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If you leave your job and want to start your own business in Hong Kong, what are the immigration implications of this if you are a temporary resident foreign national employee?

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

Historically, this advisory mapped out a strategic pathway for mid-career expatriates seeking to break free from corporate sponsorship and run their own boutique business while running down the clock on their seven-year permanent residency milestone. The Geeza framed this transition as a routine status pivot under the General Employment Policy, reassuring seasoned residents that ImmD viewed their established local ties favorably. Case officers were receptive to qualitative continuity: an applicant could comfortably bridge the remaining years by launching a lean consultancy from a serviced office, injecting modest capital of a few hundred thousand dollars, and promising gradual local hiring as the business matured.

The game has changed from a convenient, discretionary holding pattern into a high-stakes institutional audit that risks shattering years of accumulated ordinary residence. Pivoting from an employment visa to one’s own business to “wait out” permanent residency now triggers the full rigor of TTPS Category A operational standards. ImmD no longer grants leeway for personal history or boutique solo ventures; the newly minted business must immediately substantiate HKD 1.5M–2.0M in deployed corporate liquidity, exclusive commercial premises (“four walls”), and active MPF payroll for 2–3 local permanent residents. Attempting to bridge the final stretch to PR without this heavy corporate balance sheet or an accredited government incubation backing will trigger an outright refusal, abruptly breaking continuous residence and wiping out the seven-year tally.

QUESTION

Hi Stephen,

I am in a bit of a pickle, I am currently waiting for my PR and I have a visa extension til next year. I have quit my job with my employer as they are unable to pay me the rate I need and that was on the contract due to the economic downturn.

I want to set up my own company and be a service provider for both local and international organisations in Hong Kong as well as grow my own consulting practice.

How do I do this ?

Though I quit my job am I still OK to be in Hong Kong until I set up my business and have it up and running?

Thanks

ANSWER

This is quite a common scenario in actual fact, and whilst your question is silent as to when exactly the seven-year anniversary arises in your instance, the immigration situation that you’re facing is pretty routine and quite constant, so it’s relatively straightforward for me to address this question for you.

When you have an employment visa sponsored by a third party employer – as you have in your situation, when you stop working for that employer, of your two privileges the privilege to work ceases, but your privilege to reside continues and that’s the state of affairs until your current limit of stay expires, whereupon you’re expected to leave Hong Kong.

Or as I surmise in your situation – prior to that, you will have been continuously not a resident here for seven years and therefore you’ll be making an application for the right of abode. Therefore, questions begged as to if you do intend to start your own business prior to the seven-year anniversary and you’ve already stopped working for your current employer is it lawful for you to join in that business while at this time the only privilege that you have in relation to your continuing immigration status here is the privilege to reside, and naturally enough, the answer is no, you’re not allowed to join in a business and you’re not allowed to start a business without the consent of the director of immigration first. So effectively, what you need to do is to make an application to the Immigration Department to adjust your status from sponsored employment visa through to business investment. And, as I’ve detailed elsewhere on the blog, so I don’t intend to labour it too much here, the approvability test in your situation for that investment visa is that you need to show that you can make a substantial contribution to the economy of Hong Kong. And in the context of the business that you’re putting together, ostensibly you need to show that it has the possibility and the very real potential for the creation of local jobs, that it’s going to be home in suitable business premises, you’ve got the requisite levels of cash to finance your business so that it stands a reasonably good chance of becoming a solidly entrenched commercial enterprise and all manner of other resources that you’d normally have around you in determining to move ahead with your application to start the business in the first place. All of those things the Immigration Department take into positive consideration when assessing your ability to make, as I say, a substantial contribution to the economy of Hong Kong. So that’s really how it all sits. In a nutshell, don’t start the business until you’ve made the application of change of visa category to the 5^th floor of Immigration Department (as you’re a current resident) using form ID999A and sponsorship form ID999B, along with ID91 if you’ve got less than six months remaining on your current limit of stay.

I hope you found this useful.

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