Posted by
Klystomane
14 yrs ago
Hi,
I recently got married and was wondering whether my wife will be able to obtain a Home Return Permit card via me.
She is South Korean and holds a Korean passport.
I was born in HK (to parents from HK and Macau) and hold Canadian and Portuguese passports.
I obtained the Home Return Permit card many years ago (which is still valid).
I am asking this because we currently live and work in China. She may stop working soon to take some time off and having the Home Return Permit card will allow her to stay in China easily.
Thanks in advance,
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No she cannot. To obtain a Home Return Permit a person must be a Chinese citizen holding both a Permanent ID card and an HKSAR passport. The only possible way for your wife to obtain this is to live in HK for 7 years with you and become a PR, then renounce her Korean nationality and take Chinese nationality and then apply for HKSAR passport. Application for Home Return Permit can only be made after this.
Although you have a Home Return Permit there have been changes made in recent years to the issuance of such. As a current holder these would not affect you but if you yourself were to make your first application now you'd be denied until you were able to produce an HKSAR passport as well.
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Thank you for your reply. I suppose my follow-up question would be then, if I were to live in China for an indefinite period of time, can my wife do the same (without having to get a working visa)?
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Actually again, no. I assume you are working for a HK based or foreign company? If you are working for a mainland based company then you personally would need a work permit.
The only option for your wife would be a working permit which would give her a residency permit for a year or the normal multiple entry tourist / business visas.
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Right now I'm working for a mainland based company who has sponsored me with a working permit, issued with my Canadian passport. I read somewhere that I can live and work in China using my Home Return Permit, so if I choose to do that, what will happen to my wife? It wouldn't make sense if she couldn't stay with me, regardless of what she chooses to do here....
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OK, well with your current working permit your wife can also be sponsored in a similar way to dependant visas in Hong Kong. It will allow her to live with you in China but not work.
Yes you can stay in China with your home return permit but will still need a working permit if you are working for a mainland company. More details here: http://www1.jobs.gov.hk/eng/mainland/jobseeker/general/3c1_2.aspx
There are thousands of people married to Home Return Permit holders who are unable to go and live in China if their spouses did. I am one of them. My wife and kids can go and live in China but all I can get is multi-entry visas, and I own companies there! I did go down the route of working visas when China tightened up their entry requirements before the Olympics but was unable to renew because of personal reasons this year. That's just the way it is there.
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Thanks for the informative replies, I really appreciate it. It has definitely saved me a lot of trouble.
Cheers,
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