Dependent visa without marriage?

[PDLM]

dependent visas are also for {...} elderly parents.

For Permanent Residents only (just to try to forestall all the people asking).

[HowardCoombs]

I know its not the answer you want to hear, but I've been thru this with 3 different close friends(couples).
They all came from Common Law friendly places (Canada, USA, Australia).
They explored all kinds of possibilities, talked to lawyers and accountants and consultants.
They spent money and time and effort looking and talking.
They soul searched and discussed and debated.

In the end, they all came to the same eventual conclusion: Get married.
Its cheap, easy, quick and hassle free in HongKong.
All other options (school, investment, job etc) are relatively painful, costly (time and money) and a big hassle.

I hope you will find the right choice for yourself, but please dont throw out the easiest and most obvious choice (marriage) whatever your religious/moral convictions may be. You'll save yourself a lot of hassle.

I wonder : How easy would it be : As a common law couple come to HongKong, get married in HongKong and when time comes to leave then get a non-splitting Divorce in HongKong and go back to where you came from as a common-law couple..

HC

[PDLM]

It does rather assume that the OP and partner are able to get married. There's nothing in the posts to indicate they are of different sexes.

[Stoob]

Is the employer on this list:

Permits Foundation - Sponsors ??

[PDLM]

That's an interesting organisation that I wasn't aware of previously. Thanks.

I note that they say "Permits Foundation has already been successful in promoting change in France, The Netherlands, Hong Kong and the USA." So what did they achieve in HK? Was that the re-introduction of Dependants being allowed to work after that right was withdrawn around the time of SARS?

[Stoob]

That's an interesting organisation that I wasn't aware of previously. Thanks.

I note that they say "Permits Foundation has already been successful in promoting change in France, The Netherlands, Hong Kong and the USA." So what did they achieve in HK? Was that the re-introduction of Dependants being allowed to work after that right was withdrawn around the time of SARS?

I don't really know much about it to be honest, it appeared on the company homepage this week.

Thought it may offer some assistance.

[MovingIn07]

Hmmm - according to this HK is one of the countries that they are NOT fighting on the basis that they already allow dependents to work, and the issue of unmarried partners does not appear to be high on the agenda!

[Beanieskis]

Thanks for all the replies. They are on that list actually!

We could get married, but I suppose I'm a romantic and it would ruin it for me if it were for anything other than the right reasons. I'd want a proper engagement, a wedding planned with my parents etc.

Financially I could just not work, but I'm career driven myself and wouldn't be happy with that! So I think the solution is probably going to be for me to try very hard to get a job in the 6 mths(?) I'll be allowed to stay. I do have former colleagues working there, but they moved over before the downturn. We're not going until November time, so I'm hoping by then things will be starting to look a bit rosier.

Does anyone on here work in Real Estate? The really annoying thing is that my previous employer has a HK office, but I've just been made redundant! Our original plan was that I'd move over with them, but they've been hit globally and although the HK office is not making redundancies they're not recruiting either. I did ask them at the time I was made redundant if I could relocate straighaway, but they'd had numerous CVs from London that week...

[Football16]

Nothing to do with attitudes towards marriage; dependent visas are also for children and elderly parents.

I assume in the case of children or elderly parents, the dependent label works for the most part as maybe even parents if they dont have the financial means to be independent from their kids.

To me a spouse even if not working should not be considered "dependent" unless it is a dead beat husband refusing to get a job.

If you mean that the visa is dependent on the other spouse having a work visa, then that meaning is less offensive to the worst interpretation which would be: a woman home maker home raising the kids and keeping them in school, sports, etc and calling that person a "dependent" rather than an equal partner in a relationship. I am not sure which meaning it is being used in here but to me if HK recognized common law relationships, then they'd be moving in the right direction.

You can see their are various interpretations in the dictionary to support both perspectives:

de?pend?ent
? ?/d??p?nd?nt/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [di-pen-duhnt] Show IPA
–adjective
1. relying on someone or something else for aid, support, etc.

2. conditioned or determined by something else; contingent: Our trip is dependent on the weather.

8. a person who depends on or needs someone or something for aid, support, favor, etc.

9. a child, spouse, parent, or certain other relative to whom one contributes all or a major amount of necessary financial support: She listed two dependents on her income-tax form.

10. Archaic. a subordinate part.

[Claire ex-ax]

Just fyi, any individual or company practising estate agency work in the course of business or in the course of employment in Hong Kong must hold a valid estate agent's or salesperson's licence.