Compare HK Employment and Investment visa

Employment Visa Scheme

Investment as Entrepreneur Visa Scheme

Head-to-head Comparison

1) Documents for submission

• The documents checklists of both programs are rather similar. One key difference lies in the fact that, for the Investment as Entrepreneur visa — as its name suggests –, the applicant must provide proof of a capital injection (and of company share acquisition if any) to the Immigration Department to demonstrate the involvement of a personal investment.

2) Processing time

• The Immigration Department takes 4–8 weeks to process the Employment Visa application, upon submission of a complete application file.
• As for the Investment as Entrepreneur Visa, if the officer finds that the applicant’s commitment to his/her business and the economy of Hong Kong is genuine and strong, that he/she has the adequate capital to support the business plans and that the applicant satisfies all the eligibility criteria, the application processing time can take up to 8–12 weeks.

3) Factors of Consideration

• An Entrepreneur Visa application must be sponsored by a local sponsor — either a company or an individual. The sponsor takes the onus of assuming the responsibility of your repatriation should the circumstances so require. While the Employment Visa applicant must be sponsored by the employing company.

• The authorities will consider if the company has chosen business premises that are suitable for the nature of business activity you will be engaging in. For instance, an import/export company will require business space that offers storage facilities. It is advisable to enclose a copy of the existing or proposed tenancy agreement (or property ownership documents, i.e., land search documents from land registry) along with photographs of the business premises. Serviced office with limited workspace is usually not recommended for the purpose of an Investment as Entrepreneur visa application.

4) Financial Status

• An applicant for Investment as Entrepreneur visa has to provide his/her personal bank statements to the Immigration Department to show that the applicant is financially stable and has sufficient capital for the operation of the company. Clear documentary evidence of the capital injection — from his/her personal bank account to the company bank account — is mandatory. This is not necessary for the applicant of an Employment Visa.
• Moreover, the company might have to provide the details of other shareholder(s) (copy of travel documents, HKID, etc.) if any.

5) Visa Renewal

• The extension of stay for the Employment visa is straight forward; an extension letter issued by the sponsoring company with a filled application form will do.
• The Investment as Entrepreneur visa extension, on the other hand, will be scrutinized by Immigration Department, which will evaluate the company’s eligibility through the business plan initially submitted with the original visa application and verify whether the applicant has adhered to the planned agenda for his/her company in terms of number of employees, office size, etc. Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) statements and bank statements will therefore be required to corroborate these figures with respect to human resource details and company capital flow.
• The renewal process for investment as entrepreneur visa is thus far more complicated than that of the employment visa.