Can I Come To Hong Kong As A Visitor Find A Job Then Change To An Employment Visa?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Visitor Visas, Your Question Answered / 2 responses

Employment Visa From A Visitor Visa?

Can You Swap One For The Other In Hong Kong Without Leaving First?

 

Employment visa? Down the years a great many foreign nationals arrive in Hong Kong as visitors ‘on spec’ and are able to successfully change their immigration status in order for them to take up employment when a job offer manifests itself here. This question discusses this very issue and provides the answer that a lot of people are asking about.

 

 

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

While primarily exploring visitor status adjustments, this article’s historical comparison between securing an employer-sponsor versus pivoting to incorporate one’s own startup must be updated to dismantle the “backup startup” strategy. Historically, visitors who failed to find corporate employment would often incorporate a private company and apply for an investment visa as a fallback. Under current assessment rules, pivoting to an entrepreneur application as an in-country visitor on limited savings represents an immediate path to refusal. Case officers now demand that newly incorporated founder vehicles demonstrate HKD 1.5M–2.0M in deployed corporate banking capital, dedicated physical premises, and 2 to 3 local permanent residents already under contract, making an opportunistic in-country pivot unviable without institutional backing.

 

QUESTION

“Hi Stephen, 

Thanks for getting back to me on Twitter (@xxxxxx).

Basically, my partner has been offered a teaching post, to commence mid-August 2012, so she should be able to get her visa fine.

We are engaged but weren’t planning on getting married any time soon.

I am currently a Senior HR Manager in the US and would like to pick up the same job in Hong Kong, however I will have to enter on a visitors visa and I am worried about being seen looking for recruitment as I know they don’t like it.

If I do this, what happens if I get a job offer?

Can I leave to Macau to then come back into the country?”

ANSWER

This question really gets to the heart of whether or not it’s possible to come to Hong Kong as a visitor and then change your status to employment in regard to a job offer that may manifest itself while you find yourself in Hong Kong as a visitor.

Today the Hong Kong the system works such that you can be in Hong Kong as a visitor and you can make an application for an entry visa to take up employment or you can be outside of Hong Kong and make an application for an entry visa to take up employment.

Whether you’re inside or outside of Hong Kong these days in a practical sense particularly from say Europe or North America or Australia for that matter, it doesn’t really matter where you are. The application consideration criteria are exactly the same irrespective of the pathway that you adopt to getting your application processed.

As regards you coming to Hong Kong as a visitor, specifically to look for work, even though you are going to be joining your fiancée, it is permitted activity to be in Hong Kong and look for employment indeed to interview for employment, although in a very practical sense I would suggest that as you come into Hong Kong for the first time across the border, if the examining officer asks you what’s your purpose for coming to Hong Kong I wouldn’t specifically state that you’re coming to look for employment. Just say that you’re coming to visit your fiancée who’s working in Hong Kong or is a resident of Hong Kong.

And in fact, if we were to look back through our files down the years I think it’s fair to say that probably 70% of all employment visas tend to be applied for on the basis of an adjustment in status from visitor to employment. So, when you state that, the Immigration Department don’t like people coming to look for jobs as such it’s not so much that they don’t like it, it’s they have a preferred methodology of submitting an application for an employment visa – they prefer that you do it from outside of Hong Kong but the practical reality is that a lot of people find themselves in Hong Kong, as I say, when a job offer manifests themselves itself. So, they do entertain such applications and are prepared to grant approvals as long as the approvability test for the particular application has been satisfied. So, I think that probably takes care of the question part that relates to adjusting your status to an employment visa.

Just one final note that given that you are fiancées without a fixed date for marriage as of yet, if you can show that you have a prior cohabitation before coming to Hong Kong and that your cohabitation continues after you’ve come to Hong Kong it is possible for you to get a prolonged visitor visa, which will allow you to live together with your partner but of course that doesn’t grant you permission to work. You’d still have to go through the process of submitting an application for a separate employment visa adjusting his status from visitor through to employment accordingly which takes you back to where you were at the beginning of this question.

Okay, so I hope that helps. Bye for now.

 

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7 Years Residence in Hong Kong Under the Capital Investment Entrant Scheme – What Permanent Residency Options Exist?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Investment Visas, Long Stay & PR, Your Question Answered / No responses

PRACTICE UPDATE 2026

How the Content Must Now Be Read in Light of the New CIES Policy

Our foundational analysis of the Year 7 milestone under the legacy Capital Investment Entrant Scheme detailed the strategic distinction between the Right of Abode (RoA) and Unconditional Stay (UCS) under the Immigration Ordinance (Cap. 115). That legal baseline remains operative today, but the compliance environment and capital exit mechanics have been fundamentally upgraded under the New Capital Investment Entrant Scheme rules.

Under the modern framework, achieving either permanent status is no longer an ad-hoc immigration review. Because portfolio adherence is audited annually by InvestHK’s New CIES Office through certified intermediaries, the evidentiary foundation at Year 7 is already established. For globally mobile investors who cannot satisfy the continuous physical presence test under Section 2(4) of the Ordinance, Unconditional Stay continues to serve as an unconditioned statutory safety net.

As Stephen Barnes, the Hong Kong Visa Geeza, highlights in our definitive New CIES Practice Direction:

“The critical structural advantage of the New CIES over all other entry channels remains the Year 7 exit. Whether securing the Right of Abode or electing for Unconditional Stay, the endorsement of permanent status formally extinguishes all investment covenants, granting the entrant indefinite leave to remain while allowing the immediate liquidation and repatriation of the entire HK$30 million portfolio.”

 

The Capital Investment Entrant Scheme has been a god send for reasonably well off people who have always fancied the idea of residence in Hong Kong but who were reluctant to start an operating business to be able to accomplish this. The following question raises the issue of how to disentangle yourself from the visa, releasing your CIES investment funds (either HKD6.5 or 10 million depending on when you were approved) at the end of your 7th year holding that status.

QUESTION

“Hi Visa Geeza, my family has invested with HK under the CIES and have been granted Identity Cards thereafter. (Pls note that we are not employed nor running a business in HK – but outside – so we are not considered as expats.) This year marks our 7th year and we would like to apply for permanent residency. We know that applicants under CIES need not to stay in Hong Kong as much as those who are applying simply for permanent residency. Could you tell us where we can find the eligibility requirement specifics for applicants from the CIES particularly for the required number of days stay in Hong Kong for the last 7 years?  Thank you.”

ANSWER

This is a really interesting question because ostensibly the visa upon arrival privileges afforded to more than one hundred and eighty different nationalities, are such that you have to present yourself as a bona fide A visitor, in order to qualify for admission under these arrangements.

It then begs the question as to what is permitted activity under the visitor visa category. The practical experience suggests that coming to Hong Kong to look for work is perfectly lawful, although if you were to indicate that this is your intention when you’re at the border, the officer may misconstrue what your real motivations are and may conclude that actually whilst you think that you’re just looking for work, he may conclude that you are going to be engaging in work, so you increase your risk profiles of bona fide A visitor when you present yourself, if you nominate to the examining officer what is bringing you to Hong Kong at this point in time.

So extensively if you’re going to be entering or exiting Hong Kong to spend time with your partner, who does have an employment visa, then you just explain that that is the purpose of your visit and I would stay silent as to your intentions to look for and ultimately secure work in Hong Kong and then adjust your status to get an employment visa.

Now in terms of whether it’s possible to extend your visa base on the desire to find work in Hong Kong, well, I’ll just refer you to what I mentioned earlier. If you’re coming as a visitor and have a good reason to be here as a visitor and don’t text back the immigration department to support your desire to extend your stay as a visitor because you’re pursuing the local job market in anticipation of finding a position subsequently, that would lead you to make an employment visa application. So keep the two very discreet and very separate.

Having said all that, primarily the vast majority of cases that we do for employment or an investment visas are done on what is effectively a change of status application basis where you find yourself in Hong Kong, a job as a visitor, a job often manifests itself and you then make an application to adjust your status from visitor to employment and once that process has played itself out, you’ll be granted an employment visa label but you would then have to make an exit from Hong Kong, Macau [02:44] relinquishing your visitor visa status as you make the exit and place the employment visa over on a clean page in your passport and turn right around and come straight back into Hong Kong and entering with your visitor visa and the immigration officer will activate you at the point of entering Hong Kong.

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Is There Such a Thing as an ‘Occupations in Demand’ List for a Hong Kong QMAS Application?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Special Programmes, Your Question Answered / 2 responses

How the Content Must Now Be Read in Light of the Updated QMAS (Quality Migrant Admission Scheme) Policy

In the legacy practitioner analysis found in Is There Such a Thing as an ‘Occupations in Demand’ List for a Hong Kong QMAS Application?, the substantive discussion examines whether Hong Kong maintained a statutory skilled shortage list akin to points-based immigration frameworks in Australia, Canada, or the UK. According to the Hong Kong Visa Geeza, Stephen Barnes, applicants routinely harbored the misconception that qualifying under QMAS required working in a government-designated shortage profession, or alternatively, that general corporate roles like sales, marketing, or general management were permanently excluded. The original advice clarified that QMAS historically operated on broad qualitative discretion without a compulsory occupation list, and that even after the formal introduction of the Hong Kong Talent List, inclusion merely offered an optional 30-point scoring bonus within the legacy 245-point General Points Test. However, Barnes consistently cautioned that attempting to claim Talent List status demanded meeting demanding academic and technical specifications, warning that matching a nominal job title on paper without verifiable specialist achievements provided zero assurance of securing bonus points from the Advisory Committee.

Today, that historical guidance must be re-evaluated through the definitive legal standards codified in our PRACTICE UPDATE: The Quality Migrant Admission Scheme Definitively Stated 2026-27 by Stephen D Barnes, which documents the complete elimination of numerical points scoring and the 30-point Talent List bonus following the sweeping late 2024 overhaul. As stated by the Hong Kong Visa Geeza, Stephen Barnes, occupational demand is no longer evaluated as an optional numerical booster, but has been absorbed directly into the 12 objective, binary assessment criteria—most notably Criterion 9, which requires at least 3 years of specialist experience in designated Key Sectors such as Innovation & Technology, Financial Technology, and International Trade. Generalist vocations can no longer rely on accumulating marginal points across soft scoring categories to reach an arbitrary pass mark; applicants must satisfy at least 6 out of the 12 criteria simply to qualify for selection by the Ministerial Assessment Panel. Furthermore, the 2026–27 update underscores that initial selection is merely the entry ticket, as entrants face rigorous evidentiary vetting at the Year 3 renewal stage under the 3+3+2 extension framework to prove genuine tax-paying employment or active commercial operations in the HKSAR.

 

 

The Quality Migrant Admission Scheme is very often compared with other immigration programmes in the quality of life jurisdictions such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, USA and the UK. One essential difference, however, is that there is no such thing as an Occupations in Demand list (where visa availability is directly tied to the specific occupation of the applicant). Instead, the Hong Kong Immigration Department ask you to nominate which sector of the economy you believe you would make the best contribution to as a quality migrant and after that it’s just the luck of the draw!

QUESTION

“I am from India and have done a BA and an MBA (Sales & Marketing). Currently I am working as Sales Manager in a telecommunication company. I just wanted to confirm if my profession is eligible under the QMAS points scheme for Hong Kong.”

ANSWER

One thing that I’ve always found peculiar about the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme is how the Immigration Department do not ascribe any particular value to professions per se, that is, you know, the profession of the individual applicant, but rather they look to the various segments of Hong Kong’s economy and then lay out various sectors in the economy, being fifteen of them, which includes the nominated others and the guidance and those sectors are then illustrated by way of example with various other subsectors, if you will, of those principle sectors.

So you as a Sales and Marketing professional with an M.B.A under your belt is actually enough and you keep looking to see where you fit into that particular matrix but actually you don’t fit into any particular matrix. Because you’re presently working in a Telecommunications Company, arguably, you fall under Sector ten – Information Technology and Telecommunications and then you would dovetail your specific skill sets in relations to Business Development within that sector.

So, consequently, there is no “professions in demand” or “occupations in demand” list like there is for example, in New Zealand and Australia, because of the way that those programs, those countries’ programs are structured. In Hong Kong, it’s not structured that way.

So what you’ve got to do is choose the sector where you think you best fit and allow your experience, qualifications and overall professional credentials to speak for themselves within that industry sector. And hopefully, you’ll pass muster and get approved.

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How To Start A Business In Hong Kong As A Foreigner – Three Elements To Approval

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Investment Visas, Musing / 1 response

I recently gave a talk at Campfire Collaborative Space on the topic of how to start a business in Hong Kong as a foreigner, which in essence is the journey of getting a Business Investment Visa as an Entrepreneur after the implementation of the Enhancement Measures in 2015 and the Audit Commission Report Number 66 from 2016.

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

Historically, this presentation segment outlined the foundational “three elements to approval”—the famous three legs of the approvability stool that underpinned every successful investment as entrepreneur visa. The Geeza explained that ImmD evaluated whether a venture would make a substantial contribution to Hong Kong by examining three interconnected themes: commercial sustainability, capital resources, and local employment creation. In practice, the approvability stool was remarkably elastic: an applicant did not need massive funding or immediate corporate scale. Case officers took a holistic, qualitative view, regularly approving lean consultancies and boutique agencies that brought modest seed capital of a few hundred thousand dollars, operated out of serviced offices or co-working desks, and presented a credible narrative showing how the business would gradually achieve profitability and hire local staff over a two- to three-year horizon.

The game has changed from a flexible, qualitative stool into an unyielding, high-threshold institutional audit. ImmD no longer balances these three elements through narrative forecasts or early-stage commercial leeway. Under post-April 2026 administrative practice aligned with TTPS Category A operational substance (~HKD 2.5M enterprise scale), all three legs have been replaced by rigid, empirical prerequisites that must exist on day one. Financial adequacy now strictly means HKD 1.5M–2.0M in deployed corporate bank liquidity; commercial presence strictly requires an executed commercial lease for exclusive physical premises (“four walls”), permanently disqualifying serviced desks; and local contribution strictly demands active MPF payroll contributions for 2–3 local Hong Kong permanent residents. Unless a venture has gained admission into an accredited government incubator (such as Cyberport or HKSTP), relying on the historic approvability stool to justify a lean or phased startup will result in swift and summary refusal.

In this segment I talk about the 3 themes that present themselves in all approved Business Investment Visas as an Entrepreneur – the 3 Legs of the Approvability Stool.

The Rest of the Talk

Introduction

How We Got Here

Must Have Resources

The Startup Visa

Business Investment As An Entrepreneur (Visa)

Three Elements To Approval

Have You Got Enough Money?

Is Your Business Sustainable?

A Properly Set Up Office

How About Local Jobs?

Economic Sector Advantages

Hiring Yourself

D-I-Y Application

 

Important Materials Referenced In The Presentation

10 Must-Have Resources for Any Hong Kong Investment Visa Application

Accredited Startup Programmes in Hong Kong

Hong Kong Visa Handbook Free Kits

Your Questions Answered

 

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How To Start A Business In Hong Kong As A Foreigner – Business Investment As An Entrepreneur (Visa)

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I recently gave a talk at Campfire Collaborative Space on the topic of how to start a business in Hong Kong as a foreigner, which in essence is the journey of getting a Business Investment Visa as an Entrepreneur after the implementation of the Enhancement Measures in 2015 and the Audit Commission Report Number 66 from 2016.

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

In this segment I discuss the immigration application and what you need to do to prove to the Immigration Department that you are worthy of this visa.

The Rest of the Talk

Introduction

How We Got Here

Must Have Resources

The Startup Visa

Business Investment As An Entrepreneur (Visa)

Three Elements To Approval

Have You Got Enough Money?

Is Your Business Sustainable?

A Properly Set Up Office

How About Local Jobs?

Economic Sector Advantages

Hiring Yourself

D-I-Y Application

 

Important Materials Referenced In The Presentation

10 Must-Have Resources for Any Hong Kong Investment Visa Application

Accredited Startup Programmes in Hong Kong

Hong Kong Visa Handbook Free Kits

Your Questions Answered

 

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How To Start A Business In Hong Kong As A Foreigner – The Startup Visa

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Investment Visas, Musing / 2 responses

I recently gave a talk at Campfire Collaborative Space on the topic of how to start a business in Hong Kong as a foreigner, which in essence is the journey of getting a Business Investment Visa as an Entrepreneur after the implementation of the Enhancement Measures in 2015 and the Audit Commission Report Number 66 from 2016.

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

Historically, this presentation segment examined the so-called “Startup Visa”—the enhancement measures introduced by the Hong Kong government to facilitate entrepreneur visas for founders admitted into recognized incubation and accelerator programs. The Geeza framed this pathway as a welcome, formal endorsement of the innovation ecosystem, contrasting it with the mainstream entrepreneur route. However, the Geeza noted that while government accreditation offered a helpful statutory nod, the mainstream entrepreneur visa historically remained so flexible and accessible that founders rarely needed to jump through the administrative hoops of an official incubator just to secure immigration approval; a standard, bootstrapped commercial venture with modest seed capital, serviced office space, and a credible business plan could easily win approval on its own merits.

The game has changed from an optional fast-track into the only remaining lifeline for early-stage and seed-level founders. Following the post-April 2026 administrative shift, the mainstream investment as entrepreneur pathway has hardened into a rigid corporate audit aligned with TTPS Category A operational substance (~HKD 2.5M enterprise scale), strictly requiring HKD 1.5M–2.0M in deployed corporate bank liquidity, an executed commercial lease for exclusive physical premises (“four walls”), and active MPF payroll for 2–3 local permanent residents. Consequently, admission into an officially accredited government incubator (such as Cyberport, HKSTP, or Design Incubation Programme) is no longer merely an alternative—it is the sole viable mechanism under which ImmD will waive these brutal corporate hardware requirements. Without verified endorsement from an accredited government incubation program, an uncapitalized startup filing under the entrepreneur stream will face swift and summary refusal.

In this segment I explain what a Startup Visa is and how it is actually not a visa at all.

The Rest of the Talk

Introduction

How We Got Here

Must Have Resources

The Startup Visa

Business Investment As An Entrepreneur (Visa)

Three Elements To Approval

Have You Got Enough Money?

Is Your Business Sustainable?

A Properly Set Up Office

How About Local Jobs?

Economic Sector Advantages

Hiring Yourself

D-I-Y Application

 

Important Materials Referenced In The Presentation

10 Must-Have Resources for Any Hong Kong Investment Visa Application

Accredited Startup Programmes in Hong Kong

Hong Kong Visa Handbook Free Kits

Your Questions Answered

 

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What Happens to Your Hong Kong Right of Abode if, as a UK Citizen, You Choose to Naturalise as a Taiwanese National?

Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Long Stay & PR, Your Question Answered / No responses

One of the really neat things about running this Blog, is the incredibly varied type of Hong Kong visa and immigration questions I receive. Like this one today, which is a definite first for me!

QUESTION

Hello, I am a white British person considering applying for Taiwanese Citizenship.

I also have PR in Hong Kong. If I got a Taiwanese passport does the Hong Kong government consider me to now be ‘Chinese’ or do they not respect the authority of the Taiwanese government to issue such a status?

Eg, If I leave Hong Kong for 36 months will I keep PR or lose it?

ANSWER

This is an absolutely fascinating question and I’m really grateful for you, for asking it. But I do have to preface what about I’m about to say with the caveat in the final analysis.

This boils down to Chinese Nationality Law and whilst I have a certain amount of experience of Chinese Nationality Law as it relates to Foreign Nationals in the context of permanent residency in Hong Kong and securing a Right of Abode application. Effectively, anything to do with Taiwanese Nationals vis-à-vis the Chinese Nationality are both questions that are best directed to a Chinese Immigration expert and not me.

But having said that, I’m going to give you a stab at an answer and then you can sort of, you know, direkt your thinking from that. Ultimately, this is about the recognition of Taiwanese Citizenship by the Hong Kong Immigration Department, which as you can appreciate effectively protects the mainland policy.

Therefore, in the final analysis, we’re going to have to understand what will happen to you, if you are continuously absent from Hong Kong for a period of more than three years as a permanent resident of Hong Kong and will you lose your Right of Abode or will you be able to maintain your Right of Abode because as you have asked you’ve been deemed a Chinese citizen. Well, in the final analysis, what you are going to have to do is to argue the Chinese.

So, let’s assume that you’ve now been absent from Hong Kong for more than three years. You’ve naturalized as a Taiwanese citizen and you’ve maintained your British nationality at that time. So, ultimately you would have to state that your Taiwanese Nationality is able of being converted ??? of law into Chinese citizenship and thereupon the application of Chinese Nationality knowing the circumstances would deem you to be Chinese.

But the other problem is that assuming you are still a British National at the time that this happens, there is a natural obstacle to you becoming Chinese National because, in order to secure a Chinese Nationality you have to devoid, divest yourself of your British Nationality.

So assuming that you are a Taiwanese National and you have divested yourself of your British Citizenship and you then effectively lay claim to Chinese Nationality knowing your circumstances, by operation of Chinese Nationality Law vis-à-vis how they deem Taiwanese citizens in relation to Chinese Nationality Law on the basis that you find yourself with pure Chinese Nationality, I mean, maybe I don’t know but it’s fair to say that the Hong Kong Immigration Department would deem you to be Chinese.

But there are a lot of questions that arise from your situation both procedurally and also in terms of Law and also in terms of the timing and the sequence of these events. My gut feeling effectively tells me that if you maintain your British Nationality, I think any claim to Chinese Nationality would fail. So your ability to keep your Right of Abode if you’re absent from Hong Kong for more than three years would also fail as well and you’d be downgraded to ???.

But again, this is by no means my expertise and I suggest that you take advice from a Chinese Nationality Lawyer.

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