Dependent Visa

Does anyone have experience getting a dependent visa in HK?


My situation:


-I'm Australian


-Husband (in 1 month time anyway) is a HK local (born here).


-I am in HK on a tourist visa (90 day stamp)


-We will be married in HK


So does this mean I just need to fill out the relevent visa application forms etc after we have the marriage certificate?


Should I wait at all after getting married or is it ok to apply straight away (wondering if they will think it's dodgy if I apply for a visa straight after getting married).


Has anyone done this before and can give me any tips or advice? How long does it normally take to process?


To "prove the ongoing relationship" should I prepare our photos etc? We have been together for 3 years but it's a bit hard to really "prove" it.


Thanks!

I assume you have already applied for the marriage (I believe you can do that 3 months prior to the marriage taking place).


As far as I'm aware you can only apply for a dependent visa after you actually get married, and plenty do it right after marriage. When my wife and I married I was on an employment visa, and she got her dependent visa (which funnily enough meant she had more freedom job wise than I did as she could work for anybody whilst I was restricted to one employer :D). She applied right after our marriage and as long as you follow all their procedures it is usually easy enough.


The only problem we had was that she was only given a visa until my employment visa ran out (which was fair enough). Since then I have become a permanent resident and she now has a dependent visa until the expiration of her passport.


The one thing to bear in mind is your tourist visa. If that is coming up to renewal any time soon, you may want to pop over to Macau for a day or two to get that visitor stamp renewed. From my experience with customs officials, as long as you have enough time left on your visa (more than say 2 weeks), and as long as you complete all their forms correctly it is generally an easy process.


As soon as you complete something wrong, or don't provide them with the relevant back up documents that they ask for in the form, you'll find yourself having to provide extra supporting documents.

I did this last year, reasonably straightforward. I arrived on a 3 month visa, and renewed this by travelling to Macau, and got another 3 months on re-entry. I organised the wedding myself, nothing fancy as my husband and I had been together for 10 years and had no real desire to get married.


I went to Sha Tin marriage registry and lodged an application for a Notice of Intention to Marry. From memory this takes around 2 weeks, but could have been longer. While I was waiting for this I looked around for a civil celebrant (basically just a lawyer that has signed up as a celebrant). Most of these 'celebrants' offer an all-in service, obtaining the notice of intention and doing the 'ceremony', but it is much cheaper to do the notice bit yourself and just get the celebrant to do the ceremony.


I went back with my husband to collect the notice of intention. Still hadn't decided who to use for the ceremony and the staff at the marriage registry got in a flap because they kept insisting they had to know who the celebrant was, but this is incorrect, and I finally got them to understand their own rules. So I walked out with the notice, rang up a solicitor in Wanchai made a booking for the next week. We turned up and were married in about 5 minutes. All very unromantic, but we weren't doing it for us, just the Hong Kong Imigration laws.


the following day, I took my completed dependent relative visa application into Immigration. Because my husband and I had been together for a long time, and we have a child, it was all straightforward, and I got the letter to pick up the visa a week later.


Then it was simply a case of leaving Hong Kong on another day trip to Macau, and re-entered getting my visa stamped.


I would say you need more than a few photos to prove your relationship - I supplied Council Tax documents from the UK, and utility bills in both our names, and of course our daughter's birth certificate. Do you have any utility bills showing the same address, or bank statements?

You can prove your relationship with records of emails, records of flights taken together for holidays, and of course photos. They are not too picky, and are well trained to pick out legitimate marriages. Coming from Australia, there is no real advantage for you to move to HK... third world countries on the other hand would have eyebrows raised.


You'll have to wait until after you are married, or at least make a booking date with immigraiton after your wedding date. Once you have submitted, they will help you to extend your stay as a visitor while your case is being looked at. Also, you will have to leave HK to validate your visa upon re-entry.. I would do this as late as possible, as your 12 month dependant visa will start the day you re-enter.


As kimwy66 mentioned, its all pretty striaght forward and dealing with HK immigration is quite time effective and a pleasant experience. Enjoy your wedding and worry little about this.