officer where he essentially waves you through at the point of doing the assessment. The immigration officer at the border or at the airport won’t have immediate access to the knowledge that you have had previous visa applications refused. But once they do stop you and inquire into further details as to what’s keeping you in Hong Kong, then clearly that will come out. And, the fact that you do have efforts on file of trying to take up residence for employment purposes that have been repeatedly refused makes you a very high risk candidate for admission as a visitor.

So, you are essentially at risk in any event, but elevated. So because of your history of prior refusals, by the way, your working holiday visa was refused not because there’s anything wrong with you as an applicant other than the fact that you’re a nationality that doesn’t qualify for one.

So it’s your two prior employment visa refusals that are an issue for you. But then you see, you’ve got the issue as regards your relationship with your boyfriend and that is clearly a reason for you spending as much time here as you are. Is it sufficient for the immigration department to just admit you nonetheless? Well, given that they won’t have all the facts and information and evidence on hand at the time that they’re assessing you for admission as a visitor the next time around it’s difficult for them to essentially rely on the representations that you’ll be making to them as to the nature and the state of your relationship with your boyfriend.

So what I would suggest that you do to try to at least ameliorate this, if you do get stopped, is to have with you all his information. A copy of his passport, his visa label, a copy of his ID card, his mobile number. Indeed, a letter from him addressed to the examining officer at the airport or at the border stating that you’re in a loving, committed relationship and that he’s prepared to assume responsibility for you during the currency of your next visit; and it may well be that information could be just enough in a go or no go situation for the officer to admit you for a further three months.

However,  that approach is certainly not sustainable and you are in a sense relying on the discretion of the examining officer to cut you some slack in real terms. Because two years as a visitor is a long time. Your nationality gets three months. That’s a reasonable timeframe to be visiting Hong Kong as far as policy goes.

Of course I know that you do have a reason for being here longer than, but unfortunately immigration rules all over the world are such that they don’t allow unlimited de facto residents to people who visit; and you are at risk of the steam running out of your engine in this respect.

Now a longer term solution might be that if you’re in a loving committee life partner relationship and you and your boyfriend are both free to marry but choose not to, and you can show to the Immigration Department that during these two years you have been cohabiting in Hong Kong, then you may be able to secure a prolonged visitor visa upon application to the department on the strength that you are essentially de facto spouses.

Your boyfriend will clearly have to participate in this application and sponsor you for this; it’s an out of policy application. So there’s not even a section in the immigration department that’s set up to deal with these applications. You really are once again throwing yourself at the feet of the immigration officers to positively consider an application for you not to be separated from your boyfriend given the nature and the longevity and the committed sense of your relationship with them.

So there are plenty of resources on our websites that speak to prolonged visitor visas; the mere fact of having one in the pipeline, again, doesn’t automatically address your bona fide as a visitor when you are undertaking the Shenzhen shuttle; and because it does take between, well, six to eight months for these things to play themselves through, normally could be a little bit quicker; but normally, because it’s out of policy, they are quite sort of long in the applying. So you will have to run the gauntlets of the Shenzhen shuttle probably on two or three more occasions to you get an outcome on that application. So that’s really the sort of the lot of it for you, I’m afraid.

In a nutshell, there’s a bit of light at the end of the tunnel, but you keep relying on the Shenzhen shuttle, then I think you’re going to find sooner or later, the hammer’s going to fall, and the sword of Damocles will have worked to end your time with your boyfriend.

I hope you found that useful.

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