Visas for Brits in Hong Kong: the employment and talent schemes compared

If you want to work in Hong Kong, you need one of a handful of schemes, and which one fits depends on whether you've got a job offer, a big pay packet or a top-ranked degree.

The short version

• A job offer from a Hong Kong employer means the General Employment Policy (GEP): 36 months to start, then usually three years and two years [1].
• The Top Talent Pass Scheme (TTPS) needs no job offer: you qualify on income of HK$2.5 million or more, or a degree from a listed top university [2].
• The Quality Migrant Admission Scheme (QMAS) is a points test run in selection rounds, again with no job offer needed [3].
• Since 8 September 2025 the main schemes cost HK$600 to apply plus HK$1,300 for a visa of more than 180 days, per person [4][5].
• Spouses, civil partners and children under 18 come as dependants and may work or study [1][6].

Which scheme fits you?

Pound conversions use the Bank of England spot rate of 5 November 2026 (£1 = HKD 10.5659). HK$2.5 million is about £236,600 and HK$2 million about £189,300.

The General Employment Policy

This is the bread and butter of Brits moving to Hong Kong: the lawyer joining a firm in Central, the teacher at an international school, the engineer on a rail project. You need four things [1]:

• no security objection and no known serious criminal record;
• a good education, normally a first degree in a relevant field, though technical qualifications, proven ability or relevant experience can be accepted;
• a genuine vacancy and a confirmed offer for a job that matches your background and that local workers can't readily fill;
• pay broadly in line with the market for professionals in Hong Kong.

Your employer is the sponsor, and the visa is tied to that job. Change employers and you'll need fresh approval. New applications normally take about four weeks once the Immigration Department has every document and the fee [1]. People from mainland China use a separate scheme; for Brits, the GEP is the one.

The Top Talent Pass Scheme

The TTPS has been the big story of the last few years, a deliberate push to bring in high earners and young graduates without making them find a job first [2].

• Category A is about money: annual income of HK$2.5 million (about £236,600) or more in the year before you apply.
• Category B is for graduates of eligible universities with at least three years' work experience in the past five years.
• Category C is for graduates of eligible universities in the past five years with less than three years' experience. There's an annual quota, first come, first served.

"Eligible universities" means the Labour and Welfare Bureau's list, built from the world rankings. Plenty of UK universities appear on rankings of that kind, but check the current list rather than assume; degrees from a university's continuing education arm or branch campus don't count, and nor do degrees given as an honour [2].

The renewal is where people get caught out. To extend, you must show a degree-level or professional job at market pay, or a business you've set up or joined that's trading healthily [2]. Arriving on the TTPS and spending two years "exploring opportunities" won't wash. Category B and C holders who haven't yet had their degree verified must do it at renewal [2].

QMAS: the points test

QMAS has two doors [3]. The General Points Test scores you against 12 criteria, and there's a pass mark. The Achievement-based Points Test has just two criteria, is aimed at people with exceptional achievements, and comes with an eight-year first stay. Either way, there's no job offer needed, but passing doesn't guarantee approval: applications go through selection exercises and the Director of Immigration has discretion [3]. To extend on the general route you show you've settled and contributed, through a senior job with stable income or a business of reasonable size [3].

Dependants: partners and children

Anyone admitted under the GEP, TTPS or QMAS can sponsor [6]:

• a spouse, or a partner in a recognised civil partnership or civil union;
• unmarried dependent children under 18.

You have to show a genuine relationship, and that you can support them "well above subsistence level" and house them suitably [1][6]. Their stay normally runs alongside yours, and they aren't barred from working, so a trailing spouse can take a job without a separate work visa [6]. Children can go to school without extra permission [6]. Parents aged 60 or over can only be sponsored by permanent residents or residents with no limit of stay, so that option opens up later [6]. New dependant applications normally take about six weeks [6].

Fees and timing

The Immigration Department raised many fees on 8 September 2025; an ordinary visa went from HK$230 to HK$330, for instance [5]. The main schemes are "specified schemes" with their own fee lines [4].

Source: the Immigration Department fee table, page dated 8 April 2026 [4]. Application fees aren't refunded if you're refused [1]. The fee table doesn't say whether dependants pay the specified-scheme rate or the ordinary one, so check before you pay.

How to apply, step by step

1. Check the scheme and the latest criteria on the Immigration Department page; it warns criteria can change without notice [2].
2. Gather documents: passport, degree certificates (with verification for TTPS B and C), your contract or proof of income, and marriage and birth certificates for dependants.
3. Submit online, with your employer's part for the GEP.
4. Pay the visa issue fee once approved, and print or collect the e-visa.
5. Enter Hong Kong on the visa, not as a visitor (a visit doesn't let you work [7]), and register for your identity card if you're staying over 180 days.
6. Renew in time: within three months before expiry and at least six weeks before it runs out [1][2]. On the TTPS you must generally leave Hong Kong before your stay expires, even if the renewal is still pending [2].

Seven years on

Every one of these routes counts towards the seven years of ordinary residence that can lead to permanent residence [2]. Our guide to permanent residence after seven years explains what that means. Keep payslips, tax returns and tenancy agreements as you go; future you will be chuffed.

Back home, the usual UK jobs still apply: the P85, the Statutory Residence Test and, in your first year, split-year treatment. For a fuller picture of all the ways in, including the working holiday, start with our guide to moving to Hong Kong. If you'd like to hear how a TTPS renewal actually went, ask in our community group for Brits in Hong Kong.

Sources

1. Immigration Department: General Employment Policy (page dated 16 April 2026)
2. Immigration Department: Top Talent Pass Scheme (page dated 10 July 2026)
3. Immigration Department: Quality Migrant Admission Scheme (page dated 16 April 2026)
4. Immigration Department: Fee tables (page dated 8 April 2026)
5. Immigration Department press release: revised fees from 8 September 2025 (25 June 2025)
6. Immigration Department: Entry for residence as dependants
7. GOV.UK (FCDO): Hong Kong travel advice – entry requirements

Keep reading

• Moving to Hong Kong as a Brit: visa and residence routes
• Salaries tax in Hong Kong and your UK split year
• Permanent residence in Hong Kong after seven years
• The Statutory Residence Test explained