Arrangements for Accompanying Family Members

Please select the social network you want to share this page with:

 Visa Information
Application Plan
Preparing Your Case
Pre-Submission Check List
Checklist Discussion
Application Templates
Online Forms
Completing The Forms
How To Apply
Visa Extension
Consultation
Quick Summary
Podcast Discussion
   
   
Quick Summary

Eligibility

If you hold the Right of Abode, Right to Land or unconditional stay, you are eligible to sponsor dependant visas for your legal spouse (both heterosexual and same-sex partners), unmarried dependant children under the age of 18 and your dependant parents who are aged 60 or older. If you hold any other kind of visa (employment, investment, training, capital investment, business investment, Quality Migrant Admission Scheme or student) you are eligible to sponsor dependant visas for your legal spouse and unmarried dependant children under the age of 18 only.

Approvability Test

This type of application is all about being able to demonstrate that the sponsor can put food on the table and a roof over the head of the sponsored dependants. ImmD states that an application for admission of a dependant may be favourably considered if:

There is reasonable proof of a genuine relationship between the applicant and the sponsor;

There is no known record to the detriment of the applicant; and

The sponsor is able to support the dependant’s living at a standard well above the subsistence level and provide him/her with suitable accommodation in the HKSAR.

Satisfying the Approvability Test

These cases tend to be merely administrative in nature. Once you have been able to establish the legal family connections through birth, marriage and/or civil partnership certificates and can show proof of income, at least a modest bank balance, copies of your tenancy agreement/property ownership certificates and proof that you are a genuine family, the applications are approved with little fuss. Problems can emerge where the official certifications are not in either English or Chinese and thus official translations issued by the consulate of the issuing country will be required.

How to Apply

You can apply for dependent visas either as part of the sponsor’s principal application (if you are applying for an employment visa, Admission of Mainland Talents, non-local graduates, training, study or business investment visa) or as a stand alone application. If the former, you include the details of your dependants on the principal application form, if the latter on form ID997. Applicants under the Quality Migrants Admission Scheme and the Capital Investment Entrant Scheme should complete the separate ID997 for their dependants. Applications can be submitted via the Receipt & Dispatch counter (2/F) of Immigration Tower, either by post or in person, for those who are visitors to Hong Kong as part of a change of status application, and for those who are currently resident as part of change of category application.

Approval Formalities

The process of approval will depend on how the application was submitted. If you are overseas, you will be provided with an entry visa sticker to place on a new page in your passport so that your dependant visa status will be activated when you enter Hong Kong. If you have applied whilst in Hong Kong, your new dependant visa status will be endorsed directly into your passport and your previous status cancelled. Other than dependants sponsored by student visa holders, all dependants are permitted to work on their dependants visa permissions. The period of stay granted will mirror exactly that which your sponsor holds.

Refusal & Appeal

If your case is denied, you can elect to start the appeal process with a formal request for Reconsideration. If you are a visitor seeking to change your status, ImmD will not afford you an extension to your current period of stay during the Reconsideration process. See the section on Appeals.

EXCELLENT CONTENT