Transferring helper to another employer

S

satay sue

Registered User
I found a new employer for my helper as we are letting her go for financial reasons. I've been led to believe we can do a straight-forward transfer of her visa. The new employer is happy to deal with the paperwork. What are my legal obligations now, she has been with us for 2.5 years, 8 months of which were in Hong Kong. She had an extended holiday in the Philippines (we paid for her flights) last March/April.
She is getting all sorts of incorrect "advice" from friends and relatives here (we nearly got into a lot of trouble when we first arrived here due to some dreadfully wrong immigration advice given by someone she knew who supposedly had been here for a long time!)
 
best bet is to contact the labour dept directly. i believe that her contract with you is the official green hk one, right? in which case, you are terminating her contract. because it is due to financial reasons, she does not have to return home to await the new visa.

the labour/immigration depts can set you straight as to what you need to pay/do.
 
From what I understand by the process, you are terminating her contract for financial reasons and are still required to notify immigration that you have terminated her contract within a certain number of days.

Under Hong Kong government guidelines, I believe that her contract started the day she entered Hong Kong, after the approval and issuance of her DH visa for Hong Kong, not the previous years that she worked with you.

The processing of her new employer visa is completely separate from the visa she currently holds, because the immigration department assess the validity of the application by the new employer.

You are not required to give any further paid annual leave, but I would assume that she has the right to be repatriated and await the processing of the new visa in the Phillipines if she chose. Is this what you are specifically worried about?

Remember that if you terminate her contract now, if she has 14 days to leave the country, you will be buying flights for the middle of Chinese New Year.

http://www.labour.gov.hk/eng/public/wcp/FDHguide.pdf

This is a good guideline, but you should take a trip to immigration to address your specific worries.
 
I am not entirely sure, but I suspect that if you terminate a DH for financial reasons, immigration department may restrict you employing another DH for quite some time or indefinately. So make completely sure that this is the reason that you want on your own immigration records. Are you leaving the country yourselves?
Best wishes.
 
Last edited:
Thank you everyone for your prompt responses. Genuinely financial as the company Mr SS worked for went bankrupt and we have had no income for 3 months.
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Sorry, I have one more question. Helper was supposed to go to immigration this week with the new employer but new employer was ill. I'm going to do the termination of contract online but does it have to be on a working day? (it did in Singapore!!). As 24th will fall on a holiday (ie 7 days before last day). Or do they mean 7 days either before or after?
 
I have been let down badly by the person who was supposed to be taking her on - they cancelled an appointment for them both to go to immigration together last week then ONE WEEK LATER (today) called ME to say they wouldn't be employing her. If anyone out there needs someone quickly, her contract is terminated on Jan 31st, please PM me.
 
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