General Employment Policy: professionals and intra-company transfers

Eligibility requirements

• No security objection and no known record of serious crime. Normal immigration requirements, including a travel document with adequate returnability, apply throughout.
• A good educational background, normally a first degree in the relevant field. In special circumstances the Director may accept good technical qualifications, proven professional ability or relevant experience and achievements supported by documents.
• A genuine job vacancy. The Immigration Department examines the employer's business, its need for the post and whether the role exists as described.
• A confirmed offer for a job relevant to the applicant's qualifications or experience that, in ImmD's published wording, 'cannot be readily taken up by the local work force'. For intra-company transfers to managerial or professional posts, the Talent List and posts paying HK$2 million or more a year, published facilitation measures reduce the recruitment evidence required.
• A remuneration package (income, accommodation, medical and other fringe benefits) 'broadly commensurate with the prevailing market level for professionals in the HKSAR'.
• Overseas Chinese nationals holding PRC passports may apply where they have permanent residence overseas, or have lived overseas for at least one year immediately before applying and apply from overseas.

Legal framework

Build the evidence

Prepare records that substantiate the relevant criteria. The final checklist depends on the applicant, route and filing authority.

• Applicant: travel document, photograph, academic certificates and transcripts, employment references and a career chronology that reconciles with the offer letter.
• Employer: business registration, company background, financial standing, business plan and staff list, unless an employer facilitation measure applies (a non-local employee visa obtained in the preceding 24 months, or a Main Board or GEM listing).
• Offer: signed employment contract or offer letter stating post, duties, duration and the full remuneration package, with a justification of why the post cannot readily be filled locally where facilitation does not apply.
• Intra-company transfers: group structure, evidence that the transferee has worked for the company for at least one year, the overseas role and the Hong Kong post, and the number of transferees sponsored at the same time.
• Dependants: marriage or partnership certificate recognised where celebrated, birth certificates, and evidence of the sponsor's means and accommodation.

How to apply

1. 01

   Confirm the right scheme and the right test

   Check nationality and residence (GEP versus ASMTP), whether the post is managerial or professional, and which facilitation measures apply. Decide whether the application is a market recruitment case or an intra-company transfer before drafting the justification.

2. 02

   Build the employer case

   Document the vacancy, the reporting line, the business need and the market comparators for the package. Where facilitation does not apply, record the local recruitment exercise and its outcome.

3. 03

   Submit online and pay the application fee

   The employer sponsors the application through the ImmD online service. The application fee is non-refundable; the visa issuance fee is payable on approval. ImmD states that new applications normally take about four weeks once all documents and fees are received.

4. 04

   Activate the e-Visa and register

   The applicant enters on the e-Visa, and anyone permitted to stay beyond the short-term threshold must register for a Hong Kong identity card. Check the employment condition endorsed on the permission.

5. 05

   Calendar the extension

   Apply within three months before expiry and at least six weeks before. Extensions normally follow a 3-2 year pattern on employment condition. Any change of employer requires prior approval unless the holder is in the top-tier stream.

After approval & family planning

• An eligible spouse or civil partner (recognised where the relationship was entered into) and unmarried children under 18 may apply as dependants. Dependants of GEP professionals are not prohibited from working or studying.
• Status is tied to the approved employment. A different employer, or a materially different role, needs the Director's approval before the change takes effect. Leaving Hong Kong before expiry while an extension is pending is required unless ImmD approves otherwise.
• After at least two years under the GEP and assessable salaries tax income of HK$2 million or more in the previous year of assessment, the holder may apply under the top-tier employment stream for a normal grant of five years on time limitation only, with employer changes by notification.
• After seven years of continuous ordinary residence, a non-Chinese national who has taken Hong Kong as their only place of permanent residence may apply for verification of eligibility for a permanent identity card. Elapsed visa time alone is not enough.

What this route builds, and what it opens

WG assesses every route on three returns: the knowledge it adds, the cognitive capability that sustained work abroad develops, and the institutional opportunity it opens or closes. Real work is the mechanism in each case.

Programme context. Where a participant holds a genuine managerial or professional role with a qualifying affiliate for a year, documented through payroll, tax and reporting lines, this route may be assessed as the Hong Kong employment step. Read the framework ↗

Frequently asked questions

Points to consider

• Approval is discretionary: ImmD states that the Director may refuse an application even where all criteria are met.
• A thin Hong Kong entity, a role that duplicates existing local staff, or a package below market comparators are the most common reasons for requests for further information.