unclemartin

Puzzled by the Immigration Procedures of the Local Police in Mainland China


A mainlander who is married to a Hongkong person can apply for a visa to travel to Hongkong to live with his/her spouse right after getting married and the visa is valid for 3 months, during which period s/he can move in and out of Hongkong as often as s/he wishes.  There is a condition though that she cannot take up any employment.  After 3 months, the mainlander will have to travel back to their hometown to renew the visa for another 3 months.  That process will take 12 days.

My young wife had finished her visa and she went back to get her very first such renewal.  However, she was told that she must file an application for a single entry visa to Hongkong first before she can renew her 3-months family visit visa to Hongkong.  That explained why I had to cancel my classes for last Thursday and left for Zhanjiang in a hurry.  I went up there and filed the papers in the Immigration Section of the local police station.  

In fact, there is a problem here.  The interpretation of the law by individual immigration police is different.  Some are not bothered at all whether you process your single entry visa to Hongkong or not.  What if the mainlander has no intention to settle in Hongkong?  There is a waiting period due to a quota arrangement with the Hongkong government.  Only 50 mainlanders are allowed to enter Hongkong on single entry visa in a day.  These days, the number of mainlanders marrying Hongkongers has dropped significantly.  That daily quota of 50 is not used up at all.  Therefore the queue for single entry visa has been shorted to 3 years for Zhanjiang (I am not sure if this applies to other places.  Some people say that the waiting period is much shorter in Heilongjiang where there are few marrying to Hongkongers.)  In reality, the application for single visa can be filed when it is your turn to go at the end of the 3 year period.  They assess your legibility based on your wedding date, nothing much else I believe.   

Much to my surprise, they wanted to see the divorce papers of mine – each and every one divorce that I had gone through.  This is a real problem for me because I had my first divorce almost 30 years ago. It was all processed by the lawyer and the lawyer just called to let me know that the divorce papers were fixed.  I could have picked up a copy of it, but then I really cannot remember if I had done that.  Anyhow, I find this unnecessary.  Let me explain why?

There are questions on the application form asking for details of all marriages that the spouse of the applicant had gone through, and there is a question on who the spouse will be staying with once s/he settles in Hongkong.  I find this ridiculous to the extreme.

Is the local police really bothered at all about those details genuinely?  Do you think they will reject the application if there are problems in those areas?  Who the mainlander will be living with in Hong Kong after s/he settles down there?  Whether those are children from previous marriages of the spouse?  Hongkong is well known for her integrity in law enforcement.  If there has not been a legally approved divorce, a Hongkong citizen cannot re-marry.  On the notice of intention to get married (displayed in public for 15 days) and on the marriage certificate, there is a box for you to declare that you are either single, divorced or widowed.  I would have thought the last divorce paper is good enough for that purpose.  In fact, it is not really necessary at all to show the divorce papers for each and every single divorce as the marriage certificate is valid proof of a legal marriage for Hongkong citizens.  

Say, if the Immigration Department in Hongkong is asking questions like who the applicant will be living with, the physical address and even the area size of the property, they are asking valid questions.  But then even the government cannot turn down the application as it will be a violation of freedom of individuals if a person is not allowed to be united with his or her spouse from another country.  The only proof required is a legal marriage recognized by the government.  Your financial health has nothing to do when they consider the application.  Those information will be more for statistics than for considering the application.

Note by Uncle Martin:-
I am blogging about this not for the purpose of sharing you with my own private life.  However, it is easier to blog about what’s happening to me on a daily basis.  When you are learning English, you are preparing yourself to relate in English to others anything that can happen to you as the need arises.  Again, if you cannot write it out easily, don’t ever fancy that you can just talk it out fluently and fairly quickly when others are waiting to hear from you in spoken words.



[ 本帖最后由 unclemartin 于 2009-12-19 10:09 编辑 ]

xiaokaikai

Does "a single entry visa"means 单身证明？

unclemartin

Once you have left China, you don't have to come back to China.  Or once you have entered Hongkong SAR, you don't need to worry about leaving or over-staying.  You are granted permanent residence in Hongkong SAR.  You can take up employment there.