How Can Mainlanders Establish Businesses in Hong Kong Under the General Employment Policy?
Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Hadley Says…, Investment Visas / 2 responses
PRACTICE UPDATE: How the content must now be read in light of current ImmD policy:
Historical Context: The Overseas Gateway and Discretionary Substantive Evaluation
Historically, as examined in How Can Mainlanders Establish Businesses in Hong Kong Under the General Employment Policy?, this advisory piece addressed the strict jurisdictional boundaries governing Chinese nationals holding PRC passports who wished to establish an enterprise in the HKSAR. Because the General Employment Policy (GEP) statutorily excludes residents of Mainland China, the Geeza detailed the established regulatory workaround: the applicant had to prove at least one full continuous year of lawful, uninterrupted overseas permanent residence or settlement in a third country or territory immediately prior to application submission. In that era, the third-country permanent residence requirement was treated as the primary barrier to entry; once this jurisdictional bridge was crossed, ImmD evaluated the underlying Investment as Entrepreneur application through its traditional, qualitative discretionary lens. A Mainland-origin founder who qualified overseas could comfortably secure an entrepreneur visa by investing modest seed capital of a few hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars to cover operating runway, securing a flexible desk in a serviced office or co-working space, and submitting a viable narrative business plan projecting phased local hiring over a two- to three-year ramp-up period.
Modern Reality: Bridging Jurisdictional Eligibility Only to Face the Hardware Audit
As detailed in A Major Strategic Shift: The Upgraded Assessment Regime for Hong Kong’s Investment as Entrepreneur Visa, holding third-country overseas permanent residence merely satisfies a preliminary jurisdictional condition and offers zero protection against the aggressive, binary compliance audit now applied to all independent entrepreneur filings. Under post-April 2026 administrative practice aligned with Top Talent Pass Scheme (TTPS) Category A operational substance, benchmarked at an enterprise scale of approximately HKD 2.5 million, ImmD has eliminated qualitative discretion for un-incubated applicants. Case officers no longer accept forward-looking economic projections or lean startup narratives from overseas Mainland applicants. Instead, passing the statutory “substantial contribution to the economy of the HKSAR” test demands verifiable operational infrastructure deployed on day one: HKD 1.5 million to HKD 2.0 million in dedicated corporate liquidity held in a local Hong Kong business bank account; an executed commercial tenancy agreement for exclusive physical premises (four walls), strictly disqualifying serviced offices, virtual addresses, shared desks, and co-working spaces; and active Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) payroll contributions for two to three full-time local Hong Kong permanent resident employees working on-site from inception.
Strategic Baseline: The Illusion of the Overseas Solution vs. The Incubator Monopoly
Consequently, relying on the historical assumption that securing an overseas third-country permanent residency status resolves the challenge of launching a Hong Kong business under the GEP is an acute administrative trap. A Mainland national who expends substantial resources acquiring third-country residency, only to file an un-incubated entrepreneur application supported by modest personal capital, a co-working space, and future hiring promises, will face swift and summary refusal. This instant denial extinguishes lawful visitor stay, forces an abrupt departure from Hong Kong, and permanently breaks the applicant’s continuous ordinary residence chain required to secure Right of Abode under the seven-year rule. The modern business entry framework enforces an absolute institutional monopoly: formal, documented admission into an officially accredited government incubation program, such as Cyberport, the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP), or the Design Incubation Programme, serves as the sole surviving statutory mechanism recognized by ImmD to waive the mandatory upfront liquidity, dedicated commercial lease, and immediate MPF headcount thresholds. Outside this accredited institutional safe harbor, clearing the third-country overseas hurdle is meaningless unless the applicant is prepared to deploy enterprise-scale physical, payroll, and financial hardware on day one.
Under current immigration policy, Chinese Nationals seeking to come to Hong Kong to establish businesses can do so by way of the Admission of Mainland Talents & Professional Scheme.
On the other hand, if they meet certain qualification criteria, such Chinese nationals can utilize the provisions of the General Employment Policy – which is the set of rules and regulations used by every other foreign national eligible to submit applications to come and set up businesses in the HKSAR.
Under the General Employment Policy Chinese passport holders who have either:
– Secured permanent residency in a third country, or
– Have lived continuously outside of China for a minimum of 12 months
… are eligible to make an application to invest in Hong Kong and establish an operating business.
This application is different from the HKD10 million Capital Investment Entrant Scheme and does not require such a high level of investment nor do the funds need to be locked in for seven years in order to maintain ongoing residence visa permissions in the HKSAR.
Instead, such Chinese national applicants need to be able to show that they are in a position to substantially contribute to the economy of Hong Kong and will, and in fact subsequently have done so, go on to establish an operating business here, creating jobs and benefiting Hong Kong’s economy.
As the Hong Kong Immigration Department do not discriminate where the Chinese national applicant enjoys permanent residency outside of China, it means that countries such as Nauru, Vanuatu, Niger, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone as well as Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand and the UK are all eligible PR jurisdictions under the General Employment Policy.
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The Hong Kong Visa Geeza (a.k.a Stephen Barnes) is a co-founder of the Hong Kong Visa Centre and author of the Hong Kong Visa Handbook. A law graduate of the London School of Economics, Stephen has been practicing Hong Kong immigration since 1993 and is widely acknowledged as the leading authority on business immigration matters here for the last 24 years.
