Job Discussion Forums

Veddie Edder · Joined: 21 May 2007 Posts: 15 Location: HK

This might not be something that anyone on this board can answer, but just looking for your opinion/advice about this situation:

After all of the waiting, I was finally informed that my application had passed the qualification stage and has now been sent on to the schools for selection. OK. Good.

Here`s where it gets a bit tricky. I have been living in Japan since 2004. My visa/contract in Japan is up soon and I will be returning to my home in Canada on August 1st to await NET offers there. When I moved to Japan, the passport that I had was already a year old. It is valid for 5 years, meaning that it will expire in October 2008. As I understand it, NET contracts are for 2 years, so is this going to be a nightmare situation for me because my current passport is only valid for another 15 months or so? Does NET do 1-year contracts as well? Can I come to HK using the current passport and then get it renewed from Hong Kong?

The obvious answer is to get my passport renewed ASAP when I get home in August, I realize this. But the newly implemented rules for getting into the US from Canada have led everone and their dog to apply for a passport right now in Canada, and there is a big backlog. Do you think I should just keep my passport in hand and not relinquish it to the renewal arm of the goverment? Should I send it in ASAP? Will the powers that be at NET look at my situation and pass me by for positions?

I realize there is no easy answer, but opinions/advice would be great!

anninhk · Joined: 08 Oct 2005 Posts: 284

I had a similar problem at the end of my last contract. The new contract was for 2 years but my passport ran out before the end of that contract. I was advised to get a new passport as the lady at immigration told me that they would only issue a work visa to the end of my passport and then I would have to apply again for a work visa to the end of my contract. I decided to get a new passport.
Isn't it possible to get a new passport for Canada in Japan?

BCinHK · Joined: 27 Oct 2005 Posts: 35 Location: Hong Kong

Don't do anything this year.

Although your contract will be for 2 years, the Immigration Department will give you an employment visa for only ONE year. You'll have to go back to them next summer (before you go on summer holidays) to extend that visa for one year to cover the two-year contract. After that first contract, employment visa extensions are for two years.

A few years ago, I was in the situation of having an employment visa which expired on August 31 in a passport that was expiring in November. But I was renewing my contract for two more years. I renewed my passport in May and was told by the HK Immigration Department that when I travelled to use both passports to exit and enter HK until I got the new employment visa in my new passport. I didn't believe this information, so I wrote a letter to SCMP asking for clarification and the ID responded with exactly the same information.

My husband is doing the same thing right now. He crosses the border showing his old and new passports and will do so until he has a new visa in his new passport.

It's easy to get a new Canadian passport in HK.

ironopolis · Joined: 01 Apr 2004 Posts: 379

I dunno, I'm not Canadian, but are Canadian passports issued outside of Canada the same as those issued in Canada?

The reason I ask is this. British passports issued by the British Embassy in Tokyo are not machine readable, whereas those issued by the UK passport agency in Britain are. UK (and other countries too, I presume) passport holders with a machine readable passport don't need a visa to enter the US, but those with a non-machine readable one do. A friend of mine recently found this out the hard way by being fined on his arrival in the US for a wedding anniversary trip.

No idea if you travel to the US much, Veddie, but if you do and if Canadians also need the machine readable passport, then it might be worth checking.

Having said all that, this just might be a bit of an oddity on the part of the British Embassy in Tokyo. In several years of being in Japan, all my dealings with British consular officials here have encouraged me to think that the only thing they can do well is get ridiculous sums of money of those Britons in Japan unfortunate enough to have to use their services Evil or Very Mad

BCinHK · Joined: 27 Oct 2005 Posts: 35 Location: Hong Kong

Yes, Canadian passports issued in HK are now machine readable.

ozman · Joined: 12 Jun 2004 Posts: 133 Location: HONG KONG

maybe I've missed something, but I don't see you have a problem.
you go home to canada and wait for a NET job on 1st aug, unless you get an offer before you head home.'
you come to hk on your current passport which is still valid for another 15 months.
you don't have to be living in your home country to have your passport renewed. all the consulates and embassies are issuing the new high security passports.
a month or two before your passport is due to expire and while you are living in hk, you get a new passport. you will probably have to carry both old and new passports, although with your hk id card, you won't need old passport to show work visa. lots of people carry two passports because they have a certain visa in the old passport. there is no problem as far as i can see. i carry two passports from country A as one holds a visa. i normally travel with 3 passports (two from country A and one from country B) as i have dual citizenship and I use them depending on which country I'm entering / leaving - plus I carry hk id card. i get these passports renewed in hk - i don't have to go to the mother countries to get new passports.
ozman

Veddie Edder · Joined: 21 May 2007 Posts: 15 Location: HK

Wow, OK. Lots of good info there. Thanks guys.

I guess what I had been stressing over was trying to do a quick passport renewal before coming to Hong Kong. I thought that I would have to give up the passport that I have now in order to be issued a new one. I really didn`t want to be waiting for my new passport to arrive, only then to be offered a position and have trouble leaving Canada because I was waiting for the renewed passport to arrive. Ditto for renewing it in Japan, as I don`t want to give up my passport so close to the time that I will be leaving. But from what Ozman and BC are saying, it looks like I can renew it without having to actually give up my current one. Cool!

Also, I was pleased to hear that people have been given visas until the end of their current passports and were able to renew them in HK. Of course, having to deal with immigration twice instead of once is a pain in the butt, but I would rather do that than miss my window by being in the middle of a renewal process at the wrong time.

I will surely check with the embassies and the Gov back in Canada, but in the meantime this advice has been a big help to me. Cheers all! If the stars align and we all get to HK, we should surely meet up for a drink or two!

jwbhomer · Joined: 14 Dec 2003 Posts: 876 Location: CANADA

OP, I think you misunderstood Ozman and BC. As far as I know, the drill is that when you hand in your application for a new passport, you hand in your old passport with it, so the old passport can be cancelled. When they give you your new passport, they give you the old one back with it. Your visa/work permit will still be in the old passport, and you can then go to the appropriate authority in HKG or China and have it transferred into your new passport. Simple, eh?
Well, that was how it worked with me in 2004, at any rate.

BCinHK · Joined: 27 Oct 2005 Posts: 35 Location: Hong Kong

You do not hand in your old Canadian passport when you apply to renew in Hong Kong. You show it and perhaps have to have a photocopy of it, but it remains in your possession until you are given your new passport. Then the old passport is cut at the corner and/or has holes punched into it.

A HK employment visa is not transferable from one Canadian passport to another Canadian passport. You have to apply for a new visa to put in the new passport. It won't be issued until the old visa is close to expiring. That's why you have to exit and enter HK with two passports until a new employment visa is placed in your new passport.

My husband just had his Canadian passport renewed within the last two weeks. For the two weeks between applying and receiving the new passport, he had his old passport because he crosses the border into China every day, so it could not be kept by the Canadian consulate. Now he travels with both passports as one is the current (new) passport and the other (old) passport has his HK and China visas in it.

Perhaps the situation is different for other passports, but this is the situation for Canadian passports. Perhaps the situation is also different if you are in Canada applying for a new Canadian passport, then I think they do cut your current passport when you apply for a new passport, unless you can prove you need it before the new passport is issued.

anninhk · Joined: 08 Oct 2005 Posts: 284

Even though the contract is for two years you have to renew your work visa at the end of the first year anyway as they only issue the first one for one year.
I think you will only need to worry about getting a new passport this time next year so that the new work visa can be issued to your new passport.

Veddie Edder · Joined: 21 May 2007 Posts: 15 Location: HK

I think what anninhk says is the real answer that I was looking for. As long as NET will issue me a 1-year work visa even though my contract is for 2-years, then that is fine by me. I will gladly go down to immigration again and apply for a new passport and visa when I near the completion of the first year.

Still think I am going to check it out in Canada when I get home though. I really don`t want to be seperated from my passport at any time, so if they make me hand it in with my renewal application then I think I will just wait and renew it in HK. Should be OK, no?

BCinHK · Joined: 27 Oct 2005 Posts: 35 Location: Hong Kong

Wow! Are my posts invisible???

jwbhomer · Joined: 14 Dec 2003 Posts: 876 Location: CANADA

BCinHK: Yes, the scenario I described was in Canada, not in HK.

Veddie Edder · Joined: 21 May 2007 Posts: 15 Location: HK

BCinHK: Sorry, yes I did understand all of your posts! I just meant that I was pleased to hear that the actual work visas are only issued for a year at a time, thus giving me the time to renew my passport in HK. The other info that you posted was interesting to me as well, as I have never heard of people carrying around two passports from the same country before.

You said that you thought that when you apply in Canada, they will "cut" the passport while waiting on the renewal. Does this void your current passport? That is really the crux to this whole thing, just trying not to get stuck with a missing/void passport when I need it most...

anninhk · Joined: 08 Oct 2005 Posts: 284

Having 2 passports is not unusual. I have had 2 on several occasions and I'm British. This time they cut the corners on the pages of the old passport leaving only the page with the Australian visa so will use that passport if I need to go to Australia before March next year in conjunction with my new passport.