This involves going along to the Chinese Embassy or Consulate and completing the Forms in the ID(E)936 Entry Visa package (citing ‘Employment’ as the purpose of entry) along with as much of the above-listed documentation and information as possible.

The completed Forms along with the supporting information and documentation will then be forwarded to the Immigration Department in Hong Kong who will, within a period of four to six weeks, contact the sponsoring employer in Hong Kong and request further information in support of the application. The information requested will be such information as is necessary but has not been provided via the Embassy or Consulate at the time of initial submission of the application.

In this regard, rather than the sponsoring employer sending all of their corporate and other information to the applicant overseas, they could simply wait for the Immigration Department to contact them, subsequently submitting the information after such has been formally requested. The advantage of submitting everything together via the Chinese Embassy or Consulate overseas is that time can be saved if as much as the information necessary for due consideration is submitted at one time. Many weeks can be lost with documents passing back and forth between the Immigration Department and the sponsoring employer in Hong Kong.

After this process has worked itself through, the Immigration Department will advise the Chinese Embassy or Consulate with the result and the details of approval or will otherwise notify the sponsoring employer in Hong Kong by letter that the visa has been approved and that the applicant may attend the Chinese Embassy or Consulate two weeks later for visa issuance, via passport endorsement, in the Chinese Embassy or Consulate where the application was initiated.

On balance, however, it is usually much more efficient to utilize application submission Method Two and in fact the vast majority of entry visa applications for the purposes of employment are effected in this way.

Method Two - Form ID(E)936 A - Direct Application to the Immigration Department by the Sponsoring Employer in Hong Kong

Instead of the employment visa applicant approaching the Chinese Embassy or Consulate abroad, there exists an application method whereby the sponsoring employer submits all of the documentation and information to the Immigration Department directly in Hong Kong (on behalf of the employment visa applicant personally).

Method Two system works as follows:

The employment visa applicant and the sponsoring employer make their conditional employment contract and execute it. The applicant then prepares all of his or her documents and executes Immigration Department Form ID(E)936 A (to be signed by the applicant personally) enclosing the additional completed Forms ID(E)936 E & ID(E)936 F together with items marked * and attaching a passport sized photograph.

The sponsoring Hong Kong employer completes and executes Immigration Department Form ID(E)936 G and prepares all of the documentation and information marked ** together with the Sponsor’s Certificate ID(E)936 B. If the sponsoring employer is a corporate entity then the personal information of the signatory (such as the personal references on the Form ID(E)936 B) can be ignored and the essential corporate information provided instead (company name, address, telephone and fax numbers).

The two sets of materials and completed Forms are then submitted together to the Immigration Department in Wanchai (2/F Receipt and Dispatch Unit) by the sponsoring employer in Hong Kong. In due course and upon recept by the Entry Visa Section (located on the 24th Floor of Immigration Tower) a file number will be allocated to the case and the ID813 Acknowledgement Card will be sent to the applicant or sponsoring employer at the Hong Kong address nominated on the ID813 (assuming that such an ID813 Acknowledgement Card was completed by the applicant and included in the application submission bundle). The ID813 is important as it provides the applicant with a file reference number and proof of case submission. Files sometimes get mislaid at the Immigration Department and completing and submitting the ID813 can save a great deal of time and frustration later if the paperwork subsequently goes missing for any reason.

The application is then dealt with as a ‘By Letter’ case and all communications in regard to the case are channelled through the sponsoring employer in Hong Kong.

When the visa has been approved, the Immigration Department will contact the proposed sponsoring employer in Hong Kong and ask them to come to the 24/F of the Immigration Department in Wanchai to collect the Entry Visa ‘sticker-label’. This sticker is then sent by the sponsoring employer in Hong Kong to the applicant overseas who, upon receipt, places it on a clean page in his or her passport and enters Hong Kong with employment visa permissions from the very outset of his or her stay in Hong Kong.

Method Three - Change of Status Application by the Employment Visa Applicant via Form ID91 whilst already in Hong Kong.

This method is now perhaps the most widely used and is almost follows exactly a ‘change of sponsorship’ case - where the applicant currently has an employment visa sponsored by one company but who is now seeking to take up a new employment with an alternate employer.

Both ‘change of status’ and ‘change of sponsorship’ applications, in terms of the consideration processes, are almost identical. However change of status applications are processed via Counter No. 1 on the 24th Entry Visa Section and ‘change of sponsorship’ applications via the 5th Floor Extension Section.

For change of status applications the systems operates as follows:

The employment visa applicant arrives in Hong Kong as a Visitor - i.e. without having applied for or otherwise secured an employment visa in advance of travelling to the HKSAR.

The employment visa applicant visits the Immigration Department in Wanchai in person taking along all of the documentation and information for submission (including his or her original employment contract plus one copy of it) with two Immigration Department Forms ID91. No photographs are necessary.

The applicant submits all the information marked * and ** above, Forms ID91 together with either a completed/executed Sponsorship Form ID428B to the processing Immigration Officer and, after a short interview, is usually granted an extension to his or her Visitor visa for a period up to the discretion of the case assessing officer. Such extensions are granted if required by the applicant where his or her current Visitor permissions are due to expire. Please note well that any such extensions to Visitor visa status do not authorize the applicant to take up employment in Hong Kong at this time.

At this point the applicant will be asked to execute a Form CSF-057 undertaking not to engage in any activity which would represent a breach of his existing conditions of stay as a Visitor.

The case is then denoted as either a ‘By Letter’ Case or a ‘ Form EV122’ Case.

‘By Letter’ Cases

If all of the documentation and information required in support of the application has been submitted at this time, the applicant will be given a small card with a visa application reference number (e.g. VC/A 12345/97) along with the denotation that the case will be processed ‘By Letter’. This means that, upon provisional examination of the application as submitted, no further documentation and information will be required until the merits of the case have been formally considered by the Immigration Officer to be charged with its processing. This Officer is only allocated the case some days after it is first submitted.

Four to six weeks after the first submission of the application paperwork the Immigration Department will contact both the sponsoring employer and the employment visa applicant personally, via the employer’s address, for further information which itself will have to be submitted within two weeks of the date on the letter.

Depending on the relative strengths (or weaknesses) of the case, the Immigration Department will notify the applicant and the sponsoring employer via letter (but sometimes by telephone call or fax) the result of the application within four weeks of the date on which the last set of information was submitted.

If the visa application is approved, the applicant then returns to the Immigration Department (24th Floor) for employment visa endorsement, getting the employment visa issued on the same day.

Form EV122 Cases

If the Immigration Department believes that, upon provisional examination of the documentation and information submitted, further and better particulars are required (without having examined deeply the merits of the application on the day of first submission) they will issue a Form EV122 to the applicant (or, alternatively, Form EV123 if the application relates to an application for a visa for a cook or a chef) and will instruct the applicant to submit additional documentation and information within four weeks of the date of the initial submission.

The Form EV122 (or Form EV123) contains a standard list of the documentation and information (marked as * and ** above) which need to be submitted and the applicant, with the assistance of the sponsoring employer, should submit this additional material within the time frame designated on the Form EV122.

After submission of the documentation and information requested on the Form EV122, the Immigration Department will contact the applicant and the sponsoring employer four to six weeks after the date of the second submission of the materials requested on the Form EV122 and inform them of the result.

If the visa application is approved, the applicant then returns to the Immigration Department (24th Floor) for employment visa endorsement, getting the employment visa issued on the same day.

Change of Sponsorship Applications

Change of sponsorship applications (i.e. seeking to change from one employer to another) follow very similar procedural methodologies and consideration processes as change of status applications, involve Forms ID91 and ID428B and are processed via the 5th Floor of the Immigration Tower instead of the 24th. The approvability test is just as onerous, however, and no significant advantage is given to an applicant merely because he is in possession of an employment visa sponsored by a previous employer. In general terms, however, if the new employment is in exactly the same field as the original employment and the ‘weight’ of the employers is similar, change of sponsorship approvals are usually quite readily forthcoming. Also, the longer the change of sponsorship applicant has been in Hong Kong the more accommodating the Immigration Department are in granting approvals to change employers. The Immigration Department states however, as a matter of policy, that such applications are not normally considered or approved. Current practice suggests otherwise but it should be remembered at all times that any such change of sponsorship approvals represent a positive act of discretion on the part of the Director of Immigration and his consent to change sponsoring employers should not be viewed as a matter of legal right.