HONG Kong's top court has begun a hearing to decide whether the hundreds of thousands of domestic workers who make a living in the Asian financial hub are eligible to seek residency.
The case, brought by Filipina maid Evangeline Banao Vallejos, could also reopen the controversial issue of whether children born in Hong Kong to mainland Chinese parents have the right to stay.
Vallejos won a High Court ruling in 2011 granting her the right to request permanent residency status, denied to foreign maids until then.
The government appealed against that ruling last March, successfully arguing the authorities had discretionary power to decide who was eligible for residency and that restrictions on maids were not unconstitutional or discriminatory.
Hong Kong's 300,000 foreign maids receive a minimum wage of HK$3920 ($A493.24) a month and benefits such as one guaranteed day off a week, but rights groups say they face discrimination and a lack of legal protection from abusive employers.
Campaigners argue they should not be treated any differently from other foreigners who flock to the former British colony to seek professional work and who are eligible to apply for permanent residency after seven years.
"If you have a purpose that is regular and your presence is lawful and your presence is here for seven years continuously ... and there has been no discontinuity, you would expect to succeed," Vallejos' lawyer Michael Fordham said in court.
The hearing in the Court of Final Appeal is expected to last up to three days but a decision may not be handed down for some time.
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