Originally Posted by
FlyPointyEnd
the announcement the other day was September 18 I believe. If taking a membership holiday you need to specify the exact length which cannot be changed regardless. Whatever months you still have, it will be added after your membership holiday. So it will change your current year end date.
Sadly, yes 18 September, but the government in its infinite wisdom said each country/territory will be reviewed in the period up to 18/09 with the potential for quarentine restrictions to be removed. More information can be found at
http://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/2...0060200949.htm
The key point is the government has designated 2 types of categories for each country, with
all countries coming under Category 1 initially, and in the future certain countries may be moved to Category 2. From the above weblink:
(1) A mechanism will be introduced to empower the Secretary for Food and Health (SFH) to specify two categories of places. For persons arriving from these categories of places:
(a) For Category 1 specified places, those persons will be subject to compulsory quarantine arrangements; or
(b) For Category 2 specified places, those persons will be excluded from the requirements in respect of the compulsory quarantine arrangements subject to meeting certain conditions (such as obtaining a negative COVID-19 test result).
Perhaps the government does not want visitors?
Regarding the membership holiday, mine worked this way. I have year end 31/08, so when I first took the holiday in November 2016 I took the full 12 months, so then I was only given from November 2017 to August 2018 to keep my DM. I guess if I requested the holiday just to August 2017 then I would have had the full 12 months from then to retain DM status.