Hong Kong Policy Address: new visa to attract talent and firms amid brain drain

If you attend a gathering of friends these days, chances are in the middle of it, a friend will announce they are leaving their hometown soon, or somebody is not showing up because they already left some months ago. Or, the gathering is precisely a farewell dinner for someone who is leaving in a few days. It is obvious Hong Kong should introduce a new visa to attract talents to offset the impact of this exodus.

Over the past two years, the local workforce shrank by about 140,000 – many of those who left were young, highly educated professionals (like teachers and finance-sector employees) earning decent salaries. In this Pacific Prime Hong Kong article, we’ll look at a new visa scheme the HKSAR Government plans to roll out to alleviate the pressure this brain drain has put on the local economy, and how this new scheme compares to a similar scheme from Singapore.

The new Top Talent Pass Scheme

To qualify for a visa under this new scheme, you will have to make at least HKD $2.5 million (roughly USD $320,000) a year, or have graduated from one of the world’s top 100 universities with at least 3 years of work experience. However, there’s no word yet on which rankings list the new scheme will be based on. This new visa will be valid for 2 years, and you do not have to have a job lined up before you arrive in Hong Kong.

If you do not satisfy the work experience part of the requirements, there is still hope for you, provided you graduated from one of the top 100 universities within the past 5 years. However, the number of visas issued per year under this route is capped at 10,000.

How this new visa stacks up against the new Overseas Networks & Expertise Pass (ONE Pass) from Singapore

Since everything from Hong Kong must be compared to its counterpart from Singapore these days, maybe we should have a head-to-head between these two new visa schemes too.

1. Eligibility requirements:

The new visa from Hong Kong has a higher income threshold than its Singapore counterpart, requiring you to make at least SGD $30,000 (roughly USD $21,400) per month. However, if you come up short in your present earning power, you may still qualify for the new Hong Kong visa provided you graduated from a top-100 university and have 3 years of work experience, or graduated from a top-100 university within the past 5 years. Admittedly that’s quite a bit easier than the corresponding requirement of the new Singapore visa, which expects you to be a near Nobel laureate or Olympic medalist unless you meet their salary requirement.

2. Validity period:

A visa issued under the ONE Pass scheme is valid for 5 years – that’s more than twice as long as the new visa from Hong Kong.

3. Path to permanent residency and citizenship:

Under current legislation, you must have ordinarily resided in Hong Kong for a continuous period of 7 years before you can apply to become a permanent resident of Hong Kong.

In Singapore, you can apply to become a permanent resident having settled down for only 6 months. After you have been a permanent resident in Singapore for 2 years, you may apply for citizenship. Naturally, since Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region of China, there is no such thing as a Hong Kong citizenship.

In other words, it will take you far less time to become a Singapore citizen than a Hong Kong permanent resident.

Further reading:

• 6 things expats should know before moving to Hong Kong
• Education System in Hong Kong: Tips to picking the right school for your child
• Must-have apps for expats living in Hong Kong

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Martin Lee

Content Creator at Pacific Prime Hong Kong

Martin is a writer and translator with over 10 years of experience. He writes articles and blog posts, creates infographics and videos, translates between Chinese and English, and more. Skilled at explaining complicated concepts in layman’s terms, Martin believes the gold standard of translation is attained when the translated text is not only accurate, but also reads like an original text. Martin holds a degree in Economics from the University of London, UK.

Since joining Pacific Prime, Martin has become even more aware of the gap between the true value of insurance products and most people’s appreciation of it, and developed a passion for demystifying and simplifying matters, so that more people get the protection they need at a cost they can easily afford.

In his free time, Martin attends concerts of various genres, and plays the violin with piano accompaniment he pre-recorded himself or played live by his niece.

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