We Are Leaving Macau…
Greetings friends and family, we wanted to provide an update as to what is going on our side of the world. As most of you know, we have been living in Macau, a territory close to Hong Kong, in the South China Sea. It has been two years since we moved here and we have sincerely loved it. That being said, we are leaving Macau for Hong Kong next school year. We will be heading over to Hong Kong around July. While we don’t need to mention why we think we should leave, I think this may be a useful post to spread awareness in Macau and provide insight to people wanting to come to Macau.
大家好，我想告訴你們澳門怎麼樣。你們肯定知道我們正在住在澳門差不多兩年。澳門在香港西邊和在南海。我們最喜歡澳門的生活。諾亞最喜歡他的學校，我太太喜歡這裡沒有太多人和招商，德睿喜歡好多厲害的公園。我也喜歡澳門生活。我們看到好好的教堂，做多的基督教的朋友們。可是我們覺得我們應該走了澳門。明年我趕去香港，我已經看到新的學校。我想告訴你們為什麼我們走澳門，因為我覺得好多的人不知道在澳門有什麼問題。即使你熱愛澳門，也不足以長期留在這裡。
I moved to Southern China back in 2016 and since then, I have met my wife, had two little boys, and have made my life over here in China. That being said, during the time of COVID-19 (and after), things got particularly difficult for us raising a family in Mainland China. It mostly had to do with our boys not being permitted to go to church and back in 2022 we began looking at how we could stay in China but have more liberty to raise our boys in our Christian tradition. In the fall of 2022, it was God sent for us to be able to travel, live, and work here in Macau. God completely satisfied our needs. We ultimately were hoping this to be a long-term solution, but quickly found out that we had some common misconceptions about Macau. This is perhaps a bit of a nuanced issue for Americans or people who don’t live outside their home country, but obtaining a VISA can be a difficult thing to do each year. Particularly if you might have plans to live in a place long term, it becomes trickier. If you just want to live somewhere for a few years, it probably wouldn’t be much of a problem, but my family is part Chinese. My wife and I want our boys to speak Mandarin and know Chinese culture. I also of course want them to know about the American side of their heritage, while understanding the international community. We felt Macau or Hong Kong would provide us that option, but things have proved difficult for us to consider Macau a long-term solution.
To acquire residency or permanent residency (which gives us the ability to stay in Macau long-term or forever if we’d like), you need to live in Macau for at least 7 years. We understood that and came to Macau, but while that is true, it’s not the reality for most workers who are from outside of Macau. A majority of workers from outside of Macau are issued what is locally called a “Blue Card” and there is a special clause in the Macau Law dealing with immigration concerning the status of people in Macau under a “Blue Card”. Blue card holders are not entitled to residency status in Macau without additional approval from a government bureau like the PSP or an investment committee such as IPIM. The blue card gives you temporary status in Macau to “stay” but does not lead to a longer-term status or “reside”. So in short, Macau does not grant residency to outside workers just by living and working in a territory like Hong Kong or the USA. You can even see on my fancy blue card (Macau Work Permit) that they have explicitly written this statement on the back of the card, both in Chinese and Portuguese (I highlighted it in yellow).
There are a lot of misconceptions here in Macau about gaining Permanent Residency. Many of the locals and people who have lived here a long time think that it is easy to get residency. We’ve had insurance agents, teachers and colleagues who have mentioned that it is easy and the truth of the matter is that it was, 15-20 years ago. It is only easy nowadays if you make a huge investment or fit into a very very selective criteria. After a lot of jumping through hoops, I finally was able to apply for residency. I was rejected and instead of “trying” to get eligible for residency, this is the major reason we have decided to move on to Hong Kong, where hopefully it’ll be somewhat easier.
Why is residency such a big deal for us? Well as you know, we are a mixed family. The laws in Mainland China are different from the United States in terms of nationality. My wife and I would like for the boys to gain some type of residency status so that when they are older, they can continue participating in China or return to the USA if they’d like.
While residency is not a big deal in the West or the USA, here in Macau, not being a resident prevents you from fully participating in daily life. Things from driving into Mainland China from Macau are restricted to only residents, despite me having a Mainland license, Macau driving license, a Mainland VISA, legally living here in Macau and a car. We do not qualify for our children to get a stipend to help cover education, whereas residents basically can get their tuition fees covered 90-100%. My spouse and children are not covered under the SAR health insurance plan. Even things like making appointments online for getting our fingerprints done at the police station, etc cannot be done unless your a resident. So we need to physically go into the bureaus and make an appointment for a later time. The list goes on… somethings being more signficant than others.
There are other reasons we have decided to leave Macau for Hong Kong, but all that being said, it is a bittersweet time in our lives. We have greatly loved our time in Macau and it will always have a special place in our hearts. I hope that in the near future, I can continue to research the history of this little SAR and publish a book about some of my findings. Whenever I can find the time, I’d love to write about some of these interesting historical facts about this charming city. In the meantime, hopefully, the leaders of Macau will begin to reflect and consider who it is who wants to belong to Macau and will reconsider some of these policies. Macau has such a deep Christian heritage and long history, it has been a pleasure temporarily being part of the Macau story. Our hearts are sadden with the loss of our community, friends, and especially my school. But I hope that we can stay in touch.
branhow.com 
🙏🏼💜
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Prayers 🙏🏻
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