The Court of Final Appeal (TUI) has ruled in favor of government authorities that had canceled the temporary residency permits of two people who were working in Macau but living outside the borders of Macau.
The two similar cases involve residency permits granted under the scheme for technical and specialized staff and higher managerial staff, who are under the capacity of the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM).
In a statement from the TUI, the court notes that, according to the rules and laws into force, such workers “cannot be considered formally residents, those that by motives unrelated with their job duties stay overnight out of Macau for long periods.”
The individuals in question are a woman, a resident from the neighboring region of Hong Kong, and a man resident from the mainland, who had acquired the right of temporary residency under the IPIM scheme for higher managerial staff and technical and specialized staff, respectively.
While the first person was officially registered as being a high-ranked manager in a construction materials company in Macau but continued to have her usual residence in Hong Kong, the second, a technical staff working for an airline company, although working daily in Macau, was living in the city of Zhuhai, crossing the border every day.
In both cases, the top court noted that the status of a resident implies having a home-base in Macau and having a real intention of moving into Macau, if not permanently, at least for a long period, a reason that justifies the issuing of the residency permit.
The court also noted that absence from the region for long periods can be disregarded as absence, if that absence is directly related to work duties that force the person to be away for considerable in cases where the person has a real and proven intention of returning to Macau.
procedure to expel Macau-born teenager Halted
The same court also ruled in favor of a 19-year-old woman, born and raised in Macau, who filed a precautionary action against the Identification Bureau (DSI), which called for the cancelation of her permanent residence permit and her expulsion from the region, the TUI also informed in a different statement.
The case involves a paternity dispute in which the resident was involved. When her birth mother, a resident from the mainland, registered the child as being the daughter of a permanent resident of Macau, this led the then-child to acquire the same status as her father.
Around 15 years later, in 2016, information from the civil registry noted that the mother at the time of the registration of the child’s birth had made false declarations as to the father of the child, a fact that was later proven via a police investigation.
In light of such a fact, the DSI decided to cancel the permit of the resident, a fact that the TUI considered inadequate, since it would have as a direct consequence the illegality of the woman’s stay in Macau and make her liable to expulsion.
The judges noted that the government authorities cannot ignore the fact that what is on the line is a fundamental right “of continuing to reside legally in Macau, a place where she was born and where she has been living since birth.”
In the ruling, TUI’s judges also note that the decision of the DSI would directly force the woman to move to an unknown place where she has no references.
For the time being, the decision to cancel the residency permit of the youngster is postponed until a final decision is reached.
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