HK Immigration treatment of long term foreign "perpetual visitors"

Sat, 02 Oct 2010 17:05:31 +0000

Hello all,

First, I'd like to say this site is wonderful... it gave me many a good tip, tidbit, and chuckle when I first arrived in Hong Kong as an expat about 3yrs ago.

I was employed in Hong Kong for about 3yrs. Then, about half a year ago, I decided to take a break from my place of employment to do independent consulting work. For all sorts of complicated reasons I will not go into, it was best that I terminate my employment and settle my HKIRD tax balance, i.e. exit tax. (Presumably my work visa has terminated as well, though interestingly enough my HKID card seems to work fine at airport immigration!)

Since a half year ago I have not taken any monies onshore HK as none of the consulting work I have done so far is onshore HK. However, I do live here when I am not traveling because I own a flat here. In the eyes of immigration I suppose I am a foreign visitor who does serial stints of up to 90days visit. By my days calculation, at the end of this year I will come up against the 180days+ worth of stay in HK as a visitor status, and 180days is the test for residency. My understanding is that universally (not just HK), the residency test generally provokes the need to file a tax form (which I find pointless because it will be a bunch of zeros for onshore HK income).

So far, I have not bothered with registering a business in HK, even as a sole proprietor (which may not even be possible for me, as I am not a permanent resident). I would like opinions on whether 1) I should motivate to make myself a legitimate HK resident via registration of a company and employing myself, 2) I should be mindful of 180days/yr threshold for residency (and thus plan to never be in HK >180days), or 3) will Immigration tolerate my presence as a perpetual visitor?

Many thanks in advance for your feedback.

Batgung - business

HK Immigration treatment of long term foreign "perpetual visitors"