Transfer working visa to new company

Hi, hope somebody can give me some advice.

I renewed my working visa in August so have 2 more years but have just finished with the company I was with. I have found a new job so need to transfer my existing visa to the new company. I have been told you need to be careful fill in correct form so they don't just do new visa that starts the 7 year for PR again. I went into immigration and asked for the transfer form but they have given me what looks like the new application form.

Can anybody please advise which form I need to use to only transfer employer so doesn't affect my time here.

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks.

There's no such thing as visa transfer from one employer to another. Your new employer needs to sponsor your work visa for you to legally work for them. You cannot work with a different company while on sponsor by your current employer.


Changing employers does not affect your eligibility to apply for PR after seven years. You just need to continue to be "ordinarily residing" in HK for the past 7 years before you can apply. You can have multiple employers while accumulating that 7 years.

Thanks for the advice, however I have just transferred my visa from one employer to another.

They stamped the application when I took it in with "transfer employer case" & the date has not changed from my old visa.

Never mind what it is called, got it anyway.

Thanks.

That's quite understandable. You applied for a new work visa under the sponsorship of a new company and it was approved. In the point of view of the Immigration Deparment, you "transferred" to a new company. What we're saying is (as Cara said), there's no such thing as transferring the effectivity of the visa you got from your former employer to the new one.


Congratulations for your new job. Cheers to that.

Thanks.

Hi Chris, how did you go about transferring your visa? I need to do the same. How long did it take and can you work for your new employer if you're still on the old visa?

Hi Everyone, My situation is similar right now as I m in the process of getting a newly sponsored work visa from my new employer in Hk. My new Employer has asked me to fill up form ID91 and submit the same to the immigration. I understand that I need to show my original docs for verification. I checked the website seems tht I need to be present in HK while applying and collecting the visa. Just had few questions if any one can clarify:

1. How long the whole proceess will take once I have submitted the application personally to immigration?( I already have worked in Hk for 2 yrs with my ex employer sponsorship and this is going to be my 2nd work permit in Hk)


2. Do I have to personally collect the visa from the immigration or will they mail it to my residential address in HK?


p:s I am out of Hong kong right now in my native country!.


Please help!

Thanks!

There seems to be some confusion in this thread. You don't actually "transfer" a working visa, unless you are referring to transferring the visa stamp from an expiring passport to a new one. However, you can change (which is like a transfer) the sponsor of the visa, from one employer to another, provided the new employer and position meet the requirements of the immigration department. Usually, it is easier to effect a change of sponsor than it was to get the visa the first time around. This is due to the way the immigration department handles things, more than any actual difference in the regulations.

There is no outright prohibition on changing employers, but if you do, you must notify the immigration department of the change and do the paperwork to get their permission. Technically speaking, you are not allowed to start working at the new employer until after that permission is granted. If you fail to follow the rules, you may have trouble. Your visa status may be cancelled and you could be evicted from HK. If that happens, you receive a black mark on your record that could prevent you from ever working in Hong Kong again (at least not without a lot of hassles and probably some expensive lawyers). As I said, it is usually easier to get approval for a change of sponsor than not, so there is no reason not to go through the paperwork, and good reasons for doing it.

The easiest change of sponsor is when you are doing the same kind of work at the new employer as you were doing at the old employer. For example, a NET teacher would have little difficulty changing from one school to another. Having once established that they serve a legitimate need in HK, they would not need to establish that again. If the change is to an entirely different line of work, however (like from a teacher to a bartender) you/your employer might be asked by the immigration department to show (again) that the job you are taking will not impact negatively on employment chances for native HKers. Sometimes they are pretty easy-going about this, but at other times they get tough. Again, at all times it is easier to change a sponsor than to get the first one approved.

A sponsor is required to notify the Immigration department within a certain time period, if you leave the company's employ. Some smaller employers are lax about this, but failure to comply can get them into trouble, so most now are compliant. Certainly you can expect larger sponsoring companies (multinationals) to notify the authorities promptly, if you leave their employ. In any case, both you and the employer are supposed to notify immigration, so even if you are lucky enough to have an employer who fails to notify, you still need to find a new sponsor before your visa expires, or risk having to leave HK.

If you happen to leave a sponsor who does not do the required notification and then you hang around for six months before finding a new sponsor, do not suddenly let the authorities know that you were unemployed that long without notifying them, or you will be confessing to a violation of their regulations. Better to prepare everything and go to them and apply for a change of sponsor, and when they discover what happened, say you didn't know the regulations and apologize profusely for the oversight. They'll probably lecture you a bit, but will usually be lenient if they think it was an honest mistake. Mistakes are often tolerated and forgiven, but willful disobedience is NOT.

Alternatively, If you find yourself in a situation where you have left employment with the sponsor, you can inform the immigration department that you are seeking and discussing employment with a potential new sponsor, and ask for an extension in order to complete negotiations and then re-apply. It is within their discretion to let you stay for a while to effect this, but at times they will not be helpful.

Most of the time, if you approach immigration with a respectful attitude, never lose your temper, and ask them for help, they will try to be helpful. If you have made a mistake, be genuinely regretful and apologetic. That works MUCH better than arguing with them or challenging them or telling them their jobs, etc.... Even if in effec they are wrong about something (sometimes they are, even if only rarely) and you ARE telling them their job, do it in the form of a polite, innocent person respectfully making an enquiry. They are bureaucrats, after all. Let them feel important and powerful, follow their rules, whether petty or sensible (at least technically, even when you may actually be almost bending them a bit in spirit and fact) use a little psychology, and usually you can get what you want from them. It is almost always better to go and ask, than to guess and make a mistake.

If you think THEY are making a mistake, you are probably wrong, but sometimes a careful reading of the immigration statutes will reveal some angle you can use, that they either have overlooked or didn't see any need to tell you about. If you find something like that (I did, and used it successfully), make a copy of it, add all relevant supporting documentation and proof to support whatever you are seeking, and then go and ASK them for help with it. Be persistent, even obstinate, but always in a polite, gentle and inquiring way. As long as your interpretation and support is solid, they will usually help you to get what you are seeking.

I hope this helps.