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  • Hong Kong Employment Visa – The Insider’s Tips

Hong Kong Employment Visa – The Insider’s Tips

2025-08-01
The Basic Hong Kong Employment Visa

The basic Hong Kong employment visa (or work visa) is comprised of 2 subdivided streams

The General Employment Policy (or “GEP”)

This is a quota-free and non-sector specific stream for persons who wish to stay in Hong Kong for employment as professionals. However, this entry arrangement does not apply to Chinese residents of the Mainland and nationals of Afghanistan, Cuba, Laos, Korea (Democratic People's Republic of), Nepal and Vietnam. Note: If a Chinese resident possesses permanent residence overseas or has resided in an overseas country for at least 1 year, he/she can submit the application through the GEP pathway.

Admission Scheme for Mainland Talents and Professionals (or “ASMTP”)

As with the GEP, this is a quota-free and non-sector specific stream for Chinese residents of the Mainland of China who possess special skills, knowledge or experience of value to Hong Kong may apply to come to work under the ASMTP.

Visa Application Technicalities and Tips

The required application forms and documents are about the same for both streams as well as processing time (generally 4 weeks or above). The Hong Kong Immigration Department (HK ImmD) will assess each application on its own merit, based on the personal and professional profile of the applicant and legitimacy and financial strength of the Hong Kong sponsoring company (employer). Here are the criteria for both the applicant and the employer:

Applicant:
  1. No security objection and no known record of serious crime;
  2. Has a confirmed offer of employment with a sponsoring company;
  3. Has a good education background (generally a bachelor’s degree or above); in special circumstances, good technical qualifications, proven professional abilities and achievements supported by documentary evidence may also be considered;
  4. Relevant industry and/or managerial experience in the offered position by the sponsoring company.

Employer:

Has a genuine need for the proffered position.

Generally speaking, it is an absolute benefit if the sponsoring company is sizeable and/or multinational, and able to provide various evidence to present and reflect the company’s current financial, human resources, operations, and business status. Here are some of the supporting documents the company could submit as evidence:
  1. Finance – audit report, management report, bank statements, IRD tax assessments
  2. Business – company profile, brochure, website, business plan
  3. Operation – business registration, certificate of incorporation, annual return, tenancy agreement of physical office*, transaction records (invoices, service agreements)
  4. Human Resource – staff list, MPF statements, local recruitment exercise (specifically targeting the applicant’s post).

Note: A crucial consideration in the local recruitment exercise is to demonstrate that the employer initially attempted to recruit local candidates for the position, rather than transferring or hiring from overseas directly. If local candidates are unable or unavailable to fill the position, then it is “justified” to recruit non-local or overseas applicants. A written justification is usually necessary to explain why the applicant has been chosen and to elaborate on the uniqueness and value that he or she can bring to the Hong Kong company.

*To demonstrate that the sponsoring company is sustainable and committed to long-term business, a physical office is imperative for the employment visa application. Besides the tenancy agreement of the office (or ownership evidence), the HK ImmD might request office photos as supplementary documents to thoroughly show the office workplace in detail. Therefore, a virtual office as a registered business address would not be, under normal circumstances, considered eligible for the Hong Kong work visa application.

If the sponsoring company has successfully obtained an employment or training visa in the past 18 months, the company should provide the visa reference (starting with EEEN for GEP or MTEN for ASMTP) for the Hong Kong Immigration Department’s quick reference to associate with the new work visa application. The HK ImmD has consistently been more lenient towards these applications.

Regarding the number of staff in the sponsoring company, although there is no official benchmark on the ratio between the number of local and expatriate staff, we usually recommend a bare minimum of one-to-one. But to state the obvious, the more local staff the better.

Visa Application Timeline and Tips

The entire work visa application process consists of 3 stages and could stretch up to 8 to 12 weeks:

  1. Garner all the necessary documents and fill out the application forms (2-3 weeks). Copies of documents will suffice for the application; however original documents should be retained and presented to the ImmD upon request.

  2. Employment Visa application submission to ImmD for processing (4-8 weeks). The employment visa application shall be submitted to 7/F [Employment Visa and Visitor Section] for GEP and 6/F [Quality Migrant and Mainlander Resident Section] for ASMTP at the Immigration Tower.

    2.1  Receipt of ImmD acknowledgement letter

    2.2  HK ImmD request for evidence: subject to the HK ImmD officer’s discretion, additional evidence may be requested to support the employment visa application from either the applicant or the sponsoring company

  3. HK ImmD Approval (subject to handling officer’s final decision)

    3.1  Visa fee payment and e-Visa issuance. Note: On the 28th of December 2021, the Hong Kong Immigration Department has implemented the “e-Visa”. For details, please refer to HK ImmD’s website “e-Visa” | Immigration Department (immd.gov.hk)

    3.2  Entry to Hong Kong (visa activation) and HKID card application

A dependent visa can be applied for together with the employment visa for the spouse or children. Depending on the number of dependents, a certain amount of offered salary to the main applicant would be one of the eligibility considerations, as the applicant has to demonstrate their capability to support their dependents financially. The spouse is eligible to work in Hong Kong with their dependent visa.

While the process and documentation required for a Hong Kong employment visa are relatively straightforward and less cumbersome compared to other countries' work visa programs, it is crucial to be aware of various details to mitigate the risk of a refusal. Unfortunately, if a work visa application is refused, a traceable negative record will remain in the Hong Kong Immigration Department’s system for both the applicant and the sponsoring company, which may pose a barrier to future applications.

Other Hong Kong Employment (Work) Visas

The GEP and the ASMTP are just two of the available pathways to come and work in Hong Kong, the long-standing international finance and buzzling hub. You might also qualify under the Top Talent Pass Scheme (TTPS), the Entry for Investment as Entrepreneurs, Quality Migrant Admission Scheme (QMAS), or other programs.

Should you have any queries about the Hong Kong GEP or ASMTP employment visa applications or would like to have your eligibility assessed under other programs, please do not hesitate to contact Kaizen’s Mobility and Migration team for a free consultation with one of our Hong Kong immigration specialists!

Disclaimer

All information in this article is only for the purpose of information sharing, instead of professional suggestion. Kaizen will not assume any responsibility for loss or damage.

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