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The Government announced today (May 18) the relaxed immigration policy governing the entry of dependants for residence in Hong Kong (the relaxed dependant policy).
"The existing dependant policy is rather restrictive that Mainlanders admitted into Hong Kong for work or study can bring in their Mainland dependants, i.e. spouse and unmarried children under 18, while foreigners and overseas Chinese cannot. The relaxed dependant policy allows the Mainland dependants of these foreigners and overseas Chinese to apply to come and reside in Hong Kong. This will help Hong Kong to attract and retain overseas talents," a Security Bureau spokesman said.
The relaxed dependant policy will take effect in mid-2007 to allow the Mainland spouses and unmarried dependent children under the age of 18 of the following categories of persons to come and reside in Hong Kong as the dependants of their sponsors -
* persons admitted for employment, investment and training under the General Employment Policy;
* persons admitted under the Capital Investment Entrant Scheme;
* foreigners and overseas Chinese admitted under the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme;
* overseas Chinese admitted for employment; and
* overseas students admitted for studying in full-time undergraduate or post-graduate programmes in local degree-awarding institutions.
The length of stay of dependants is linked to that of their sponsors. They are required to leave Hong Kong as and when the sponsors themselves leave Hong Kong.
The commencement date of the new policy and the application procedure will be separately announced.
Ends/Friday, May 18, 2007
Issued at HKT 19:45
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