Moving from UK and will be having a baby not long after arriving

H

hybridE4t

New member
Hi all, new here so bear with me.

I'm moving to Hong Kong from the UK with my wife and son. My wife is a PRC passport holder but has permanent residency in the UK. Our 19 month year old has a British passport (as do I).

I've accepted a job offer in HK and my work visa application is underway and should be complete early June. My family will have dependant visas so we should all be eligible for Hong Kong IDs. We have our second baby due August 22nd so accepting the job means no longer having the baby in London. Given the timings are going to be quite tight I'd like to be as prepared as possible before our arrival to make the process stress-free for my wife.

As I understand it, making an appointment for obtaining a HKID is done 24 days in advance. Can I do that from the UK before our visas come through? Ideally we can then get our HKIDs sorted ASAP upon arrival. I think we get a paper copy that very same day and the official card arrives 10 days later. Am I right?

The family healthcare I'm being provided with doesn't cover maternity so we'll be using the public system, hopefully Queen Mary Hospital from what I've read. As I understand it we can only register our intent to have the baby there once we have our HKIDs to avoid paying private costs. Is the process to register with a local doctor and then get referred? Can I also get this step done before we leave the UK?

Apologies for multiple questions in one post.

Many thanks in advance!
 
I can't answer your question about the ID card - though what you said sounds about right. Not sure about 24 days in advance though. However, you can email HK Immigration, they respond really quickly and actually address your question in the response rather than giving vague automated type answers.

As a HKID card holder, your wife is eligible for delivery at public hospitals, regardless of whether you register in advance or not.

For delivery at Queen Mary though, you need to prove residence in the catchment area of the hospital. They normally ask for address proof, so watch out for that one when choosing your apartment if you're determined to go to Queen Mary. From what I've heard, they are strictest about the catchment area among the public hospitals.

You don't exactly have to register with a private doctor. Usually, you need a letter confirming pregnancy. I think even the records you have from the UK should do, otherwise you can just go to a GP in Hong Kong and get a confirmation letter, since I'm assuming your wife will look quite obviously pregnant.

The care at public hospitals is quite basic. There will be minimum scans and if your wife is over 20 weeks, she will have missed both the scans provided free by the public hospital. For a bit of handholding, you might want to make an appointment with a private ob/gyn. For some of the larger practices in Central, you can try emailing/calling them in advance.
 
Also your temporary paper IDs should be enough to register with public hospital/clinic.
 
Just saw this thread. Yes, you can book all HKID appointments in advance. We got everything sorted in advance when we were in UK and US. You can call HK Immigration dept ID services to book in advance, they even let you select date & time. And thanks god it's straight to human answering all your questions, not just machine recording!! So literally, we arrived, visa sorted, and the next day we got our HKID paper (can do almost everything with it except bank accounts). You can register with hospitals etc with that.
 
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