I’ve been reading about how “easy” it is to set up a company in Hong Kong, however, it sounds too over simplified to me.
I’m thinking of putting up an Internet business start-up (media-related, think of a web publication) in Hong Kong while running it in another country.
I don’t plan on staying in Hong Kong (as that would mean a much higher cost of living) but I do want to run this business from outside HK while occasionally flying in from time to time.
Is this possible? Do I still need a specific Hong Kong visa of sorts to set up that company, register it with the authorities and run it?
Well, basically, can I ask for basic pointers on how a foreigner can put up a small start-up company in Hong Kong and run the company from outside Hong Kong (no intentions on staying there in the long term at the moment.)
Thanks for your time.
ANSWER
Hong Kong has a very well-earned reputation for being a jurisdiction where it’s extremely easy to establish a business, and to use Hong Kong as a launching pad for any kind of commercial activity, whether you are a Hong Kong resident or a foreign national alike, the actual process of establishing a business is very, very straightforward indeed. It’s arguably one of the most convenient and most efficient jurisdictions to launch a new company, and there is no statutory requirement under companies law that a director or a shareholder of a Hong Kong company needs to be a Hong Kong resident; however, to be a company secretary, yes, but not to be a director nor a shareholder.
So the question is begged then is if you do establish a company in Hong Kong as you’re thinking of doing, what are the immigration implications of so doing this? Well, the bottom line is that if you are a shareholder and a director of a Hong Kong company, and your intentions in relation to that Hong Kong company are such that you believe you need to be physically present in Hong Kong for the majority of your time in order to run and direct the affairs of that enterprise, then you will need to have a business investment visa in order to fulfil those practical roles on the ground in Hong Kong, as it were.
The difference between coming here as a visitor on a frequent basis, albeit occasionally, for example, that give you the ability to oversee and manage occasionally the operations of your affairs in Hong Kong, such as opening bank accounts, having the occasional meeting, perhaps coming to solve a few sort of commercial or corporate problems that have presented themselves. That’s all permitted activity under the visitor visa that’s granted to you when you arrive at the airport. However, if your intention to reside, and that’s very important intention to reside has crystallised, then the visitor visa is no longer an appropriate immigration status for you and you need to go through the process of acquiring a business investment visa.
The business investment visa approvability test involves that you need to show that in the context of your commercial endeavours in Hong Kong, through that Hong Kong company, that you can make a substantial contribution to the economy of Hong Kong. Now, I don’t intend to labour the approvability test for the business investment here because I’ve dealt with that on many, many occasions elsewhere on the blog.
But for all practical purposes, if you intend to live outside of Hong Kong and you want to use the convenience of Hong Kong as a jurisdiction for the purposes of launching your business and you want to manage that company remotely, and when you do come back to Hong Kong to oversee the affairs of the business, you’re only going to come for a temporary basis, and your intention is not to live here in support of that business, then you do not need any particular immigration permissions. You can certainly achieve those outcomes quite lawfully as a visitor, once you have arrived at the airport, or indeed, across the land boundaries from China or Macau. So that’s it. It really is as simple as you would read on the Internet and elsewhere. Hong Kong welcomes people like you, that are determined to use Hong Kong as a jurisdiction for your international business activities. So, go for it and welcome.
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
If she gets a divorce I can marry her and get the visa?
Any help or article you point me to read will be a big help.
I have been looking for an answer for a long time and I can’t find it.
Thanks
ANSWER
This is an excellent question and certainly reflects common practise of our times, so I’m really grateful to you for having raised it. The bottom line is that you’re going to struggle to secure any kind of residence status in Hong Kong on the strength of a relationship with your girlfriend for a number of different reasons.
Firstly, if you were in a position to marry this lady, which clearly you’re not because she’s presently married to somebody else, you would have to show to the Immigration Department to their satisfaction that your relationship is a genuine one, and that she would be able to sponsor you by way of financial capacity and also the ability to put a roof over your head.
Now just leaving aside the two challenges associated with food on the table and roof overhead, and we just look at the nature of your relationship with her, it’s very difficult if it’s been an Internet based relationship for you to show to the Immigration Department that, in fact, your relationship is genuine.
So one would assume that you’re going to have to come into Hong Kong on some of their immigration status first, pursue your relationship with your girlfriend, and at the same time look for other ways to remain in Hong Kong during the currency of that relationship maturing as it were, then clearly your girlfriend can finalise the divorce arrangements in respect of her present husband, and through the passage of that time it would become clear on all the facts that even though your relationship started by remote, subsequently the nature of how you spent your time together leading to a legal marriage, can be said to represent good evidence that your relationship is in fact genuine.
So there’s no possibility of the strength of your relationship with her today availing you of any kind of immigration privileges, as regards being resident in Hong Kong.
My second point to make is that there isn’t any permanent visa that you can pursue as such, really because under the basic law the only permanent immigration status that’s available is the right of abode which only accrues after you’ve been continuously a normal resident in Hong Kong for not less than seven years as a resident.
So whilst you may be able to secure an immigration status that’s commensurate with your rationale for being in Hong Kong other than the facts of your relationship with this lady effectively until seven years have accrued, you’re going to be a mere temporary resident in any event. So that kind of deals with the notion of a permanent visa so that you can spend time together.
Finally, then really you need to look to the other immigration state eye that, are available to foreign nationals that want to take up residence in Hong Kong, and you do need to have a rationale for being here, and that rationale then drives the nature of the immigration permissions that you get. I don’t propose that I labour the individual immigration state eye that you might want to consider because I’ll attach them to a couple of links at the bottom of this post so you can review that content there accordingly, albeit to say that the rationales are if you come into study, you need a student visa, if you’re coming to join a legal spouse, you need a dependent visa, which, as we’ve seen, doesn’t apply to you, if you’re coming to take up employment, you need an employment visa, if you’re coming into establish or join an existing business, you need a business investment visa, if, you are of particularly high talent, you could apply under the quality migrant admission scheme, and if you are a man of considerable means, then you could make an application under the capital investment entrance scheme. Of course, you could always come as a visitor and you’ll be granted a certain period of time upon arrival, and, in that regard, that’s probably your early bet to, progress the relationship with your girlfriend in the flesh, as it were.
If I may not be so direct to couch it in those terms but certainly arriving as a visitor, assessing facts on the ground, determining what your longer term immigration options are, is the way forward, I believe. Anyway, I wish you all the very best.
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
How can I get the approval of the Immigration Department to change my Hong Kong employment visa sponsorship without my current employer learning about it?
I have a stable job in Hong Kong and am finalizing an offer with a potential new employer here.
Since there is always a risk of immigration refusal, and I don’t want to lose my current job if the change of employer application does not work out.
How to do this without my current employer knowing?
This is quite a common situation, as you can imagine; the Immigration Department devised a way of dealing with it that’s quite logical. Effectively, you go ahead with your application to change your sponsorship and submit all the normal documents to that end, and then during the currency of the application, the Immigration Department when they’re about to finalise, will typically invite you to submit a copy of a resignation letter that records the fact that you have a last date of employment with your current sponsor.
Then once you submit that to the Immigration Department, they will then issue a letter of approval for your new position. Now, of course, there always is an implied risk in this that you go through the process – the Immigration Department will then issue the request for the resignation letter and then they say no to your application.
Normally though, in all the years that I’ve been doing this, I’ve never seen the Immigration Department take that tack. Therefore, when you receive a request from the Immigration Department for the final date of employment with your existing employer, that’s a tacit signal that your application is about to be approved. So you then clearly, notify your existing employer, hand in your notice, do what you need to do; the documentation that’s generated in pursuit of you terminating your existing employment is then submitted to the Immigration Department to finalise your new change of sponsorship application and then they will positively approve you, in my experience, thereafter.
I hope you found that useful.
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
Work full time in Hong Kong without an employment visa ? This is a bit of a hoary old chestnut this question but a really important one nonetheless so I am grateful to the questioner for posing it.
QUESTION
Hi there,
My Hong Kong employment visa application has just been refused. My company who are sponsoring me applied on my behalf.
I was interviewed in Hong Kong for the position I am now holding, whilst in the USA. I am being paid in the USA, although my wages are being internally invoiced to Hong Kong (the company in the USA being the pay-master).
My question being: can I enter Hong Kong with a visitor visa, as a USA national, and be paid in the same manner though the USA?
Whilst of course waiting for the re-application of the visa to be completed.
Thanks for your advice.
ANSWER
In the final analysis, it doesn’t really matter what the origin of your employment contract is or where you end up getting paid or whatever the financing mechanism is between the various entities in the group as to how you get paid. The issue really relates to you being physically in Hong Kong carrying out employment activities, because it is unlawful to work in Hong Kong without the permission of the Immigration Department, whether paid or unpaid irrespective, as I say, of the source of the payment or where the contract is cited.
So if you are going to wait in Hong Kong until such a time as your reconsideration application has been finalised, then in order to ensure that you don’t break the law, its important that you don’t carry out any employment duties. And the Immigration Department are totally wise to what your intentions are given that they are presently considering an application for you to take up employment; so, ostensibly at face value, is extremely easy for them to understand, what you might be doing here whilst you wait for your employment visa application to be finalised. So, I think it’s really important that you don’t confuse the origin of employment and where you get paid with the fact that taking up employment activities, irrespective of whether you get paid or not, is a breach of your conditions of stay as a visitor.
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
Contact Hong Kong Immigration and make your visa expire? This question comes up often enough for it to warrant another explanation of the arrangements which prevail (current ImmD practice)…
QUESTION
Dear Visa Geeza,
I’m under the impression that when you leave a company that has been sponsoring your employment visa or if you are fired, that as long as your visa hasn’t expired you are allowed to stay in Hong Kong and look for new employment.
Can the company you have just left contact immigration and make your visa expire immediately so you therefore lose the right to stay in Hong Kong and look for work?
ANSWER
This scenario is very much an old chestnut; so, I’d like to take this opportunity to hopefully sort of bury it once and for all time. Effectively, when you secure an employment visa sponsored by a Hong Kong employer, you get two privileges: (1) you get the privilege to do the work – that’s nominated in the employment contract for the sponsor of record, and (2) you also get the privilege to reside – that flows naturally from the privilege to work.
When you stop working for your current employer, your privilege to work ceases, but your privilege to reside continues until your current limit of stay expires, or the Immigration Department remove it from you, whichever is the sooner it is; in fact, the Immigration departments standard practise to allow the current limit of stay to expire where there has been a situation such as yours, and therefore you will be allowed to remain in Hong Kong to carry on your lives until your current limit of stay expires, whereupon you’re expected to leave.
Additionally, it is considered a ‘permitted activity’ under your continuing privilege to reside to look for and indeed interview for work. However, it is not ‘permitted activity’ to take up that employment. Therefore, prior to joining in a new company (sponsor) in Hong Kong, you will have to make an application to change your sponsorship so that the Immigration department can apply the approvability test in the context of the new job offer that you’ve got in hand and will then, once applying that approvability test, determine whether you should be able to take up that employment and in the process re-invoking your privileges to work for that new employer. So that’s how all of that works.
In terms of an ex-employer contacting the Immigration Department and ask that your privilege to reside in Hong Kong be suddenly be immediately revoked, the Immigration Department tend not to get involved in issues associated with reasons as to why an employment might have come to an end.
In other words, an employer does have an obligation to inform the Immigration Department of material change in circumstances as regards their sponsorship charges – and so normally an employer will write to the Immigration Department to advise them of the official date of employment termination (and the Immigration Department just hold that on file and the termination date of your prior employment becomes a matter of your record), but the employer cannot sort of overreaching themselves and saying that you should not be allowed to remain in Hong Kong for reasons such as you having not have done your job well or any of this kind. The Immigration Department won’t take on board any of that, as they just look at the circumstances dispassionately and will just reflect the fact of your cessation of employment with that sponsor, rather than taking any steps towards, in a sense, punishing you for what might have passed during your prior employment, and not making it possible for you to make an honest application to change your sponsorship and continue your lives in Hong Kong on the basis that you’ll be able to get that change of sponsorship application approved.
In a nutshell, the answer to your question is: an employer can’t effectively kick you out of Hong Kong just because they happen to be your employment visa sponsor of record.
I hope you find this useful.
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
My biggest concern is the ability and feasibility for my girlfriend from Mainland China to be able to join me in Hong Kong.
Please can you advise on possible options.
She only graduated just over a year ago, so a Mainland Talent visa, I assume, is definitely out.
Thanks for your time, much appreciated.
ANSWER
As you have identified already the mission of Mainland Talents and Professionals Scheme which provides an opportunity for mainland graduates who are deemed to be talents or professionals to come to Hong Kong to take up employment on the strength of having received a job offer here from a suitable employer.
This visa programme is not going to be suitable for you in your circumstances because of the fact that your partner is a new graduate. So because of the floodgate mechanism that works in Hong Kong, in a sense to keep down the numbers of mainland residents taking up residence here, realistically, having looked through the options available to you, I would suggest that your best possible chance of being able to carry on your joint lives in Hong Kong is for her to get a student visa, potentially go ahead and participate in a master’s degree programme from a Hong Kong university – and it must be a graduate degree in this respect, or she could take an undergraduate programme as well if she wanted to take another bachelor’s degree on board. However, my advice would be to apply to do a master’s degree and thus get a student visa that would then allow you one year together until she graduates. And then at the end of that one year upon graduation, she could apply for a visa under the immigration arrangements for non-local graduates, which effectively gives her a carte blanche visa to go and work for anybody, no questions asked, for another year, and at the end of that year, as long as she’s got and employment with a suitable and credible sponsor, and the compensation that she’s receiving for the work that she does is broadly commensurate with market rates, then she’ll be able to carry on getting extended in Hong Kong under those arrangements on an indefinite basis through to seven years, as long as she’s in full time employment each time that she makes an application to extend her visa.
So, really cutting to the chase, if you want to carry on your lives in Hong Kong, really the only option you’ve got is a student visa, then immigration arrangements for non-local graduates. I hope you found this useful.
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier
This is an important question on the business investment visa for Hong Kong….
Experience suggests that the Hong Kong Immigration Department do tend to look favourably upon such business plans, but the applicant absolutely does not have it all his or her own way, as you will learn in my PodCast answer. (Please note the subject matter of the business in this question is just an ersatz surrogate. I have changed it to ‘fear of flying’ to protect the identity of the service nature and maintain the confidences of the person planning to establish this very unique enterprise.)
QUESTION
“I, an American citizen, have been planning on beginning a stress-management therapy business in Hong Kong for adults who suffer from a fear of flying.
The market is a whole lot bigger than you might imagine given that intrinsically Hong Kong is a small, far flung place that is typically accessed by commercial flights.
Consequently there is hardly anything in Hong Kong and the rest of Asia generally which offers this type of private therapy course, plus post-therapy support, for adults who simply can’t summon up the courage to get into an airplane.
Each intensive therapy course will run over a 3 day period, 12 hours per day. The objectives of the therapy are not just to allow participants to control and overcome their fears, but become incredibly self-confident in the process.
I personally have 8 years of first-hand experience in this very successful therapy. I have been through the same programme as a student, now a graduate, coach and course instructor.
I don’t hold any tertiary qualifications except for a Diploma at college.
My girlfriend, who is also a coach and course instructor on the programme, holds a bachelors degree.
The start-up costs are very low. I envision I can start employing 1 person full-time after 7 months and 2 people in part-time employment after 10 months.
The business is basically a franchise in many respects. The programme is already a worldwide business (the America’s, UK, Australia, South Africa, Europe, NZ, etc) so this will be the Asian branch.
In that case, is there a possibility the owner/inventor of the programme could help fund the start-up in HK or would that relegate myself to an ’employee’ status in the eyes of the HK officials rather than a ‘Business Owner’?
With only US$6,000 in capital available to me at the moment, I believe my best route is to try to register the business over in mainland China first.
I have not looked into the hurdles one must pass to start a business over here (I’m in Guangzhou) but it may be easier than HK.
If I can do it, I have the prospect of having around US$25,000-US$40,000 come April-June next year.
With that money available, and the proof of income making already from the business in mainland China, that may be a better time to apply for the Investment Visa in HK?
I expect business to be operating full throttle after 14-18 months from start up in Hong Kong bringing in around US$40,000 a month from then on.
I also plan to keep studying Mandarin and Cantonese language classes so I can eventually teach the courses in native Chinese language which will increase my market.
Do I have a good chance of obtaining an Investment Visa?”
ANSWER
The fact of the matter is that the Immigration Department do place significance on the nature of an enterprise that’s going to be supporting an application for an investment visa by a foreign national, and if the space that the foreign national is going to be establishing a business in can be said to be advantageous to society more generally than just the contribution that it makes to the economy of Hong Kong, experience tells me that the Immigration Department do factor that in quite heavily.
That having been said, there is still a requirement for the enterprise itself to be credible on every front. So sort of dealing with the general themes that you raise in your question in no particular order, but will all tie properly together at the end.
I believe I’ll start off by saying that the USD6,000 that you’ve got to invest in the business will not work for the Immigration Department. I mean, quite apart from the fact that the visa calls for an active investment, USD6,000 really isn’t sufficient capital to actually get the business off the ground, and the Immigration Department do know that typically any business that is going to be relying upon revenues to be earned to finance itself tend to be a stew by the department.
So you’re going to have to have a decent wedge of capital under your belt to persuade the department that you’ve got the necessary resources to give effect to your plan because, as we know, just because you’ve got a really good business idea doesn’t mean that it’s going to be successful by mere fact that it is an idea and it’s a good idea, you’re going to have to invest money into taking it to market and bringing it to the attention of people who are going to be providing you with the revenues to ensure that it’s successful. So USD6,000 isn’t going to cut the mustard, I’m afraid. On the other hand, if the franchisor took an equity stake and provided a bulk of the capital, that would significantly improve your chances of success. But as a business with you owning a piece of the action, the Immigration Department would apply the investment visa aprovability test to your application, rather than the employment visa provability test, and they are two different animals: one focuses on the individual skills of the applicant – that’s the employment visa probability test, whereas the investment visa aprovability test focuses squarely on what the business is all about and how it can make a substantial contribution to the economy of Hong Kong. But in a strange way, if your franchisor came in and effectively took the bulk of the equity this could be advantageous, because unless you’ve got specific qualifications in the fear of flying space, as it were, I suspect the Immigration Department would conclude that you’re not actually qualified to undertake this work as an employee. Therefore, by going down the investment visa route, it puts the focus on the chances of success as a business, not how qualified you are as an employee; and once you get to a point where you’re really sort of ten to 15% shareholder in a company, the Immigration Department, they’re going to be applying investment visa approvability test here in any event. So that definitely could be a way for you to fast track your plans to come into Hong Kong if you’re prepared to go into business with these people.
In terms of the turnover at USD40,000 a month, I mean, this is a half a million dollars a year and that will definitely pass muster with the Immigration Department. So your revenue numbers are absolutely on the money for an approval in terms of you potentially being able to take your limited capital pool to China first and starting your business there before you bring it to Hong Kong.
Like you, I’m not really in a position to understand what will pass muster in China, whether or not you can get immigration status in the way that you envisage. But I can tell you that if you use China as a proving ground and establish this practise there first, it will definitely be a good idea, because what that will mean is the Immigration Department will be able to access the documentation that shows that it has worked.
In fact, it is working under your stewardship in China and it becomes de risked from the Immigration Department’s perspective, particularly if you’re going to wait until another eight or nine months down the road when you do anticipate that you’re going to come into funds of up to say, USD40,000. That level of financing together with a track record in China, together with your experience in this space, together with the creation of local jobs in the first twelve months, together with a projected half a million USD in revenues turnover in the first twelve months, I believe the Immigration Department would give you an investment visa on that kind of story with those kind of resources in place. So, from that perspective, I think, you’re onto a pretty good opportunity if it all falls into play in the way that you’re hoping it to.
Now, the only other question that you’ve raised that I need to address relates to this question of your girlfriend and who is ostensibly qualified to perform this work.
I think implied in that inclusion in the question is the idea that you’re going to have your girlfriend come and work in the business for you, which, on the basis that she doesn’t have immigration status for Hong Kong, will mean that this business is going to have to serve as an employment visa sponsor for her, which, as a new business, is going to raise a lot of questions with the department having said that if you can fold her into the story in such a way to suggest that the business is going to grow with her contribution, together with your contribution, to the extent that the two of you on the books, as it were, your ability to sell more is going to be increased, and that will then, by extension, allow you to create a bigger business, and the creation of local employment opportunities is going to be improved over and above the numbers that you’ve mentioned in your question. So don’t take it for granted that just because the Immigration Department partner buying into the idea that you will get an investment visa, but it’s assuming that your girlfriend, under the sponsorship of this new vehicle, will be able to get approved accordingly. That’s a separate challenge that will need to be examined in light of where you are in your business at the time that you make your application. It is not impossible, but you certainly need to think about that as a separate application exercise; don’t factor it into your own application mix, as it were.
VisaGeeza.Ai – Making Hong Kong Immigration A Lot Easier