Hong Kong office wants 'letter of release' from tax department too early

[Jarai]

We have had a great experience dealing with the HK office so far. Submitted apps in late October, took a month for sponsorship to go through and then the other day we received a letter requesting some more docs, to be submitted within 60 days of the letter date.

The first is for some police clearances for my husband, a Japanese national (we are both residents in hk now, he's working). No real problem there, though Japan takes a long time to issue them and another country (Thailand) sounds also difficult to actually receive the clearance from. But that part is out of our hands.

The real problem is:

They want this 'letter of release' (IR607) from the HK tax department, which basically says that we are leaving HK for good, as this shows Canada the intention to actually leave here. BUT in order to get that form, my husband needs to file another application in order to get the release letter. This one basically says he intends to leave, and has to give the exact date, etc.
In the earliest, we haven't planned to leave here till at least summer(I'm having my second child in a few weeks), and realistically, who quits their job 6 months in advance? He would resign 3 months in advance, according tom company custom. If he informs his company now, they will just tell him to resign now, or fire him. There doesn't seem to be a way around this form, which I'm pretty surprised the Can consulate wants. Seems they are pretty eager to expedite this case, and the letter said if we don't submit all docs by 60 days time, the app can be refused.

Does anyone have any experience with this at all? I've already written the consulate but the HK one takes a while to respond. No idea what to do...

Thanks in advance.

 

[pogobb]

We have had a great experience dealing with the HK office so far. Submitted apps in late October, took a month for sponsorship to go through and then the other day we received a letter requesting some more docs, to be submitted within 60 days of the letter date.

The first is for some police clearances for my husband, a Japanese national (we are both residents in hk now, he's working). No real problem there, though Japan takes a long time to issue them and another country (Thailand) sounds also difficult to actually receive the clearance from. But that part is out of our hands.

The real problem is:

They want this 'letter of release' (IR607) from the HK tax department, which basically says that we are leaving HK for good, as this shows Canada the intention to actually leave here. BUT in order to get that form, my husband needs to file another application in order to get the release letter. This one basically says he intends to leave, and has to give the exact date, etc.
In the earliest, we haven't planned to leave here till at least summer(I'm having my second child in a few weeks), and realistically, who quits their job 6 months in advance? He would resign 3 months in advance, according tom company custom. If he informs his company now, they will just tell him to resign now, or fire him. There doesn't seem to be a way around this form, which I'm pretty surprised the Can consulate wants. Seems they are pretty eager to expedite this case, and the letter said if we don't submit all docs by 60 days time, the app can be refused.

Does anyone have any experience with this at all? I've already written the consulate but the HK one takes a while to respond. No idea what to do...

Thanks in advance.

Hi ! I just came across this post! I'm having the exact same problem with the Letter of Release being requested so early! What was the final outcome of this for you? Did you get a response from the consulate??

 

[Jarai]

My husband ended up resigning early. But after talking with his financial director, they couldn't help him because of his specific job situation(lots of details of course).We figured we would have to go to Canada first and wait for the visa there, not an ideal situation.After many letters to the consulate(unanswered) because of increasing complications getting this letter for when they wanted it, they finally relented. I don't think they have a lot of experience implementing this. For HKers it would be ok maybe, but not for foreigners working here. It was really unreasonable. Anyway about 6 weeks ago we got a letter telling my husband to send in his passport for final processing. He did so and got it back about 10 days later with the visa. We are leaving 5 July. Anymore specific questions, let me know. Good luck to you!

 

[pogobb]

My husband ended up resigning early. But after talking with his financial director, they couldn't help him because of his specific job situation(lots of details of course).We figured we would have to go to Canada first and wait for the visa there, not an ideal situation.After many letters to the consulate(unanswered) because of increasing complications getting this letter for when they wanted it, they finally relented. I don't think they have a lot of experience implementing this. For HKers it would be ok maybe, but not for foreigners working here. It was really unreasonable. Anyway about 6 weeks ago we got a letter telling my husband to send in his passport for final processing. He did so and got it back about 10 days later with the visa. We are leaving 5 July. Anymore specific questions, let me know. Good luck to you!

Thanks for your reply! So glad to find someone who experienced the same thing!

Sorry, I don't understand what you mean: "After many letters to the consulate(unanswered) because of increasing complications getting this letter for when they wanted it, they finally relented." Do you mean the consulate finally replied you? And what was the reply? Did they give you a deadline to submit this proof?

I have sent them a letter asking about this. However, I suspect that they won't reply my emails/letters at all....

I don't really know what to do now. I can resign if really needed but what do I tell my employer of the date I plan to leave HK? Supposingly they will hold my last month's salary and I go clear up my taxes first, then they will give me this letter of release. But I don't even know when or IF I will be leaving depending on whether they will approve the application or not! I called the tax dept and they said normally, you only go clear taxes 1-2 months before you actually leave.

Do you know if I can just resign normally (not telling employer I'm leaving HK and deal with clearing taxes, etc) and just send in the resignation letter plus any other documents that my company provides to proof I have resigned? Will they accept that??

Thanks again!!

 

[Jarai]

I was so irritated by the can consulate about this matter, you have no idea. I asked them many times if I can submit resignation letter in lieu of tax document or this idea or that...no answer, and as you know they don't take phone calls.
The deadline they gave us for the letter of release was 60 days from their first letter, about 180 days from when we planned to leave (already had booked and paid for flights). Impossible, especially without answering our letters for advice and alternatives. We explained our personal situation several times.

If you have gotten this far, sounds like you are almost home free, so i would just plan to go.
Are you from hk? Do you pay your own taxes?
The problem is that your employer needs to file the IR95 (is that it?)with your for sure last day of work. first, then either you( if you pay your own taxes, my husband does not) or they need to pay final taxes until last date. Then IRD right away gives the release letter. Our prob was that his company would not do it earlier as we wanted. To complicate things, and this is why i think the can consulate has little experience or success with obtaining this letter, is that because of the time of year, your company needs to submit TWO docs first to the IRD, for last fiscal year and current.

Based on our experience, and if this is the last thing you need to submit, I would go ahead and make your final plans(flight, resign from work), and let thing take their natural course. Anyway, by LAW, your company must file this tax doc for any employee leaving HK at least one month before. If you are hk people and have family or friends to stay with or are able to leave your flat more flexibly, great for you. Not for us. We are both foreigners, needed to give notice on our flat, make plans to leave definitely, without knowing for sure if my husband would get his visa first.
That's why we wrote letters to the can consulate, updating our situation. The final fax told of the final situation, in that we could not submit anything until one month before, following hk law, contact mr. So and so for verification if you wish(at my husbands company), and after 5 July, please forward all communication to said address in Canada. Within 10 days we received the letter telling us to just submit the passport for final processing. Ay ya, they finally understood!
Hope that makes sense. Anything else, ask away

 

[pogobb]

I was so irritated by the can consulate about this matter, you have no idea. I asked them many times if I can submit resignation letter in lieu of tax document or this idea or that...no answer, and as you know they don't take phone calls.
The deadline they gave us for the letter of release was 60 days from their first letter, about 180 days from when we planned to leave (already had booked and paid for flights). Impossible, especially without answering our letters for advice and alternatives. We explained our personal situation several times.

If you have gotten this far, sounds like you are almost home free, so i would just plan to go.
Are you from hk? Do you pay your own taxes?
The problem is that your employer needs to file the IR95 (is that it?)with your for sure last day of work. first, then either you( if you pay your own taxes, my husband does not) or they need to pay final taxes until last date. Then IRD right away gives the release letter. Our prob was that his company would not do it earlier as we wanted. To complicate things, and this is why i think the can consulate has little experience or success with obtaining this letter, is that because of the time of year, your company needs to submit TWO docs first to the IRD, for last fiscal year and current.

Based on our experience, and if this is the last thing you need to submit, I would go ahead and make your final plans(flight, resign from work), and let thing take their natural course. Anyway, by LAW, your company must file this tax doc for any employee leaving HK at least one month before. If you are hk people and have family or friends to stay with or are able to leave your flat more flexibly, great for you. Not for us. We are both foreigners, needed to give notice on our flat, make plans to leave definitely, without knowing for sure if my husband would get his visa first.
That's why we wrote letters to the can consulate, updating our situation. The final fax told of the final situation, in that we could not submit anything until one month before, following hk law, contact mr. So and so for verification if you wish(at my husbands company), and after 5 July, please forward all communication to said address in Canada. Within 10 days we received the letter telling us to just submit the passport for final processing. Ay ya, they finally understood!
Hope that makes sense. Anything else, ask away

Yes, I totally understand your irritation. To put it bluntly, I'm really pissed off also! I was rejected at the door of the consulate visa office no matter how I explained our situation like there was no deadline given for the letter so how would I know when it's needed, etc etc. The officer wouldn't care less. I tried to call the consulate (finally getting to a person) but she told me to look at the website, they won't answer any questions on the phone. Then I tried to explain I couldn't find the information i want on the website... she hung up on me while I was still speaking! How rude !! And as you experienced, you almost never get any answer to your emails or letters. Sometimes I'm thinking why do I want to back to such a country!?! They couldn't care less about people's concerns, difficulties which was caused by their unreasonable/unlogical requests!

So you actually did not get and send in the Letter of Release? Did you send in just your "normal" resignation letter then? And did you resign just 1 month before you left or earlier?

Yes, we are from HK and only I (the sponsor) pay taxes because my husband works in and pays mainland China taxes. We don't have a date where we MUST leave HK. Actually our planned date of departure is right before his medical report expires (but only IF they approve his visa). So that's in Feb2012 which is still 8 months away. If the application is still processing, then probably my husband will need to redo his medical and we will wait until they approve his visa, then probably leave 2-3 months after that.

And I am not sure if it's the last document we need to submit as his application has only been processing for 1.5mths and they are asking for my Letter of Release already!

I have asked my employer and they clarified to me that I only need to tell them my exact date of resignation (leaving the company) but they don't need to know when we will be leaving HK. So now it seems the only option to get this Letter of Release is to resign NOW and go clear my taxes and just sit and wait until Feb2012 (the earliest). Although this is possible but it's not really preferred...Or any other suggestions?? Keep writing/faxing like you and waiting.. hoping they will respond someday?? :'(