GEP Visa, TTPS, QMAS or IANG: Hong Kong Visa Options Compared.

GEP visa or another route: where to start

A GEP visa, the employment visa issued under Hong Kong's General Employment Policy, is the standard route for a professional who already has a job offer. It suits a large share of people moving to Hong Kong for work, but four other Immigration Department routes admit professionals and founders on different terms, and some of them need no job offer at all.

The route decides almost everything that follows: whether an employer has to sponsor you, how long the first grant lasts, whether you can change jobs without asking, and what you must prove when it is time to extend. The overview of Hong Kong visa services covers the routes briefly and lists firms that handle them. This guide puts them side by side, then covers dependants, official fees, the seven-year path to permanent residence, and when a visa agency or an immigration lawyer is the better fit.

The routes compared side by side

Every figure below comes from the Immigration Department's own scheme pages. "Stay on time limitation only" means your permission to stay carries no employment condition, so you can work, change jobs, or run a business without prior approval.

Processing times run from the day the Department holds every required document and the application fee. An incomplete file restarts the clock in practice, which is why document preparation is where most paid help earns its fee.

GEP visa: when the job comes first

A GEP employment visa needs a genuine vacancy, a confirmed offer in a role relevant to your qualifications or experience that the local workforce cannot readily fill, and a pay package broadly in line with the market for professionals. The scheme has no quota and is not limited to particular sectors.

The visa is tied to the job. You may only take the employment the Director of Immigration approved, and any change of employer needs prior approval, so a job that ends early leaves you with a visa question as well as a contract question. Extensions normally follow a 3-2 year pattern on the same employment condition.

The GEP does not apply to Chinese residents of the Mainland, who use a separate scheme, or to nationals of Afghanistan, Cuba and North Korea. Your employer usually drives the application, but the visa is yours to keep in order, including the extension deadline.

Top Talent Pass Scheme: no job offer, a strict gate

The Top Talent Pass Scheme admits people without a job offer in three categories. Category A needs annual income of HK$2.5 million or more in the year before applying. Category B covers bachelor's degree graduates of eligible universities with at least three years of work experience in the past five years, and Category C covers recent graduates of those universities with less experience, under an annual quota allotted first come, first served.

The eligible universities come from an aggregate list built from four world rankings, updated each year. The Government announced the list in force from 1 January 2026, which grew from 199 to 200 institutions.

The first grant is generous: free to take up and change jobs, or to start or join a business, without prior approval. The catch comes at renewal. To extend, you must show that you have taken up employment in Hong Kong with a stable income, or established or joined a business. In 2024, Hong Kong Free Press reported that agents were offering fabricated payrolls to help holders pass that renewal test. Plan the renewal before you arrive, since the initial grant can only be given once.

QMAS: points, selection, and settlement

The Quality Migrant Admission Scheme is designed for highly skilled or talented people who want to settle in Hong Kong. No job offer is needed. Every applicant must first meet four prerequisites: be 18 or over, be able to support themselves and any dependants without public assistance, have no criminal or adverse immigration record, and normally hold a first degree.

Applicants then choose the General Points Test or the Achievement-based Points Test. Selection is competitive: the Department runs selection exercises regularly, and meeting the passing threshold does not guarantee approval, because applications meeting more criteria are considered more favourably. That makes QMAS a poor fit for anyone who needs to be working in Hong Kong by a fixed date.

IANG: for people who studied in Hong Kong

The IANG arrangement is for non-local students who earned an undergraduate or higher qualification in a full-time, locally accredited programme in Hong Kong. Apply within six months of graduating and you need no job offer; apply later and you need one. Either way, the first grant is 24 months with no restriction on changing employer.

The first extension is where IANG holders need to plan. It requires an offer of employment at a level commonly taken up by degree holders, with pay at market level.

Founders and investors: two very different routes

Investment as an entrepreneur. A founder can apply under the GEP to establish or join a business in Hong Kong. The test is whether you can make a substantial contribution to the economy, judged on factors such as your business plan, turnover, financial resources, investment sum, and local jobs created. The Department expects a three-year business plan with three-year forecasts of profit and loss, cash flow, and balance sheet. A start-up supported by a government-backed programme with rigorous vetting may be considered favourably. The stay is tied to the approved business, and like the professional GEP route it does not apply to Chinese residents of the Mainland.

A founder who has already invested is asked for the company's paperwork: its Business Registration Certificate, Companies Registry filings such as the Certificate of Incorporation and articles, and the company's letter of appointment to the applicant. Setting that structure up properly, including shareholder arrangements between co-founders, is work for corporate lawyers in Hong Kong, and it is worth settling before the visa application rather than after.

New Capital Investment Entrant Scheme. The New CIES is for investors, not operators. Applicants must show net assets of at least HK$30 million throughout the six months before applying, then invest at least HK$30 million in permissible investment assets. InvestHK assesses the asset and investment requirements. After approval-in-principle, the Department issues a visitor entry of up to 180 days to make the investment, followed on formal approval by a stay of up to 24 months, with extensions of up to three years while the portfolio is maintained.

A founder who qualifies for the TTPS often has a simpler option: its holders can start or join a business without the business plan review, although they still need to show that business at renewal.

Dependants on each route

Every route above lets you sponsor dependants: a spouse, a partner in a legally recognised civil partnership, civil union or same-sex marriage, and unmarried dependent children under 18. You must be able to support them at a standard well above subsistence level and provide suitable accommodation. Their stay is normally linked to yours, so a refused extension for the sponsor affects the whole family.

Dependants of people admitted under the GEP, TTPS, QMAS, IANG, the entrepreneur route and the New CIES are not prohibited from working. Dependant applications normally take six weeks once the file is complete.

Official fees and processing times

The Immigration Department's fee table treats the GEP, TTPS, QMAS, IANG and New CIES as specified schemes, with the same charges:

Extension applications can be filed within three months before your limit of stay expires and, in all cases, at least six weeks before it. The Department normally processes a complete extension in two to three weeks. You must leave before your limit of stay expires even if an extension is still being processed, unless the Director approves otherwise.

Anything on a firm's quote beyond these amounts is the firm's own charge.

The seven-year path to permanent residence

Every route in this guide can lead to permanent residence. The scheme pages for the GEP, TTPS, QMAS, IANG, the entrepreneur route and the New CIES each state that holders who have ordinarily resided in Hong Kong for a continuous period of at least seven years may apply for the right of abode.

For a person not of Chinese nationality, the right of abode also requires entry on a valid travel document and taking Hong Kong as your place of permanent residence, with the seven years falling immediately before the application. Whether a given stretch of years counts is a question of fact. Gaps between permissions, long absences, or a change of scheme along the way can raise questions about continuity, and an immigration lawyer can check a specific history before you apply.

Visa agency or immigration lawyer: who to use

Most visa work is filing work: matching you to a scheme, assembling proof of income, qualifications or experience, submitting the application, and diarising extensions. A visa agency or the immigration team of a law firm handles this day to day, and for a clean GEP or TTPS case either can do the job.

Bring in an immigration lawyer when the file stops being routine: a refusal, a question over a breach of conditions of stay, an ordinary-residence problem at the seven-year mark, an investment structure under the New CIES, or a family arrangement outside the standard dependant categories. A lawyer can judge whether a fresh application, a review, or a court challenge is the realistic path. The directory of lawyers in Hong Kong lists firms by practice area and language.

Before paying anyone, check three things:

• Who handles the file. Solicitors hold a practising certificate, and the Law Society publishes a list of members with current practising certificates. Visa agencies are not on it, so ask an agency how many applications under your scheme it files each year and who reviews your documents.
• Whether anyone promises a result. The Government reminds applicants that they do not need an intermediary and warns against claims of "guaranteed success in application". Walk away from any offer to supply an employer or documents: the Department has said that status obtained by fraud is declared invalid and the person faces criminal liability.
• What the fee covers. Ask whether a refusal, a fresh application, or an extension is included, and whether a legal challenge would stay with the same firm.

Many applicants file on their own through the Department's online systems, and for a complete, simple case that works well. Paid help earns its fee when evidence is hard to assemble, a whole family is moving, or the file carries a history of refusals or overstays.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Schemes, fees and requirements change, so for a specific case speak with a qualified professional.