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On August 11, 2015 I gave a presentation discussing the so-called Hong Kong Startup visa that everyone is getting so excited about.

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

Historically, this candid critique tackled whether the government-backed “start-up visa” enhancement scheme—geared toward founders admitted into state-supported incubation programs—was truly the silver bullet it was marketed to be for self-directed, D-I-Y applicants. The Geeza stripped away the official PR sheen, cautioning foreign founders that the scheme was often oversold: clearing the rigid selection panels, competitive vetting, and administrative milestones of government programs like Cyberport or HKSTP could be far more cumbersome than navigating standard immigration processing. In that era, foreign entrepreneurs were frequently advised that the incubation route was unnecessary; an articulate founder acting on their own could readily bypass institutional incubators altogether and win an entrepreneur visa under standard administrative discretion with modest seed capital of a few hundred thousand dollars, a flexible serviced office desk, and a forward-looking promise to phase in local hiring over two to three years.

The game has changed from an overhyped, optional administrative path into the only viable gateway left for early-stage and seed-stage founders. ImmD has completely shut down the mainstream entrepreneur route for lean, un-incubated ventures. Under post-April 2026 administrative practice aligned with TTPS Category A operational substance (~HKD 2.5M enterprise scale), applying independently without incubator backing demands immediate, non-negotiable corporate hardware audited on day one: HKD 1.5M–2.0M in deployed corporate bank liquidity, an executed commercial lease for exclusive physical premises (“four walls”) disqualifying serviced and co-working desks entirely, and active Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) payroll contributions for 2–3 local Hong Kong permanent residents. Far from being a bureaucratic indulgence to avoid, formal admission into an officially accredited government incubator (such as Cyberport or HKSTP) is now the sole statutory instrument capable of waiving these empirical corporate thresholds; attempting to D-I-Y an early-stage startup independently without this institutional backing will result in swift and summary refusal.

In this final segment at o Connect in Sheung Wan, I discuss how you go about applying for and getting approved a Startup Visa without paying for any professional help!

The Rest of the Series

1 – Introduction

2 – Policy

3 – Got A Visa Problem?

4 – Just Visiting

5 –  Job Offer Work Visa

6 – Entrepreneur Visa

7 – Getting One

8 – Catch 22

9 – Loved Ones

10 – Ticking the Box

11 – D-I-Y Startup Visa

GET STARTED ON YOUR APPLICATION HERE

You can download the slides from this presentation along with a 13 page Accelerator programme crib sheet here.