COURTS | Filipino national sees permanent residency denied

A Filipino national, living in Macau since 2005, has seen his permanent residency denied for not spending enough time in the territory – one of the main requirements for being granted a permanent residency permit in the MSAR.
The Court of Second Instance (TSI) recently rejected his appeal, which sought to reverse the Secretary for Administration and Justice’s decision.
Back in 2012, he applied for permanent residency but saw his request denied for failing to comply with one of the MSAR’s requirements: that one should be living regularly in Macau over seven consecutive years. According to TSI’s ruling, the applicant had been in Macau for fewer than 60 days each year between 2009 and 2012.
The man first contested the Identification Services Bureau’s decision by appealing to the Secretary for Administration and Justice, which also denied his latest request. The Filipino national then appealed to court, arguing that he had regularly been outside Macau between 2009 and 2012 due to the difficult financial situation of his tourism business in the Philippines. He stressed that his travel agency, located in the Philippines, was his only source of income to provide for his family.
However, the court recalled that permanent residency is granted based on two main requirements: the applicant must have been residing regularly in Macau for seven consecutive years; and that the applicant has his permanent address in Macau. TSI concluded that between 2009 and 2012, the applicant had not been living regularly in Macau.
The Filipino national argued that the court failed to take into account the reasons why he had not been living in Macau. On the other hand, the court found that the applicant had won at least HKD3 million in a VIP club, “which was enough to provide for his family,” and proves that financial difficulties of his business in the Philippines did not leave him without any other options, as he had argued.