ASIA PACIFIC
“This was an ideal opportunity for the
Prime Minister to say, ‘Here in India, you can have exactly the same as we’re offering China’. Because we know that many Indian visitors we lose out from in the UK, and the UK economy loses out on, because they go as far as Paris and do not come to the UK,” he said. And British entrepreneur Sir James
Dyson also called for a liberalisation of visa rules for Indians when he addressed a meeting of business leaders in New Delhi. “We should let more people from India in on visas, and people who study here should be allowed to stay here, and they should be told they can stay before they come,” he said. “The government needs to change its
mind on this one, because we are going to be one million engineers short in the coming years. We only have a quarter of the engineers we actually need.”
New biometric appointments Immigration consultancy Pro-Link GLOBAL is reminding companies that biometric appointments are now required for applicants seeking visas for India in the following categories: employment, journalist, research, student, Pakistani visit, project and missionary. Applicants aged under 12 and over 70 are
exempt from the new requirement, which will be rolled out in the 14 VFS Indian Visa Application Centres (IVACs) in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The biometric enrolment will be
completed at the time the visa application is submitted at the IVAC, and will involve photographs and fingerprinting. Applicants must therefore submit their applications in person.
Update on spouses’ right to work Permits Foundation is continuing to campaign for spouses of intra-corporate transferees to have the right to work in India. Meetings with the Ministers of State for Home Affairs and External Affairs in 2015 indicated broad support for a policy change, but no action has yet been taken. With India opening up to the world
under Prime Minister Modi’s global diplomacy and the Make in India initiative, the foundation is arguing that a more family- friendly visa policy would help to make India a preferred destination for global talent. Permits Foundation reports that 30
countries internationally now grant spouses of intra-corporate transferees and other highly skilled staff the right to work, and that Indian families benefit from these measures when assigned abroad.
HONG KONG JOBS MARKET TIGHTENS
Following an Immigration Department audit earlier this year, the Hong Kong authorities are looking more closely at employment visa applications. Corporate immigration consultancy Berry Appleman & Leiden explains some of the some key findings and recommendations for applicants.
Hong Kong is one of Asia’s leading financial hubs, and a large number of foreign nationals work there. In response to the April 2016 release of findings from the Hong Kong government’s Immigration Department audit, the immigration authorities have agreed to adopt recommendations to improve the overall processing of employment visas. They are now therefore examining employment visa applications more closely. Although the process continues to be fairly straightforward, the Immigration Department is
expected to impose stricter enforcement of the existing requirements and processes for foreign workers. The department has yet to release an official statement on any changes to regulations, but it has agreed with all the recommendations made in the audit report.
Key findings and recommendations are:
• Intra-company transferees should be better vetted for the requisite one year of experience • Immigration officers should consider the availability of local employees and market wages in processing applications from foreign professionals and non-local graduates. The Immigration Department should issue guidelines setting out the required procedures
• Supporting documents submitted by non-local graduates under the Immigration Arrangement for Non-local Graduates (IANG) stream should undergo stricter verification of their authenticity. Case officers should document the factors considered in assessing IANG applicants’ job qualifications
• A talent list from the labour authorities should be incorporated into the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme (QMAS) to attract high-quality foreign talent
• Applications from foreign professionals and non-local graduates should be scrutinised more carefully, which may result in longer processing times
• The investor stream should be monitored for processing times and for breaches of the rules. The processing time for 58 per cent of these cases exceeded 90 days
Apart from these upcoming changes, there is now more scrutiny of the steps that employers must take when advertising job positions before hiring foreign nationals. In such cases, employers should factor in an additional four weeks in order to run a job advertisement before they can recruit and apply for an employment visa for a foreign national. In some cases, an employment visa application may be considered even without a job
advertisement if the application is for intra-company transferees in high-salaried or senior executive roles. However, employers may be required to submit a detailed written explanation to qualify for this exception. Hong Kong companies sponsoring foreign nationals are now required to attest to their
efforts to employ local workers. The Immigration Department recently updated its application form for certain employment visa categories. On the last page, sponsoring companies must complete and sign a declaration to verify their local recruitment efforts. This new requirement applies to companies hiring foreign employees under the General
Employment Policy (GEP) or the Admission Scheme for Mainland Talents and Professionals (ASMTP) categories. Currently, this added verification step is not required for employment visa applications under the IANG category. In some cases, the Immigration Department is also requesting additional information
or documentation upon filing an employment visa application. However, the requests occur randomly and at the discretion of immigration officers, thereby making it challenging to predict the documentation the Immigration Department may request. Hong Kong employers and foreign nationals should anticipate additional changes. The
Immigration Department has signalled that it will continue to tighten rules and regulations in response to the recommendations in the audit report. When and how remains to be seen.
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