I appreciate all the inputs I got here but I feel my discussion turns into quite heated conversations. I think we all need to grab a cold beers/martinis and cool ourselves down.... cheers!!
I will try my best to look for a job in HK.......worst case i will be going to Singapore or go back to US!

What u are talkin bout is Commercial war and monoply......normal in all countries and cities...........
But hold your horses.......we are talkin bout applying Working VISA/sponsorship......

You said in post #17 "If the company you're working for is big enough and bribes the government sufficiently"

- Influential I would yes......easier to  get the processing of expat/ non-resident done faster.
But the word BRIBE, why does it come into picture for people  who want to come here and work......

I agree with the Bros on here who said it is not that difficult to come, look for a job and change over visa type (unless you are filipino or something similar)

I know of countless people who have done that.  Even if you have to briefly leave, you can go off to BKK for a little while

Also agree with whoever said there is some randomness in terms of time; and although HK is not corrupt in the way other Asian places are, nevertheless your application will be treated quicker if it comes from a big company (not just one of the big 3 or big 10, but a reputable, and "known" company)

Now that's one difficult thing to prove nowdays. I mean at this moment there're so many local who graduate from university abroad and they have a decent degree, good experience and they do speak native english as well.  even if you are qualified it does not guarantee you get a working visa coz it doesnt matter whether you qualified or not, the question is who employed you?

Even if you are qualified with tons of degree and shit but the company employed you is somewhat middle size with little contribution to H.K economy I assure you that the working visa application will be denied. Unlike being a teacher, they are nurturing the future generation of Hong Kong and that's regarded as huge contribution to the H.K future and its society.

Now "Getting a work permit if you're qualified is NOT difficult" that's pretty much bullshit.

Qualified not from educational point of view only...from this context qualified means well experienced in the field u are working; namely a specialist, professional, technical know how whereby your working experience is not easily source locally in HK......

Anyway.....goodjob , are u a teacher? why the hard sell on this profession.......if yes..pm me which school you are from and I will not send my kids to your school.......dun want to be in the front page of the newspaper......

you'll be surprise of what profession of 141 member are in real life if you could just know it somehow. there'll be politician, executive, teacher or perhaps a priest?

Now, it's too late to get your kids out coz I know which kids are yours, so dont worry I'll keep a good eyes on them

[ Last edited by  goodjob at 3-7-2008 15:30 ]

That is so completely not true.

I agree that if you work in a run-of-the-mill profession like finance, where you don't actually need to know anything
or need any skill at all, you'll need the backing of an influential employer to bullshit your way into the country.

But Hunter is correct, if you have a specialist skill that is not easily sourced in Hong Kong it's not difficult to get a working
visa. In fact it's quite easy provided you know how to get the right forms and know how to fill them in correctly to satisfy
the know-nothing fuckin government bureaucrats you'll have to deal with.

Hence my reply is for mmmconto1 who work in finance where H.K has so many financier available locally.

I thought your reply was to Dokoko, who's a Designer. I don't know what kind of 'designer' but, with experience and
a good track record, that kind of thing can easily be classified as a 'special skill' that can't easily be sourced in HK.

Yeah, on finance we agree.  

That's rubbish. Have you any experience with work permits in HK?


I've worked for a few different companies in Hong Kong. Went through a few successful work permit applications (after the first it's MUCH easier as you already have a HK ID). I've employed staff from overseas to work in my teams, including fresh graduates from Europe, who we've successfully got visas for and hired in HK.

I myself am not massively experienced or some bigshot investment wanker. I have a degree from a fairly good British university, a few years of experience with some decent design agencies, and a pretty good portfolio, BUT I'm not massively experienced (under 30), not management, not some  banker, and although I work for an international company with many overseas offices (I came independently, not transferred internally), we're not a particularly giant company in HK. But I've had no problems with work permits.

Likewise, all of my western friends have managed to quite successful get work permits in HK too... some were transferred here or in finance, or teachers, so had it easy, but many others were not, and they didn't have massive problems. The HK job market is actually very active, much more so than most of the world frankly, so as long as you have the skill and experience to get a decent enough job lined up, work permits aren't a big deal, just a hassle of tonnes of paperwork and waiting, but certainly not instant rejection.

I'd go so far as to say HK is one of the most accessible places to work in the world, outside of Europeans going to work in other EU countries. You just need a degree and the skills to get employed by a reputable company. You don't even need to speak Cantonese!

That doesn't make sense either though, considering about 80% of expats in HK are in finance. We have more western investment bankers per square mile in HK than anywhere else on the planet!!

Wow......."massive" info......let me go ask my HR was is the basic criteria and sponsorship required.............


But why not those eager bros who want to come to work in HK come overand hunt for jobs during daytime and hunt for WGs at nite.......

I read a report somewhere that almost 75% of 100 Top banks in the world has operations in HK.  This makes me think that there are plenty of jobs opportunity in finance, banking, investment, etc... and HK is known as financial hub for APAC. Im just mentioning the finance, not to mention other sectors such as insurance, retail, telecom, etc...

That's sure big enough to get a visa for anyone they want. I am not talking about some top of the line company or giant corporation. From my understanding you're talking about white guy and it's known widely that it's easier to get working visa for Caucasion staff.

Think about this, what if your boss employed staff from overseas to work as his secretary?  
what if the reason is that the secretary will handle lots of sensitive and confidential documents with no one else can be trusted to handle those documents?
Do you think the immigration will approve the secretary work permit?
In this case does being a secretary require a unique skill or qualification?

I know one company successfully employed a clerk from overseas.

Of course you need a valid reason to be employed in Hong Kong over a local person, you need a unique selling point, that much is obvious. But the unique selling point doesn't have to be "I was CEO of Intel and drinking buddies with Li Ka-Shing".

The company I work for, whilst part of a massive international parent company, didn't have a very big presence in HK until shortly after I started. It was almost at the start-up stage when I arrived. But yes, it's a pretty well respected company, they had very valid reasons to employ me, and basically there was no hassle with the work permits.

But the same applies to anyone with enough skill/experience to land a half decent job with a vaguely reputable company.

You basically need EITHER the experience/reputation of yourself or the company to get the work permit (eg; working in finance for a big bank) OR the unique selling point to justify your employment over a local person.

Frankly, half the western investment bankers in Hong Kong are no more qualified than their local equivalents and don't truly have any unique selling point to justify their employment here, but they work for large enough companies and have enough experience that it's not a problem. But for the people who don't have 10+ years finance experience or aren't employed by Merrill Lynch, they can still quite easily get a work permit if they have a unique selling point -- such people would include hairdressers, fashion designers, even sushi chefs. Those with some skill that's quite unique to them and not common in HK.

I sort of fall halfway between those two points in my case. Working in design you get to use the "unique design experience bla bla blaaa" thing, but also any experience or reputation you or your company might have, which in some cases can be pretty big if it's one of the multinational design companies.


There are heaps of opportunities in Hong Kong if you have either the skill, the experience or the contacts. Doubly so if you have more than one of those. And if you've got none, you can always get a work permit as an English teacher (not meaning to put them down or anything... though plenty of fresh grads do that).


On the racism note though - it mostly applies to filipinos unfortunately. Basically if you're filipino, the Hong Kong government won't employ you as anything other than a maid and will generally treat you as sub-human. Cause there are heaps of cretins in charge. But you don't just have to be caucasian or anything. I know plenty of overseas Chinese (non-HK residents) and Indian guys who got jobs over in HK and everything went smoothly. I hired a British Indian guy a while back, not massively experienced, he moved over from the UK to take up a position in HK, no problems. If the HK government told him "sorry, we can't give you a visa - cause of the colour of your skin" basically I'm sure our lawyers would have ripped them apart and had all of their arses on a platter. There definitely IS racial discrimination in HK, but generally the HK government or immigration authorities can't actually act on it unless they want to open themselves up to a massive lawsuit... unless you're filipino or from mainland China, in which case, bizarrely, the anti-racism laws don't apply to you, cause HK's a little bit fucked up that way.

It's actually very straightforward in HK.

OFFICIALLY the line is you're not allowed to come to HK to look for work, and the penalties are severe.  You're not even allowed to do work unpaid.  But lots of people do it - I even had an ID check once during the night in my hotel, I'd been here 2 months, and I told the police straight out I was setting up a company and they just didn't care.  Immigration was similarly pragmatic in their interpretation of the rules.  If you're naughty they'll throw the book at you, but basically they're very business-friendly and understand that work needs to get done.  

THE REALITY is all you have to do is fill in the paperwork and present a convincing case to the Immigration official that you're not going to be taking a job that a local person could do.  I've never had trouble getting a work visa for someone, though I don't abuse the system.  Certainly, there are no quotas or arbitrary rules that get in the way, it's just straightforward bureacracy.  
What this means is
  1 your salary needs to be higher than typical local rates, to show you're not coming just because you're cheap
  2 your employer must have advertised for the position, and have examples of CVs they've received that are not adequate
  3 your employer has to sign a 'sponsorship' guarantee, that if you have to be forcibly repatriated they'll pay the cost (this is the one that puts most employers off)
Aside from that, the more you can add, qualifications, CV, languages, etc. the better.  

PRAGMATICALLY my advice would be to fully exhaust all avenues BEFORE coming here.  The reason is that you can negotiate a much better expat package if it looks like you have to be persuaded to give up your current comfy job before you'll relocate.  If you're already here, especially if you've quit your job, any employer with half a brain is going to offer you a job on local rates first ... ... and with housing costs the highest in the world that's a huge difference.  

The other way to come is to set up a company and get an Investment Visa.  Heard mixed reports about this - one guy I know found it ludicrously easy with just a business plan he'd invented, while another with a large existing business and solid cashflow struggled for years - so YMMV.  

Oh yes, I guess you could get married to a local ... the ratio of women to men here is high, with lots of unmarried educated women ... but that route also has its downsides!!!

phew , thank goodness I already have a HKID card and residency....

LOL

ok....I skip the HR dept.....this is way too complicate.

guess I made it sound hard ... here's a simplified version:

1. find an employer who is willing to employ you and sponsor you
2. get them to sign the sponsorship form (downloadable from HK immigration dept website)
3. fill in all the details on the form, and make copies of your CV and educational certificates
4. hand everything to Immigration official
5. wait for them to call you (typically 4 to 6 weeks at the moment)

The rest is refinement that makes it more likely to get you a better deal faster - I really do recommend applying to companies from your home country before coming here - it's harder, but you get more credit for it and will get a better package when you do come.