Why Hong Kong rejected Taiwanese singer Freddy Lim’s visa application
- Heavy metal band Chthonic was forced to cancel show at a festival on Sunday
- Immigration Department letter says Lim – the band’s lead singer and a pro-independence lawmaker – did not meet criteria for employment visa
Hong Kong’s immigration authority rejected a Taiwanese singer and pro-independence lawmaker’s visa application because he did not meet the criteria – including that he did not have the “special skill, knowledge or experience” needed to work in the city.
On Monday evening, Canto-pop star Denise Ho Wan-sze – who had asked Lim and his band to play at the festival – posted a letter on Facebook from the Immigration Department to Lim refusing his employment visa application.
“Under existing policy, a person seeking to enter into [Hong Kong] for employment should, amongst other things, possess a special skill, knowledge or experience of value to and not readily available in the HKSAR,” the letter from the department reads.
In a comment posted with the letter, Ho wrote: “So if you do not possess skills, knowledge or experience that does not exist in Hong Kong you can’t expect to get a visa.”