Warning Against Visa Misuse & Entry Ban Issued in

Source:SCMP

The Immigration Department issued the alert just before midnight on Wednesday in the wake of online posts by some mainland women that they planned to give birth in Hong Kong through the new Top Talent Pass Scheme.

A department spokesman said officials had examined the practice of women from the mainland coming to the city to give birth and had boosted entry controls.

“The purpose of a visit of any visitors who enter Hong Kong should be consistent with their declared one, or otherwise they may be refused entry,” the department said.

The top talent scheme was launched by the government a few weeks ago in a bid to attract business high fliers and top graduates to plug the city’s brain drain.

The Post found multiple cases of discussion on Xiaohongshu, a Chinese social media platform similar to Instagram, concerning the delivery of babies in Hong Kong with the two-year visa guaranteed by the new scheme.

Jane, a graduate of Peking University, whose two-year top talent visa has been granted, said she planned to have a baby while in Hong Kong.

The woman, who works in a China’s state-owned enterprise, said she was preparing for pregnancy and “may give birth in late 2023.”

“I was planning to have a baby in Shenzhen, but I just got my ‘top talent visa’, which makes me eligible to have a baby in Hong Kong,” Jane wrote.

“Considering the huge advantage in terms of admission to a top university with Hong Kong citizenship, I decided to have a baby in Hong Kong.”

Jane has created a group chat called “Hong Kong childbirth communication group”, which has more than 100 members.

A user named Helen also posted on Xiaohongshu that she would have a baby in Hong Kong after 27 weeks of pregnancy.

The 33-year-old from Hangzhou, whose due date is in May, has also been granted a visa through the top talent programme, which gave her two years of residency in Hong Kong.

“Surprise of the new year! I got the ‘top talent visa’, it only took me four days, it was really fast. I am about to go to Hong Kong for a hospital appointment,” she wrote.

Helen, whose posts were deleted and her account cancelled after her messages were reported by some city media, said she arrived in Hong Kong on Monday and made her first appointment at Prince of Wales Hospital, a public hospital in Sha Tin.

Any Chinese citizen born in Hong Kong is eligible for permanent resident status in the city.

But the government has banned mainland women from giving birth in Hong Kong if they or the father have not had residency status there from 2013 because of protests over stretched resources in public hospitals.

Inpatient fees in city hospitals are HK$120 (US$15.30) a day with a HK$75 admission fee for Hong Kong identity card holders.

But people without Hong Kong IDs are charged HK$39,000 if they have booked and HK$90,000 if they have not.