Surrenr From United States of America, joined Jun 1999, 92 posts, RR: 0 Posted (7 years 2 months 10 hours ago) and read 1073 times:
I'm an American living in Taiwan and because of my visa status currently, I have to leave the country every 30 days. I get cheap tickets to Hong Kong and I get to fly there every 30 Days. Last time I took Cathay Pacific on a 777 there and a 340 back here. Tomorrow, I go on a 330 there and a 340 back. Maybe next time I'll fly China Airlines.
Trex8 From United States of America, joined Nov 2002, 3720 posts, RR: 15 Reply 1, posted (7 years 2 months 5 hours ago) and read 877 times:
ummmm, I don't know what you are up to but doing that constantly for any prolonged period would suggest that the legality may be marginal. I had a British co worker whose wife would go back and forth between the US and UK and come into the US on a tourist visa every 6 months. This went on for maybe 2 years. The INS finally caught on and said she was essentially not a tourist and lying about the purpose of her stay in the US. She hasn't been able to get back since, and he eventually left to rejoin her. And all they had to do was to get the right papers through his visa at the beginning for her to be totally "legal" but they couldn't be bothered for some dumb reason no one really understood in the office and then they get caught.
Pope From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 3, posted (7 years 2 months 3 hours ago) and read 767 times:
I got "busted" doing this between Hong Kong and Macau in 1997.
HK allowed visitors to stay for 30 days without a visa - anything over required a visa that took a good deal of time to get.
However, if you left the SAR even for a couple of hours you got a new 30 period. I, like hundreds if not thousands of Americans working in Macau on 3 to 6 months assignments would take a turbocat over to Macau once a month, do some shopping (or gambling), have meal and head back to HK. Some people never even left the ferry terminal, they would just clear Macau immigration, get their passport stamped and head back to HK.
One day I headed to Macau with some of my friends on just such a journey. We spent the entire day in the casinos and took the last turbocat back to HK. I had to be like 2 in the morning when we got to HK immigration. I chose the wrong line. I spent the next 3 hours in an immigration holding cell while a junior SAR immigration officer read me the riot act.
I was sure that I was going to have to call the US Embassy, but just as I gave up hope, they agreed to allow me to enter for that one last time. Fortunately I only had 2 weeks left on my project because he made a notation in my passport that a new entry would not be considered valid unless I had spent more than 30 days out of the country before coming back in.
All I can say is that it was not a fun couple of hours.
Sabena332 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 4, posted (7 years 2 months 2 hours ago) and read 689 times:
Quoting Pope (Reply 3): I had to be like 2 in the morning when we got to HK immigration. I chose the wrong line. I spent the next 3 hours in an immigration holding cell while a junior SAR immigration officer read me the riot act.
These Hong Kong immigration guys must be extremly bored during the night. Last year, when my girlfriend and I entered Hong Kong again after a trip to Macau late at night the immigration officer looked (extremly slow and with highest attention) through my whole passport and asked questions about some of my travels when he saw my stamps. It was extremly annoying to stand there in the middle of the night after I already had 7 or 8 beers in Macau.
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