Confusing new visa regime for domestic helpers angers British expats
Confusing application form for domestic helpers adds to travel expenses, they say, and can result in black marks on non-UK passports
British expatriates have lambasted as ridiculous and infuriating a new visa regime that has forced some families to cancel their summer holidays back home and led to black marks in the passports of their domestic helpers.
The convoluted paperwork, in place since April, foists on expats an application process they say is not only costly, but is also so tedious that it derails efforts to secure visas for their domestic helpers to go along on the trips to Britain.
"It's an absolute mess," said businessman Jonathan Watkin, whose helper was denied a visa because she did not specify on the form whether her salary was "per month" or "per year".
"It's really stuffed everything up … It has thrown my holiday completely up in the air," Watkin said, adding that the information was required of her elsewhere on the form.
The application cost about HK$4,000, and its rejection meant the domestic helper now had a black mark in her passport that could make future travel difficult, he said.
"We've never done anything wrong. It's purely a technicality on a form that no one understands," he said.
Katie Bolton, who had lived in Hong Kong for seven years, echoed Watkin's sentiments.
