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PRACTICE UPDATE: How the content must now be read in light of current ImmD policy:

Historical Context: Family Sponsorship and Holistic Dependency

Historically, as examined in 14 – How to Apply For a Hong Kong Investment Visa Without Any Professional Help – What About Your Family?, this installment of the Centre O presentation series addressed the mechanics of sponsoring a legal spouse and unmarried dependent children under the age of 18 alongside a principal Investment as Entrepreneur application under the General Employment Policy (GEP). In that era, the Geeza framed family accompaniment as a natural, integrated extension of the founder’s overall commercial venture. While ImmD required proof of a genuine relationship and evidence that the sponsor could support dependents “well above the subsistence level” and provide suitable accommodation, case officers exercised broad, pragmatic discretion. The financial assessment was holistic rather than formulaic: an entrepreneur could satisfy both the enterprise viability test and the family maintenance burden with modest personal savings of a few hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars, a residential tenancy, a flexible desk in a serviced office or co-working suite, and a phased commercial plan that projected comfortable household income as local hiring and revenues ramped up over a two- to three-year period.

Modern Reality: The Compounded Hardware and Maintenance Audit

As detailed in A Major Strategic Shift: The Upgraded Assessment Regime for Hong Kong’s Investment as Entrepreneur Visa, the adjudication landscape has undergone an absolute structural transformation that makes un-incubated family sponsorship an immense capital undertaking. Under post-April 2026 administrative practice aligned with Top Talent Pass Scheme (TTPS) Category A operational substance, benchmarked at an enterprise scale of approximately HKD 2.5 million, ImmD strictly segregates business capital from personal maintenance funds. An applicant can no longer claim that initial commercial capital will simultaneously support a dependent spouse and children. Before evaluating dependent eligibility, ImmD first subjects the principal venture to an uncompromising, binary hardware audit requiring verified assets deployed on day one: HKD 1.5 million to HKD 2.0 million in dedicated corporate liquidity in a local Hong Kong business bank account; an executed commercial lease for exclusive physical office premises (four walls), completely excluding serviced offices and co-working desks; and active Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) payroll contributions for two to three local Hong Kong permanent residents. Only after this corporate threshold is met does ImmD assess family sponsorship, requiring separate, unencumbered personal financial reserves and an executed residential lease capable of housing the entire family unit without diluting the company’s operating runway.

Strategic Baseline: State Incubation vs. Household Relocation Risk

Consequently, attempting to relocate a family on the basis of historical DIY advice is an extreme administrative and personal hazard. If an un-incubated founder moves their household to Hong Kong on visitor status expecting to secure entrepreneur and dependent visas through a bootstrapped business plan, modest combined savings, and a shared office, the principal application will face immediate, summary refusal. This triggers a catastrophic cascading refusal of all linked dependent applications, forcing the entire household to depart upon the expiry of visitor permissions and severing any continuous ordinary residence accrued toward Right of Abode. The modern business entry framework enforces an absolute institutional monopoly: formal, documented admission into an officially accredited government incubation program, such as Cyberport, the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP), or the Design Incubation Programme, serves as the sole surviving statutory mechanism recognized by ImmD to waive the mandatory upfront liquidity, dedicated commercial lease, and immediate MPF headcount thresholds. Outside this accredited institutional safe harbor, bringing family along on an independent entrepreneur application requires immense, enterprise-grade balance sheets capable of fully capitalizing a standalone corporate footprint while simultaneously sustaining domestic household liabilities from day one.

 On January 17, 2013 I gave a talk at Centre O in Wanchai on how to go about applying for a Hong Kong business investment visa without the need to pay for any professional help.

The 30 minute talk was broken down into 24 very easy to digest segments and each of these segments is presented here.

The talk is designed to allow the D-I-Y visa applicant to use the 100% free resources of both the Hong Kong Visa Handbook as well as the Hong Kong Visa Geeza Blog.

Please see:

10 Must Have Resources for Any Hong Kong Investment Visa Application

and

The Hong Kong Visa Handbook

The videos will be added incrementally over the course of the next 2-3 weeks until the entire talk has been presented.

In the meantime, why not sign up for our D-I-Y Visa Kit here?

The Complete Series

1 – Introduction

2 – Relax & Enjoy The Talk

3 – Order of Business

4 – 10 Must Have Resources

5 – The Policy of It All

6 – Who Doesn’t Have a Visa Problem?

7 – The Pathway for Mainlanders

8 – What Can You Do as a Visitor?

9 – Employee or Investor?

10 – Investment Visa Approvability Test

11 – Three Pillars of Approval

12 – How  Much Cash Investment?

13 – The Catch 22

14 – What About Your Family?

15 – Why Do Cases Get Denied?

16 – Trying Again?

17 – 10 Must Use Resources

18 – 10 Must  Use Resources (Infographic)

19 – 10 Must Use Resources (Visa Factsheet)

20 – 10 Must Use Resources (Application Plan)

21 – 10 Must Use Resources (Case Studies)

22 – 10 Must Use Resources (Templates)

23 – 10 Must Refer Resources (All Good Stuff!)

24 – Your Questions Answered