West Africa a shortcut for rich mainland Chinese to Hong Kong residency
Wednesday, 19 June, 2013, 12:13pm
News›Hong Kong
Patrick Boehler in Hong Kong and Saikou Ceesay in Serekunda

Thousands of mainland Chinese have permanent residency in The Gambia, a
place they most likely have never visited and never will, as the African
country has been unexpectedly profiting from a Hong Kong immigration
scheme.

The fastest, cheapest way for a Chinese citizen to gain right of residency
in Hong Kong under the Capital Investment Entrant Scheme (CIES) is to first
gain permanent residency in Africa's smallest country, according to visa
agencies advertising the deal.

The scheme, established in 2003, aims to attract high-value individuals to
Hong Kong. An eligible applicant would have to invest at least HK$10
million in the city and have residency anywhere except four rogue states
and the Chinese mainland.

For a Chinese citizen to be eligible, the person needs to be a permanent
resident in another foreign country. That's where The Gambia, which does
not have diplomatic ties with Beijing, comes in. The country’s loose
requirements have turned it into a vehicle for wealthy Chinese to get their
foot in Hong Kong's door.

It takes six 4cm-by-6cm headshots, 15 working days and roughly HK$100,000
to gain residency in western African country, according to visa agencies in
Yunnan and Guangdong provinces. No visit to the country is required.

Since the beginning of the Hong Kong immigration scheme, 9,050 successful
CIES entrants from the mainland have cited permanent residency in The
Gambia. The figures, provided by the Immigration Department this month, are
as of March 31, the latest available numbers.

Gambian residencies make up nearly 60 per cent of mainland applicants and
50 per cent of all 17,746 people who have received Hong Kong visas under
the scheme.

Photo: SCMP Pictures<https://www.scmp.com/sites/default/files/2013/06/19/gambia.jpg>
[1]The Gambia ranks No 1 among residency countries cited by CIES
applicants. Guinea-Bissau falls second with 2,931 approved applications,
Canada third with 1,207, and the Philippines fourth with 559.

“An individual permanent residency in The Gambia costs 80,000 yuan
[HK$101,240], a family application costs 100,000 yuan,” said Chen Yunjun, a
Shenzhen-based agent with Qiaoshen Emigration Consulting. “One hundred per
cent get approved.”

“We started [selling] Gambian permanent residencies in Shenzhen in 2011,”
she said. “Altogether, we have handled dozens so far.”

Huaien Business Consulting, in Kunming, Yunnan province, offers similar
prices for a Gambian permanent residency.

“It’s 80,000 yuan per person," said a sales agent who gave only her last
name as Yu.

"We can also get you a passport from Guinea-Bissau, we don’t do Gambian
passports,” she said. “That would be 250,000 yuan.”

Hong Kong agencies are more expensive. Beng Seng Immigration Consultants
charges US$25,000 for an individual application, according to its website.
A family application, including one underage child, costs US$32,000. Every
additional child costs US$1,000 more.

Dozens of visa agencies advertise Gambian residency as a way of getting
into Hong Kong through CIES.

Investment in Hong Kong residency via Gambia can be profitable for wealthy
mainland Chinese. They would qualify for permanent residency after seven
years in the city and can request Hong Kong passports.

If they don’t spend more than 183 days on the mainland, they are also
exempt from mainland taxes, David Webb, a corporate governance advocate in
Hong Kong, noted in a blog post on CIES last year.

The Gambia does not recognise the People’s Republic as China’s legitimate
government. It is one of four countries in Africa to maintain relations
with the Taiwanese government instead.

Earlier this month, the island's ambassador to The Gambia, Samuel Chen,
handed a cheque for US$1 million to Minister for Presidential Affairs
Momodou Sabally to establish a Youth Development Fund. He donated
US$442,000 to the Gambian national football team last week.

Despite the high number of Gambian residents recorded by Hong Kong, the
African country of 1.8 million people counts only 309 mainland Chinese
residents this year, said Buba Sagnia, director general of The Gambia
Immigration Department, speaking from his office in the capital Banjul.

The number of Chinese residents marks a 70 per cent increase from the
previous year, but it can account for only 3 per cent of those Hong Kong
CIES applicants who have successfully claimed Gambian permanent residency.

Sagnia declined to comment on the discrepancy between the country's
immigration statistics and those in Hong Kong. He also said he did not know
how mainland Chinese citizens have been issued Gambian residency without
ever coming to the country.

According to Gambian immigration law, permanent residency can be granted to
people "of good character", who have spent at least five years over the
last seven years in the country, of which not more than one in prison.

"Chinese citizens getting residency permits without visiting the country
started in the first republic of Sir Dawda Jawara," Sagnia said, referring
to the now octogenarian first prime minister and former president of the
former British colony.

Jawara was deposed in a military coup in 1994 by the current president,
Yahya Jammeh, who has turned The Gambia into one of the continent's worst
human rights offenders. In 2008, Jammeh gave homosexuals 24 hours to leave
the country or, if caught, their heads would be "cut off". His country
ranked 105th in Transparency International's corruption perception index
last year.

The ficitious Chinese immigrants "pay for the ID cards and the money goes
to the central government," said Sagnia, who has led the immigration
department since 2009. "Without economic gains the programme cannot
survive."

*Saikou Ceesay is a news editor with The Standard based in Serekunda, The
Gambia*


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