New Content Daily Sign Up Here

On June 13 I was invited to address the 2013 Monaco Trade Delegation to Hong Kong & China on the question of visas to live and work in Hong Kong.

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

Historically, this foundational relocation guide walked professionals and relocating entrepreneurs through the practical pathways for establishing a long-term commercial presence in Hong Kong via the Investment as Entrepreneur visa (under the General Employment Policy). The Geeza framed the route as an accessible, highly flexible gateway for overseas operators seeking to relocate their lives, families, and commercial activities to the territory. In that era, the relocation narrative was rooted in pragmatic discretion and administrative hospitality: ImmD evaluated relocating founders holistically, balancing professional pedigree, relevant industry track record, and commercial intent against financial commitments. A relocating applicant could comfortably secure permission to enter and establish their business by deploying modest seed savings of a few hundred thousand dollars, taking a flexible serviced office or dedicated co-working desk to manage relocation burn rate, and submitting a business plan promising to phase in local employment over a two- to three-year ramp-up period.

The game has changed from an accommodating relocation gateway into an uncompromising, binary institutional firewall. Today, treating the entrepreneur visa as an agile, low-friction relocation mechanism is a catastrophic miscalculation. Under post-April 2026 administrative practice aligned with TTPS Category A operational substance (~HKD 2.5M enterprise scale), ImmD has completely excised discretionary leniency and narrative business plans from independent relocations. Prospective founders attempting to move to Hong Kong without institutional backing face an unbending compliance audit demanding immediate, non-negotiable corporate hardware on day one: HKD 1.5M–2.0M in deployed corporate bank liquidity sitting in a local bank account, an executed commercial lease for exclusive physical premises (“four walls”) that strictly disqualifies serviced offices, shared hot desks, and co-working spaces entirely, and active Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) payroll contributions for 2–3 local Hong Kong permanent residents.

Consequently, the entire relocation calculus laid out in this historical guide has been inverted. An entrepreneur cannot simply pack up, land on a visitor visa, establish a corporate entity, and expect ImmD to grant entry based on professional experience and phased commercial plans. Attempting to relocate under independent, bootstrapped assumptions results in swift and summary refusal, leaving the founder stranded without lawful status. For relocating founders, Hong Kong’s entry regime now demands either enterprise-grade corporate capitalization or formal, documented admission into an officially accredited government incubator (such as Cyberport, HKSTP, or the Design Incubation Programme)—the sole statutory instrument recognized by ImmD to waive the mandatory day-one capital deployment, dedicated commercial lease, and immediate MPF headcount thresholds. Outside this accredited institutional safe harbor, independent business relocation to Hong Kong is strictly reserved for well-capitalized corporate operations.

The Delegation was hosted by my good friends at Rosemont Hong Kong and I covered in a total of 50 minutes the whole sweep of employment and investment based visas as well as the question of permanent residency here eventually.

I have broken the talk down in 12 bite sized chunks under the following headings:

Introduction

The Last 20 Years

Immigration Policy

The Visitor Visa

Job Offer Based Employment Visa

Business Investment Visa

Business Investment Visa Cash Required & Catch 22

Capital Investment Visa

Visas for Accompanying Family

Why Do Applications Get Denied?

Permanent Residency

Q&A

More Stuff You Might Find Useful or Interesting

Investing cash for residence in Hong Kong

How can  presently unemployed investment bankers reorganise their careers to remain in Hong Kong?

How to apply for a Hong Kong investment visa without any professionals help

Doing the Hong Kong Capital Investment Entrant Scheme on the cheap!

Hong Kong investment visas – the Catch 22 for foreign national entrepreneurs