A win and a loss for couple in residency fight

A win and a loss was the tally for a Filipino couple - both of whom have been in Hong Kong more than 20 years - when judgment was handed down yesterday in the second of three major right of abode cases for domestic helpers.

Daniel Domingo won his review of the government's rejection of his application for permanent residence but his wife Irene's case was rejected as she had previously breached her conditions of stay.

Daniel Domingo, a domestic helper for most of his 26 years in Hong Kong, overturned a 2010 decision by the Registration of Persons Tribunal to dismiss his appeal over the rejection of his application for a permanent identity card in 2008.

In his judgment, Court of First Instance Judge Johnson Lam Man-hon ruled the tribunal had erred in law.

But Lam said Irene Domingo, who has been in Hong Kong for 29 years, failed the seven-year stay requirement for permanent residence because she had overstayed for about 11 months. She overstayed when she was dismissed by her employer and awaiting the result of her appeal against the tribunal's decision.

Lam ordered that the husband's case be sent back to the tribunal for reconsideration unless his lawyer or the government's lawyers objected.

Domingo's victory came after a September judgment that found in favour of domestic helper Evangeline Banao Vallejos and ruled unconstitutional an immigration provision that excludes foreign domestic helpers from being 'ordinarily resident' in Hong Kong. Vallejos' case was remitted to the tribunal on October 26 by the same judge.