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The Hong Kong Immigration Department expect that, as part of any application for an investment visa, the entrepreneur will naturally establish a home for his or her business out of which the enterprise will operate.

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

Historically, this guidance addressed the perennial dilemma of securing office space before visa approval. The Geeza reassuringly advised that ImmD exercised pragmatic flexibility: founders did not need to commit to expensive, long-term commercial leases upfront. Instead, an applicant could legitimately launch using serviced business centres, hot desks, co-working memberships, or even a home-office address during the initial startup phase, provided they presented a credible narrative explaining that dedicated physical premises would be leased once immigration clearance was secured and commercial trading gained traction.

The game has changed from a regime of progressive, flexible accommodation into a binary physical gate that summarily rejects shared spaces. Under modern standards aligned with TTPS Category A substance, temporary arrangements are fatal to an application. ImmD now strictly mandates an executed commercial tenancy granting exclusive physical possession—literal “four walls”—supported by stamped leases, utility records, and dedicated corporate signage before approval. Attempting to anchor an entrepreneur application on a co-working desk or virtual address, without the shield of an accredited government incubation scheme like Cyberport or HKSTP, ensures swift, unceremonious refusal.

Whilst it often makes financial sense for a brand new start up enterprise to initially work from the spare bedroom or kitchen at home, this arrangement, unfortunately, will not pass muster with Wanchai’s Finest down in Immigration Tower.

Where, for example, are the new employees going to report to work each day? Not from your home address, that’s for sure, not so long as the Immigration Department have a say in your plans, it won’t.

Instead, investment visas which get approved these days either:

–          Open their own offices right from the very get go, or

–          Establish a virtual office initially, and then grow into fully serviced offices subsequently, or

–          Take a formal agreement to share another party’s office, often with an aligned business or commercial partner

If you take the latter route, however, it is important that the other party has a formal stamped tenancy agreement to prove that the arrangements are genuine.

Oh, and it helps to submit photographs of your office premises as part of your application bundle.

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