New Content Daily Sign Up Here

On April 21, 2017 I gave a talk at WYND Co-working space in Lan Kwai Fong entitled 10 Steps to a Successful Hong Kong Entrepreneur Visa Application.

PRACTICE UPDATE: How the content must now be read in light of current ImmD policy:

Historically, this segment in the 10-step series examined the government-backed “Start-up Visa” enhancement measures introduced to facilitate residence permissions for founders admitted into officially recognized incubation programs. The Geeza treated this statutory pathway as a helpful, expedited administrative shortcut, but consistently reminded foreign founders that it was by no means an exclusive route to immigration success. Because ImmD historically exercised broad, commercially sensible discretion across the mainstream General Employment Policy, founders rarely felt compelled to endure the rigid selection processes and bureaucratic milestones of formal state accelerators; a bootstrapped entrepreneur with modest seed funding of a few hundred thousand dollars, a flexible serviced office desk, and a forward-looking plan to gradually create local employment over a two- to three-year horizon could comfortably secure approval under the standard discretionary regime.

The game has changed from an optional fast-track into the only remaining statutory lifeline for early-stage and seed-level founders. Under post-April 2026 administrative practice aligned with TTPS Category A operational substance (~HKD 2.5M enterprise scale), ImmD has closed the door on lean, un-incubated ventures in the mainstream entrepreneur channel. Standard applications now face an unyielding empirical audit requiring HKD 1.5M–2.0M in deployed corporate bank liquidity, an executed commercial lease for exclusive physical premises (“four walls”) disqualifying serviced offices and co-working desks entirely, and active Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) payroll contributions for 2–3 local permanent residents on day one. Formal admission into an officially accredited government incubator (such as Cyberport, HKSTP, or the Design Incubation Programme) is now the sole legal mechanism capable of waiving these crushing corporate hardware thresholds; without that institutional accreditation in hand, any attempt to launch a lean startup under the entrepreneur stream will meet swift and summary refusal.

This short video discusses the so-called Startup Visa.

The Rest of the Series

Introduction

How We Got Here

Must Have Resources

The Startup Visa

Step 1 – Understand Policy

Step 2 – Do You Have a Visa Problem?

Step 3 – Are You An Employee?

Step 4 – A Substantial Contribution?

Step 5 – 3 Crucial Elements

Step 6 – Have You Got Enough $$?

Step 7 – A Properly Set Up Office

Step 8 – Creating Local Jobs

Step 9 – Economic Sector Advantages?

Step 10 – D-I-Y Application

DOWNLOADS

Presentation Slides

Accredited Startup Programmes in Hong Kong

More Stuff You May Find Useful or Interesting

Statistically, what are the chances of your Hong Kong investment visa being approved?

The anatomy of a ‘slam dunk’ investment visa application -taking just 7 weeks to approval

Why do Hong Kong investment visa applications get denied?

The ImmD are out to refuse – not approve – visa applications (aren’t they?)

10 must have resources for any Hong Kong investment visa application