The Hong Kong Visa Topic

[ChTTay]

@ChristianUSA, this is the employer (or, in some cases, school) responsibility. If they say they cannot get you a letter for applying in HK then, unless you somehow convince them otherwise, you are probably looking at a trip home.

@Ken

Responding to your comments on HK/visa's. If you do read online, you can see clearly that going to HK for a visa (especially work Z) is a risk. As you say, a number of people are denied. However, a good number of people have still been able to get visas there (including yourself) and this number of successes is big enough for people to want to take the risk and go to HK for a visa. Whoever decided to go to HK and get a visa, especially if their work advises them to go home instead, it's their risk to take and their responsibility if it goes wrong.

The advice on this forum is sound. Hong Kong is possible but a risk. It also seems that there is a growing trend for people to be denied a vIsa in HK when they may well be granted one in their home country. There are a few comments here from people who try in HK and get offered a nothing visa (2 weeks or something) then go home and secure a 6 month one. It seems pretty obvious the Chinese government do not want HK to remain a visa run destination in the future.

One of your final statements is very true... People thinking about going to HK for a visa need to weigh up the effort and potential risk versus just going home and doing it where the risk is less. This has been stated in this thread before.

Aside from this, you mention having to go to HK to procure a Z visa. If you have been working as a teacher at Universities, couldn't you just have transferred your existing residence permit to your new company?? Usually you do not have to leave China if you are just changing jobs.

In addition, sometimes when you change visas, you don't even have to leave depending on which visa you have and what you want to move to. Also it can depend on if you have already transferred. For instance, I arrived on an L one year then transferred to a Z in country. For that reason I had to leave China when I wanted to change my reason for being in China from working to studying. I could have changed my residence permit from working to studying if i hadn't already gone from being a tourist to working in China. At least that was my understanding and how it worked at the time (2011).

[OCRCDirChina]

I quit teaching about 2012 after a 3 1/2 years with the same university just before the new system went into effect. This is why I said this is my first time trying to get a Z visa under the new system. I have already informed the university that I intend to only serve one year and not renew with them. I live in China have a home and a wife so after this I quit and go back to a yearly spouses visa no problem.

[ChTTay]

Okay, but you didn't answer my question... Why did you need to go to HK in the first place? were you not on a working residence permit before this job? If you were on a working residence permit, then you could have just transferred over to a new employer. Right?

[Prophecy20]

Is it possible that agency fees aren't much higher than the embassy fees? 

 

Forever Bright Travel visa agency are charging HKD860 for a UK passport, Z visa, 2 day service.

 

I'm not sure if this is for a single/double/entry visa (they've yet to reply) but the HK embassy fees as listed HERE are 560/740/2370 respectively.

 

Assuming Forever Bright provide a double entry visa, then it seems like a no brainer to hand the documents into their office rather than the hassle of the embassy.

 

Am I missing something?

[ChTTay]

A lot depends on your individual circumstances...

 

What are yours?

 

If you are applying for a Z visa, have all your documents in order and can go to the embassy easily, then I can't see why you would use an agency.

 

If you were getting a Z, then I assume you'd convert that to a residence permit when in China... these are multiple entry anyway so you wouldn't need to worry about double/single entry once that's all sorted.

[Prophecy20]

It just seems like less hassle/worry/stress/anxiety.  Personally I hate going to government buildings with anything passport related as it's usually a pain at home never mind in China, where they can be a little less logical at times.

 

We have an Italian and a British passport.  Currently working on a tourist visa and our employer has got us the Employment License and Invitation Letter for a work visa.

 

For the agency I only need these documents as well as my passport, photo, and arrival sticker.  What more will I need to go through the embassy itself?  I can't see a link to what documents I need for them. 

 

If you've got the patience for it maybe saving a few pounds and using the embassy is the smart idea, but at the risk of a Chinese government official having a bad day and having to fork out for another night's accomodation/food/travel around the city.  All for little extra, or so it seems to me.

[ChTTay]

If your employer has got your the documents you need, then why are you applying for a tourist visa?

 

If you apply for a tourist visa at the embassy, it would be the same documents that you are applying with the agency. There have been a few instances where the embassy has requested copies of hotel bookings, plane tickets etc but on this forum I don't think anyone has experienced that.

 

For a Z visa you would need more documents.

 

As for which documents you would need, have you read this thread? Look at recent previous posts on applying for a Z visa and you can pretty much see documents you will definitely need and documents it might be worth taking (that others have no needed in the end but taken anyway).

 

As for going to the embassy in HK, as per my own experience and others who have written on the thread, the embassy is really efficient and very well run. If you have everything in order and no dodgey visa history, there should be no problems at all. If you request a next day service they shouldn't arbitrarily deny you. I've never heard of this happeneing when someone has everything they are supposed to have.

[Prophecy20]

I'm not applying for a tourist visa.  I have one now but I'll apply for a work visa.

 

I understand that there are plenty of helpful posts on this thread stating which documents we will need, but where is the official list?  I had a look on their website and couldn't find anything relevant.  Maybe it's not even worth looking at? 

 

Anyway thanks for your help; I'll probably go down the agency route as it's hardly much more expensive than the embassy itself and it requires less documents.  My employer doesn't seem too clued up on the subject and is sure I'll only need the 2 documents he's given me.  In fact I just spoke to him to confirm that the school is paying for the visa and he wasn't even aware there is a fee.  Oh dear.

[ChTTay]

I am not sure there is an official list. If there is one, it will be a downloadable document or webpage on the visa site I'd imagine, You can see everything you will end up needing right here though.

An agency might even come back to you and say "oh, we need x document as well". You never can tell. I'd probably prepare more documents than you need just in case, using the examples here.

[Prophecy20]

Fair enough.  However the agency guarantee success or money back.  I'll report here when I'm back; going next week on a weekday.

[Aloune]

Hi Everyone,

 

I have to apply for a Visa Z, workplace in Guangzhou. But, I had feedback from 2 local agents in Guangzhou that it is not possible to get the visa in HK. This seems specific to GZ. So, I must go back to my home country to do the application...

Does anyone can confirm this information ?

This is a "funny" situation, because I currently have the visa Z issued in Shanghai(from my previous company). But it seems that I have to do the whole process again as I change province and company...

 

Regards,

Aloune

[ChTTay]

You would think that the Guangzhou agency has no reason to lie to you. I assume you won't be paying them anything so it's hardly in their interest to tell you NOT to use their services.

 

I would say, you could try and contact a HK agency and see what they say as well.

 

Also, you mention you had a 'Z' visa issued in Shanghai. Is that right? You didn't go to HK for that?

[Aloune]

For Z visa in Shanghai, yes i went to Hong Kong for my first job. Then, I changed company(also in Shanghai) and I didn't have to go to HK.

I will pay the service of an agent in any case(visa issued in France or HK), because the HR department of my company is not used to deal with foreigner employee.

I went today to the place to extend my actual visa. And I have i asked some people who were there to renew there Z visa, and they told me that they did it in HK. So, I guess there is a possibility...

[jackn]

Hi all,

 

I am planning on going to Hong Kong in the next couple of weeks to apply for a Z visa and have a few questions I hope you guys will be able to help me with.

 

My situation is this: I have started working for a company here in Beijing and we have used a visa agency to prepare all the documents required for the Z visa.

 

1. What are my options regarding processing services when i'm in HK? I have seen people use next day, two day etc. Is there a pricing list for these?

 

2. Is the Center open on Saturdays? (I need to know for booking flights home whether I can pick up my passport on a Saturday.)

 

Thanks in advance!

[Matty]

Just make sure your documentation specifically requests you to apply for your visa in Hong Kong. If it doesn't say that, or it requests you to go to your home country, Hong Kong will refuse to grant you the work visa, so this is kind of important.

 

They're not open on Saturdays (not as I recall anyway)

[roddy]

Welcome to the site, Jack. What kind of work are you doing in Beijing? 

 

Prophecy20 has linked to a price list earlier on this page, should be what you need. 

[Goshujinchama]

wow. I applied once for a visa in HK in sep 2012. That must have been the golden age of visas... I paid roughly 2000hkd to get a 6 months business visa no question asked. 

Since I miss China and haven't found a job yet I was hoping to go there and travel a bit. I was annoyed with the Italian Chinese visa office that requested the whole trip plan + bookings in advance that sounded super complicated to me... so I thought asking to the hk visa office. I added the forever bright office wechat account and they kindly replied to me.

So I discovered that now there's no Visa that can get me to stay more than 30 days. That's sad  : |

I think I'm late to the party and everybody already knows that since taking a quick peek at this thread is either 30 days entry or z visa... but still... d'oh. 

 

(when I replied that she told me there's a 90 days visa that takes 20 days to prepare and costs 7200 hkd... for that ridiculous amount of money I can fly again back and forth from Italy and get a new month visa so that's kind of out of the list...)

 

wish me good luck ;__;

[ChTTay]

@Jackn

You can get a 24/next day visa service as the quickest, then 2 days, 3 days... Maybe even a 5 day one. I can't recall.

[jackn]

Thanks for the answers everyone.

 

I'm working in international project development for a tech company.

 

Excellent, i'll hunt down the price list thanks.

 

Will be going around the 22nd so will report back with my experience!

[vincetan]

 

Hi Everyone,

 

I have to apply for a Visa Z, workplace in Guangzhou. But, I had feedback from 2 local agents in Guangzhou that it is not possible to get the visa in HK. This seems specific to GZ. So, I must go back to my home country to do the application...

Does anyone can confirm this information ?

This is a "funny" situation, because I currently have the visa Z issued in Shanghai(from my previous company). But it seems that I have to do the whole process again as I change province and company...

 

Regards,

Aloune

Yes. This information what we have gotten here also HK starting refused the foreigner to apply Z and X2 visa. For your cases , since you have the Z visa and do your ex-company going to issue you the release letter. If yes. Maybe we can help you to solve this more easy. Thank you. Hope this will help.

 

 

when I replied that she told me there's a 90 days visa that takes 20 days to prepare and costs 7200 hkd... for that ridiculous amount of money I can fly again back and forth from Italy and get a new month visa so that's kind of out of the list...)

 

For Italian , you have two ways to solve your issue. 1. Get the visa from Malaysia with 1 year M type multi entry each time stay 180 days . 2. Get extend in mainland with F type 180 days without interview. This is the best way for you to solve your questions.