Job Discussion Forums

[Marcoregano]

I've been in HK nearly nine years and am getting a bit tired of the place, so I've been spending a lot of time thinking about my next move, which will, I hope, be to Spain - and NOT the UK, my 'home' country.

Which got me wondering - when you leave HK, will you go back to your home country or somewhere else? And how looooooong do you intend staying in HK? Just curious!

[Serious_Fun]

[Marcoregano]

[Anjin-san Hashimoto]

Hi Marcoregano - your question is an interesting one and something I am always asking myself. I have been in Hong Kong for a year and just when I start thinking this is a place where I could stay for more than 10 years something seems to happen to make me question that. But the real question is where can you go and not take a backwards step. I am Australian so perhaps a university job in Australia would be an option but obviously such jobs are not easy to come by. Maybe the UAE but I'm really not sure if I want to live there. Japan? Maybe but again universities are the best option but tough to get in. If it was possible to get a college job in the USA that would be something I would like to try but then there is the question of getting legal working status. So back to square one and the question of where next. It really is a tough question. I've already "done time" in both Korea and Taiwan and would not like to end up back there so for now Hong Kong seems the best option for me both in the short-term and potentially the long-term.

In regards to the question from Serious Fun about permanent residency in HK I would also be interested to know. The reason I ask is one of the better aspects to Hong Kong is the ease of obtaining loans, credit, etc and the thought of buying property and really settling down here crosses my mind most days. I would be very interested to see how someone who has been here for 9 years thinks about this and what your experience has been.

Cheers

[Serious_Fun]

[Marcoregano]

Thanks for showing an interest. Your replies are a bit skewed from my OP, but there is some overlap. Yes, I do have a PID, and going by my experience (and others I know) it seems to be a straightforward process once you've held an ID card for seven years, so long as you've paid your taxes etc.

As for advice on buying property, I am not the person to ask, though I reckon HK is a pretty safe - if expensive - market. However, if I could wind the clock back to 1999 knowing that I was going to stay here for nine or ten years, it would - I think - have made sense to buy.

Personally I doubt that HK will change much in the next decade or two, despite government efforts to boost "creativity" and "innovation" etc. I agree with S_F that the arts hub probably won't make much difference except bring a few more shows to town. Hongkongers (in my opinion) are far too concerned about making money to take a chance on doing a fine arts degree.

This does have some resonance with my OP, because - as I mentioned - I'm getting a bit cheesed off with HK and one of the reasons is boredom. There are things going on here culturally, but - and I'm sure someone will shoot me down for this - it is a bit limited, and once the novelty of saving money wears off (isn't that why many of us are here?) we start getting itchy feet. (Actually I feel I ought to point out that I didn't save a penny during my first seven years here - I didn't just come here for the money.)

But when the money thing (if that's why you're here) wears off, a dilemma arises, because as AsH says, most other places look like a backward step - certainly financially. But you might reach a stage where you decide there's more to life than money. Or you might have a strong enough urge to see somewhere else just for the sake of it. Or you might be homesick. Or whatever. Which brings me back to my OP - when you go, will you go "home" or somewhere else? And how long will you stay, before you go?

[And Your Bird Can Sing]

Don't forget that if you leave HK for three consecutive years you lose your PID.

[Marcoregano]

Returning to HK once in every three years shouldn't be difficult - assuming I want to keep the PID going, that is. However, I expect I'll actually be returning to HK once or twice a year.

I guess there aren't many people actually 'in' HK using this forum - either that or people don't see the point in speculating about their next move. If the latter, it's something I can well understand - HK is tricky to get out of.

[And Your Bird Can Sing]

Hang on a second, Marcoregano, perhaps I'm wrong but, as I understand it (as Immigration have explained to me) simply 'returning' to HK once in a while does not suffice to retain the PID. You need to actually have a contract with an employer (or file tax returns if you are self-employed). Also, and again as I understand it, you need to spend a minimum of X number of months a year (I cannot recall the exact length of time) in HK each year to retain the PID.

[Marcoregano]

Hi AYBCS,

From what I can gather, one visit in three years (of any length) is enough to keep you qualified for PID status. This is from the government website:

Q4: Under what circumstances will a permanent resident of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region lose his permanent resident status?

A4: A permanent resident of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) who is not of Chinese nationality will lose the status of a permanent resident under the following circumstances :

If the person has been absent from Hong Kong for a continuous period of not less than 36 months since he ceased to have ordinarily resided in Hong Kong.

No other criteria are specified, as far as I can see, and this tallies with what I was told when I went through the process. Of course, they might decide to change it in the years ahead. If you have contradictory information I'd be interested to hear more...

Full details at http://www.immd.gov.hk/ehtml/faq_roaihksar.htm

[And Your Bird Can Sing]

Sorry, but nowhere there does it state that a single trip back to HK for one day will suffice to prevent you losing your PID. All it says, as I said, is that if you leave for three consecutive years then you will lose your PID. The key words here are "ordinarily resided in Hong Kong", and that is where you will encounter the problem. If you live and work abroad then Immigration will say that you no longer 'ordinarily reside' in HK. If they didn't do this then the population of HK could, in theory, increase very rapidly.

I know of many, many people - some of whom are home owners in HG - who have left the SAR for a year to do a Masters or to work on their PhD full-time and who have lost their PID (my wife is one of them).

[Marcoregano]

You may well be right, but I find the words unambiguous. It states that you will lose your PID status if you leave HK for not less than 36 months following residency.

[dandan]

AYBCS, you seem to be confusing the criteria for qualifying for Permanent Resident status during the initial 7 year period and the criteria for keeping your Permanent Resident status after having gained it.

In any case, after you get your Perm ID even if you lose your Right to Abode under the 3 year rule you never lose you Right to Land which entitles you to stay in HK without any condition of stay so you retain most of the benefits of PR status even if you don't come back for many years.

[Marcoregano]

Dandan, I think you have summed it up correctly. I just spoke with an ID subject officer and he confirmed the details as given on the ID website:

Once you have PID status, the only way you lose it is by staying away for a period of 36 months or more, but even then you retain what they call 'Right to Land', which still entitles you to most of the benefits of PID status. And the clock starts ticking from your last departure from HK - so simply dropping in for a day is enough to give you another three years. To sum up, it's difficult to get PID status (seven years of continuous residency), but once you've got it, it's quite easy to keep.

Now that's settled, any chance of returning to the OP?