Lesbian challenges Hong Kong's decision to refuse her a dependant visa in court
Woman forced to rely on a tourist visa to live with her civil partner in city claims Immigration Department is discriminating against her
A lesbian couple will tomorrow challenge the Immigration Department's refusal to recognise same-sex relationships when handling applications for dependant visas.
The High Court case has huge implications, not least for multinational corporations which struggle to move homosexual employees to Hong Kong amid concerns their partners will not be allowed to stay in the city. It will also test the government's approach to handling the rights of gay and lesbian people at a time when it is considering how to move forward with legislation on discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation.
The challenge is being brought by a couple named only as SS and QT, who moved to Hong Kong in September 2011 after SS secured a professional job in the city. The couple had, in May that year, forged a civil partnership in Britain, a status that gives a couple the same rights and responsibilities as a married couple under British law.
However the Hong Kong Immigration Department has twice ruled out QT's application for a dependant visa, a decision she is challenging as "discriminatory".
QT has since had to depend on a tourist visa, which requires her to leave Hong Kong every six months and prevents her from working or building up eligibility to apply for permanent residency - which holders of dependant visas can seek after seven years.
Not long after she launched her legal challenge, the department told QT she could be granted "some form of visa on humanitarian grounds", according to her solicitor, human rights specialist Michael Vidler.
"Unsurprisingly, my client was not prepared to have that differential treatment," Vidler told the .
