Oversea entrepreneurs who have relocated his business to Hong Kong or has established new enterprise to Hong Kong may hope to arrange their spouses and unmarried children (under the ago of 18) to make a living in Hong Kong as “legal dependant” of them.

The holders of Dependant VISA are allowed to working Hong Kong and more complete privileges.

A note to all of the oversea applicant, Hong Kong government only recognize ‘legal dependants’ in the application of dependant VISA. As a result, the “de facto spouse” and the partner in same sex marriage are not eligible.

Hong Kong VISA for Legal Dependant

Who can apply for?

The oversea applicant and his Hong Kong sponsor must be in the relationship as follows:

• legal spouse
• unmarried dependent child under the age of 18

His Hong Kong sponsor must have the type of entry permit of either one of the following:

1. Hong Kong permanent resident
2. Hong Kong resident with the right to land / on unconditional stay
3. Hong Kong Employment/Business Investment/Training VISA
4. Hong Kong Student VISA
5. Capital Investment Entrant Scheme (suspended to take new application on January 15th, 2015.)
6. Quality Migrant Admission Scheme

If the applicant’s sponsor can fulfill the (1) or (2) condition of above, the applicant can also be the legal parent aged 60 or above.

Entry arrangement does not apply to nationals of Afghanistan and Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of).

On the applicants, they can submit the application as dependant with favorable consideration as follows:

• evidence of a genuine relationship between the applicant and the sponsor;
• 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 the applicants with suitable accommodation in the HKSAR. (not only the fact of financial supporting by the sponsor is considered.)

Submission of Application

We recommend the Hong Kong sponsor to initiate the application in Hong Kong, the applicants residing in overseas can post all the supporting document to Hong Kong to support the application.

The application form and all the supporting document of child applicant under age of 16 must be signed by the parent of legal guardian of the child.

Assessment Test

The application approval process is administrative in nature. The Hong Kong sponsor plays major role. Any documents that can show the ability of providing good living standard in Hong Kong and legal relationship between them for the applicant. Here are the basic requirement:

• Legal document to prove the legal family through birth and marriage certificates (e.g. Birth Certificate, Marriage Certificate)
• Financial statements to shows proof of income (e.g. Bank statement, Tax return)
• Proof of current accommodation (e.g. Tenancy agreement/property ownership certificates, utility bills)

The most common issues arises in the assessment is those documents are not written in neither English nor Chinese. Applicants are advised to seek for professional translation and apostille services in the country or territory of issuing before submission.

Application procedure

There are 2 types of application to apply for legal dependant VIA:

1. Part of sponsor’s principal VISA application
2. Standalone application

For the first type, the applicant can include their dependant VISA application with the sponsor’s principal VISA (e.g. Employment VISA, Business Investment VISA, Study VISA, Non-local Graduates VISA, Training VISA). Moreover, the period stay granted mirrors the principal sponsors.

Hong Kong VISA for de-facto marriage / same sex partners

Since Hong Kong government coined the dependant VISA to condiser only “legal dependants”, unmarried children under the age of 18 of the de-facto marriage can secure dependant VISA. Other than this, the relatives of other relationship such as de facto spouses, same sex partners, or direct blood relative are not eligible for dependant VISA

Alternative route

On one hand, those applicants are still available to apply for Visit VISA to stay in Hong Kong to meet with the Hong Kong VISA holders. The applicants should prepare the argument and demonstrate the capability for Prolonged Visitor VISA based on the relationship with the principal VISA holders to stay in Hong Kong for 6 months.

On the Visit VISA, they should see if they are available to apply for other type of VISA.