The Hong Kong Immigration Department Are Out to Deny – Not Approve – Visa Applications (Aren’t They?)
Posted by The Visa Geeza / in Employment Visas, Family Visas, Hadley Says…, Investment Visas, Long Stay & PR, Visitor Visas / 39 responses
Are The Hong Kong Immigration Department Are Out to Deny Rather Than Approve Visa Applications?
It is often said that the Hong Kong Immigration Department are out to refuse visa applications rather than approve them.
Updated October 2023 the October 2026
PRACTICE UPDATE: How the content must now be read in light of current ImmD policy regarding Entrepreneur visas:
Historically, this commentary dismantled the prevailing expat paranoia that the Hong Kong Immigration Department operates with an inherent bias to deny rather than approve applications. The Geeza reassured anxious applicants that ImmD was fundamentally an enabling, administrative facilitator whose statutory remit under Section 11 was to attract talent, foster business, and grant visas wherever an applicant met the basic criteria in good faith. Rather than looking for excuses to reject files, case officers used requests for information (RFIs) collaboratively, offering applicants multiple chances to refine their narratives, explain thin capital positions, or adjust modest business plans to get across the line.
The game has changed from an enabling administrative mindset into a cold, mechanical audit where disqualification is the default outcome for under-resourced files. While officers may still harbor no personal malice toward applicants, the post-April 2026 procedural alignment with TTPS Category A substance (~HKD 2.5M enterprise scale) has turned adjudication into an unforgiving, binary checklist. If a prospective entrepreneur fails to present HKD 1.5M–2.0M in deployed corporate bank liquidity, an executed lease for exclusive physical premises (“four walls”), and active MPF payroll for 2–3 local permanent residents, the file is not gently coached toward approvability—it is promptly routed to refusal. ImmD may not be “out to deny” applicants out of spite, but under the new regime, any file lacking this mandatory institutional hardware is dead on arrival.
Hong Kong Immigration Department Are Out to Deny? Not True!
Nothing could be further from the truth.
ImmDÂ have a huge job of work administering the population records and immigration status needs of our fine city and it is churlish to anticipate that they see their mission to thwart the desires of foreign nationals seeking to take up residence, for whatever reason, in the HKSAR.
The bottom line is that if you genuinely qualify for immigration status you are seeking, the Immigration Department will grant it to you.
This is especially the case now in 2023 as we seek to solve our present talent crisis.
But remember, the onus is on you, the applicant, to have all your application ducks lined up a row, your documents in good order and your dealings with the Department timely and efficient.
Somewhere among the 200,000 entry visas, 52,000 visitor visas (not issued at the airport or boundaries) and the more than 250,000 visit permit applications received from Taiwanese residents annually, falls your Hong Kong visa application!
Each year, from out of this melee emerges 25,000 employment visa approvals, 5,000 non-local graduates visas, 200-300 business investment visa approvals, 18,000 family visa approvals and 7,500 permits issued under the Mainland Talents and Professionals Scheme.
Hong Kong Immigration Department Are Out to Deny? 125,000 Approvals Since TTPS Launch 4 Years Ago!
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Applications Received: ~155,000+
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Applications Approved: ~125,000+
Key Trajectory & Milestones
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By end of 2023: ImmD received approximately 62,800 applications, approving roughly 50,000.
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By end of 2024: Total received applications crossed 116,000, with approvals exceeding 92,000 (bringing over 75,000 arrivals and their dependents into the territory).
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By end of 2025 / entering 2026: Cumulative submissions surpassed 150,000, with approvals crossing the 120,000 threshold (with roughly 105,000 approved pass holders having already entered and established residency).
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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.
PP
Hi there I was approved for a working visa in Feb, because of covid19 my employer in hong Kong wrote to immigration to ask to hold visa open until September 20. My employer didn’t think to tell me this and I was under the impression, my job was no longer there. So I found a new sponsor and was offered another contract.
I was informed that it would be a simple process of company change. Well new application went in 4 weeks ago now, so with the new application number I check every day. It says “in progress” pfftt unbelievably when I put in my 1st application number in it says approved. Both companies are from the same industry and have actually worked together to sort out new application i dont understand the logic ?
The Visa Geeza
2 separate file reference numbers. As the first approval was never activated the application was never formally completed. Your new approval supersedes the old one.
Carlo
I got new visa from my second sponsor wife but before I have already 5 years from my first wife..I would like to aske if my visa will continue to 7 years or back to the beginning ?
The Visa Geeza
It depends if there was a break in dependant visas between spouses. If not then no problem. If yes, then you likely lost your continuity of ordinary residence for the first marriage.
Jena
I was convicted of theft, 6 days imprisonment. i am a domestic helper, do i still have a chance to apply again for visa?
The Visa Geeza
Nope. Sorry.
Wani
My husband is Pakistani refugee in hk. We marry in 2013-2019 till now. He got last visa of hk resident last year in October. He didn’t care me as a wife and just care his permanent. I want to cancel his hkID not need to be permanent and I don’t want to be his sponsor anymore. I will write a letter to immigration about it. How I do and where I can pass the letter to the immigration head??
The Visa Geeza
Just write to ImmD residents section 5/F Immigration Tower attention Senior Immigration Officer.
Greg Basham
Should I be applying for new ID card now that I’m Permanent Resident although I’m not sure if or when I might return there to work and live?
In October 2015 I moved back to Canada from Hong Kong the same day I was granted Permanent Resident status.
The Immigration Officer knew I was on my way to the airport and told me to give the officer there my letter that says I have Permanent Residence status and that I must retain my current ID card – but not use it electronically. At the Airport the Officer had to call the Supervisor and he confirmed that she not use my card.
When I return to Hong Kong in Hong Kong I’ll show the letter with my passport and of course the HKID as they will know when they scan my same passport that it links to a resident.
No one in Hong Kong gives the kind of expert advice you give as it was extremely helpful during my application for Permanent Resident status. You consistently proved that you know the processes at an expert level.
Thank you!
The Visa Geeza
Hi Greg
You can apply for your PHKID card anytime you are next in Hong Kong so long as it is within the three years since you last left. Show ImmD the documents you have when you arrive at the airport with your passport and they will admit you unconditionally. Then go to ImmD tower 8 floor and apply for your smartID card.
Cheers
Stephen