Such an extension of stay shall be granted only in exceptional circumstances. An extension is generally not granted for contract renewals. It is at the sole discretion of the Director of Immigration to decide whether or not to grant an extension of residence. The Hong Kong government announced on 30 September 2020 that it would give the option to extend contracts until 31 December 2020 until 31 January 2020, as agreed by the employer and domestic help. More information is available here. Visa extension applications can be submitted in person or by mail to the Foreign Home Support Department at the Immigration Tower in Wan Chai. You intend to withdraw the approved label for extension of stay from the immigration authorities; Foreign domestic workers must renew their work visa after their two-year visa expires. In most cases, the immigration department expects domestic workers to return to their home countries, but if the employer needs assistance for urgent reasons, it is possible by mutual agreement to request an extension of stay. The application process is simple, but you will need to sign a new standard employment contract. The visa extension with the same employer can be submitted within 8 weeks before the expiry of the existing contract and is usually issued within one month. You can use this online service if you are a foreign domestic worker who wishes to request an extension of stay with the same employer to extend the contract or to conclude the remaining duration of the current contract.
In the event of termination, you must communicate clearly with your employer and ensure that you complete the termination process by notifying the relevant authorities in Hong Kong and the country of termination of the contract. If you had time before canceling, you can sign up for HelperChoice for free! HelperChoice has more than 100,000 verified profiles, you can publish your detailed profile on our platform and indicate the reason for the cancellation. The reason for terminating a contract is not only due to the poor performance of domestic help. Therefore, you must provide a brief description to inform your potential employer of your situation. There are three scenarios in which a domestic help must apply for an extension of a work visa. We have described them below. Scenarios one and two require a full visa extension, and the third scenario describes where a short-term extension is required. On this website you will find the eligibility criteria, the application procedure and information for people who wish to employ a domestic help from abroad (help). If you have applied for an extension of stay online via GovHK and have received a notification letter from the Immigration Department asking you to provide additional documents, you can use the online filing service. The following link will provide you with more information on how to submit your additional documents online. Please note that if the residency restriction is extended, the request to return to the place of origin will be postponed but not lifted.
The employer must ensure that the domestic help returns to his place of origin during the extended period of home/holiday leave. For this reason, domestic workers should not receive cash for plane tickets to go home/vacation. An extension of more than one month is not normally granted, but the government further announced on 28 December 2021 (link) that it would continue to implement the previous measure to allow employers to extend existing contracts with their outgoing support. For all contracts expiring on or before March 31, 2022, the labour commissioner agreed in principle to extend the employment period by a maximum of six months, provided that such a change is accepted by both the employer and the caregiver. The latest measure, announced in December 2016, allows Indonesian foreign domestic workers and their employers to apply for a contract extension without having to use an employment agency to complete the necessary paperwork. Unlike Indonesian domestic workers, Filipinos have for some time been able to extend their contracts without the support of an employment agency. The above-mentioned mechanism came into effect on 1 January 2017 and aims to prevent employment agencies from passing on renewal fees – approximately HK$2,000 without travel costs – to Indonesian domestic workers who suffer excessive fees. The newly introduced Directive only applies to Indonesian domestic workers who renew their two-year contract with the same employer and does not apply to newly signed contracts between Indonesian employers and domestic workers, i.e.
in the event of a change of employer. In the latter case, the use of an employment agency to process all employment-related documents remains mandatory. Immigration procedures are similar for Indonesian and Filipino domestic workers. The Filipino domestic help must submit the required documents in person or online through the Immigration Department`s website and allow 4-6 weeks to process the visa application. you have been informed that your next extension of stay will be reviewed; or you request by mutual agreement the extension of the current contract by one month. It is very common to hire a domestic help in Hong Kong. The employer must have a valid visa (except those with a visitor visa) or permanent residency to apply for a foreign domestic help visa for their maid. For contract extension, the Filipino volunteer or employer may submit the documentation requirements to the POLO office 60 days prior to the expiration of the volunteer`s current work visa. Allow 6 working days until the employment contract is notarized.
Then, pick up the notarized contract at the Philippine Consulate General. Domestic workers who are still unable to return to their place of origin for home leave during their current period of stay can still apply for an extension. For assistance who have already benefited from a further extension of their stay and who wish to further delay their leave at home, the Aliens Registration Office may grant them a further extension of up to 3 months. For aides who request a further extension and whose existing contracts are also expiring, they can submit requests for deferral of home leave and contract renewal at once to immigration. It is important to know when you will receive a visa extension, as the consequences of overstaying a visa are serious, including detention. If the application is approved, the employer will be notified by letter/email to collect the visa from the immigration office. You can request the extension up to 8 weeks before the current visa expiry date in advance or at least 10 working days before the visa expiry date. These are the requirements set by the Director of Immigration of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The employer is advised to check with the relevant consulate in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region for the latest employment and immigration requirements and guidelines that may affect the employment of the humanitarian worker in the HKSAR before submitting contracts to the Director of Immigration in support of the assistant`s visa application. Under normal circumstances, the humanitarian worker must return to his place of origin after signing the contract and apply for a visa to return to the HKSAR in order to start the new contract. If circumstances do not allow the carer to return to his place of origin immediately after the expiry of the old contract, he may, by mutual agreement of the employer and the carer, request an extension of the stay in order to postpone the leave.
The assistant and employer complete the relevant parts of ID 988A and ID 988A, respectively. ID 988B and submit it to the Director of Immigration for review. If the domestic helper and the employer wish to extend the contract for two years for a short period, the domestic help must apply to the Director of Immigration for an extension of stay in Hong Kong. A person holding a foreign domestic worker visa is allowed to perform domestic tasks only in the following five broad categories: household chores; Cook; care of the elderly in the household; Childcare and childcare. If an individual employer has a genuine need for domestic help to perform driving duties, the employer must obtain an exemption from the Immigration Department. If the validity of the carer`s passport is shorter than the duration of the employment contract, a shorter period of stay depending on the validity of the passport may be granted upon the arrival of the carer or on the carer`s request for renewal of the contract. After the extension of the carer`s passport, an extension of the stay for the remaining duration of the current contract must be requested, provided that the employer confirms that he continues to use the assistance. A volunteer must be in possession of a valid visa before travelling to the HKSAR. The issuance of a visa to the individual carer is subject to compliance with normal immigration requirements (e.g.
possession of a valid travel document with sufficient capacity to return to his/her country of residence or citizenship; having a clear criminal record and not raising security or criminal concerns about the HKSAR; has no likelihood of becoming a burden on the HKSAR; etc.). Employers who meet the above criteria should not assume that their assistant`s visa application will be automatically approved. According to the Hong Kong government website, a foreign domestic aide can apply for an extension of stay within 8 weeks of the end of your stay. This gives you ample time to secure your stay in Hong Kong. The 2-year employment contract started on March 19, 2020 and the contract was due to end on March 19, 2022, but the visa (residence permit) is only valid until March 19, 2021, as the Immigration Department requires workers to leave Hong Kong in the first year of employment.