Job Discussion Forums

[Egas]

I am considering moving to Hong Kong from Beijing. I have a Chinese gilrfriend. I hear that Chinese cannot get more than a five day visa to Hong Kong. Is this true? Is it possible to get a six month or one year visa, perhaps a working visa or some other. How easy is it to get a job in Hong Kong for a Chinese 28 year old woman? She is a uni graduate with excellent English and experience in visa consulting for Chinee students wishing to travel abroad.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[noyb]

Surely you jest. While it is possible to get a *very* temporary tourist permit for a Chinese national to go to Hong Kong, a 6 month or 1 year visa is totally out of the question unless she is the near relative of Jiang Zemin. Were she through some major miracle able to get a visa to go to Hong Kong, the only employment she'd probably land is as a near slave laborer. The employment outlook in HK is rather dim these days. I'm surprised that you haven't been able to glean this from watching the HK news. Regarding even the tourist permit, it is relatively easy to get from Guangdong Province, but, I heard, rather difficult for those further inland. Even if she gets one, it is tied to a tourist agency tour group and she must go and return with the group. Were she to present herself at immigration outside of her group, she'll have major problems.

Marry her and get her a green card (assuming you are an American) and then she'll be able to get into HK easily, but with no more rights to work than you have.

[Peter]

China locks up their citizens. My Chinese wife,a with Shenzhen residency card, can go to HK TWICE a year!
WOW!
Another way is a holiday in the Philippines or ultimately immigration.
As for working In Honkers; they have their own troubles with unemployment.
In other words make the best of your situation,see ifyou can involve your girlfiend in doing a "double act" in teaching.
It worked for me.

[Egas]

Sorry Noyb, but I live in Beijing. Hong Kong News ain't part of the picture here. Besides they run stories like bombs going off in Beijing uni's. Since there are no social or political probelms in the mainland, the government deems such stories unnecessary for public attention. Everything is getting better and better in China. Oh, and there's 8% growth too. If you don't know that you obviously haven't been watching the Beijing news.

Peter, I didn't quite get what you wrote. Are you saying that you are currently working in HK with your wife, on a working visa I assume? If so how did you do it, considering what Noyb and yourself wrote about such problems. What do you mean by going for a holiday in the Phillipines? Are you suggesting you can get into HK illegally from there?

[Bertrand]

"Besides they run stories like bombs going off in Beijing uni's. Since there are no social or political probelms in the mainland, the government deems such stories unnecessary for public attention."

Hang on! Bombs going off but "no social or political problems"!@#$%^^

Anyway, NO; she CAN NOT come here. The PRC don't want her to leave and the SAR of HK don't want her to come.

Also, if things are so great on the mainland, why do you want to come here?

[eric the king]

Bertrand - its called irony - think about it

Egas - what do you mean you want to leave a plave that is paying you 12,000 per month for 7 hours work. Either you are plain crazy or have been telling a few porkies. I'll go for the latter. I lalso ive in Beijing, my wife works in one of the best international schools and although pay is good for qualified teachers (real teachers putting in proper hours - new teachers earn 20,000 a month) - the very idea that esl teachers would receive what you claim is not just verging on the ridiculous, it is way overboard.

[noyb]

1. It *is* possible to get 12,000 per month for 7 hours of work each week, but you'd have to have a pretty good skill set and a lot of experience. But that's not the issue of this thread. I think.

2. If you are thinking of getting your GF into Hong Kong and then "overstaying," foolish move. While as a foreigner it is very possible, the HK police can sniff out a mainlander (even if the mainlander can speak Cantonese) in a second. They very often randonly check ID and catch a large percentage of the mainland people who overstay their welcome. Once caught, what follows is not a pretty picture.

3. Unless you are married to her (and even then extremely difficult), you are delusional if you think you can get her to Hong Kong to work for any length of time unless her father is Jiang Zemin.

[Egas]

My dear Bertrand. Is my humor so dry my irony is invisible?

Eric, Your Majesty, I know I'm on a good wicket in Beijing, but the problem is my PhD. Access to resources is a real problem here. No libraries, the book stores suck, and half the web sites won't open. I don't want to leave Asia, and I know Hong Kong has good libraries and book stores. I can also land a job there without too many worries. But it looks like my gal ain't gonna make it, judging by what's written here.

[noyb]

If you're working on a Ph.D., you'll have not much more luck in Hong Kong in regards to libraries (not up to U.S. levels) and bookstores (poor selection at incredibly high prices). Internet connections and lack of censorship will, fortunately, not be problems in HK. However, even in Beijing you can get a decent Internet connection and, using a proxy server, get around the censorship.

But regarding your GF, you have the proverbial snowball's chance in hell. Should you two be actually married, you upgrade to a snowball's chance in the tropics. Not what you want to hear, but nonetheless reality.

[Peter]

To Egas

No, I work and live in Shenzhen, over the border from HK.
If her quota of visits to HK was used up the alternative is to take a holiday. Last year she went to Enland for business; that was no problem

Working in HK is restricted, you really need the right papers.
A friend of mine now works there in a private school, really good money, she is Canadian.....

[Roger]

To Egas,
bury your hopes of taking your girlfriend to live with you in HK! Better still - bury your wishes of working in HK! Why go there if you live so comfortably in the mainland?

Your wife can only go there on invitation (not from you, it must be a business, hence the need to join a tour group).
Some Chinese manage to wheedle a multipe-entry business visa out of the PSB - how they manage to do that is up to your imagination! I knew a well-connected Shenzhen school operator who could NOT go to HK while her sister went there every week! Funny and crazy!
Then again, one of the HK government's honcho's married mainland China's swimming champion half a year ago! She is in HK, registered as a student at HK Chinese University, and going to give birth to a child soon - who will then automatically become HK citizen! Is that straitforward> Some doubt it!

Note that ordinary HK Chinese husbands of mainland wives have to wait up to ten years before their families are allowed to settle in HK! During these years, the kids grow, go to mainland schools and remain strangers to their fathers!
Currently, 150 mainland Chinese a day are given one-way entry permits. n

Besides, egas: Are you sure you want to sponsor your current girlfriend's as a visitor anywhere outside of the PRC? Think twice, or better still: Think it over carefully - lots of pitfalls there!

And yes, the economic situation in HK is grim!

[eric the king]

Egas
Sorry for doubting your earning power - I now see no reason why you would claim this if it wasn't true. I concur completely about the bookstores in Beijing. Not too bad for your average novel or state-issued coffee table book, but anything else is murder.

Good luck getting to HK - if you ever need anyone to fill your boots at the International School, I'm here!!

[Paul G]

Egas:

Have you tried using a proxy server to access the web sites that you are having trouble with? (This is not a rhetorical question. I'd really like to know the answer.)

[Bertrand]