Top Talent Pass Scheme (TTPS)

Persons who wish to apply to enter the HKSAR under the TTPS are not required to have secured an offer of employment in the HKSAR upon application. They may be granted 24 months’ stay on time limitation only without other conditions of stay provided that normal immigration requirements are met. Applicants may choose to apply for the TTPS under one of the categories as listed in paragraphs (a) to (c) below:

1. persons with annual income^{Note 1} reaching HK$2.5 million or above, or its equivalent in foreign currency, in the year immediately preceding the date of application (Category A);
2. degree graduates^{Note 2} of the eligible universities^{Note 3} with at least three years of work experience^{Note 4} over the past five years immediately preceding the date of application (Category B); or
3. degree graduates^{Note 2} of the eligible universities^{Note 3} in the past five years immediately preceding the date of application^{Note 5} with less than three years of work experience, subject to an annual quota which is to be allotted on a first-come, first-served basis (Category C); however, Category C does not apply to those non-local students^{Note 6} who have obtained the undergraduate qualification in a full-time and locally-accredited programme in the HKSAR.

An application for a visa/entry permit to enter the HKSAR under the TTPS may be favourably considered if:

1. there is no security objection and no known record of serious crime in respect of the applicant; and
2. the annual quota is available for allotment (applicable to Category C’s applicants only).

Successful TTPS applicant will normally be granted an initial stay of 24 months on time limitation only without other conditions of stay. Each applicant can only be granted such initial stay once.

Overseas Chinese nationals holding People's Republic of China (PRC) passports who meet the eligibility criteria stipulated above and normal immigration requirements may apply to enter the HKSAR for employment under the TTPS if:

1. the applicant has permanent residence overseas; or
2. the applicant has been residing overseas for at least one year immediately before the submission of application ("overseas" means countries or territories outside the Mainland, the HKSAR, the Macao Special Administrative Region (Macao SAR) and Taiwan) and that the application is submitted from overseas.

In general, unless a person has the right of abode or right to land in the HKSAR, he/she requires a visa/entry permit to work in the HKSAR. While each application is determined on its individual merits, an applicant should meet normal immigration requirements (such as holding a valid travel document with adequate returnability to his/her country of residence or citizenship; be of clear criminal record and raise no security or criminal concerns to the HKSAR; have no likelihood of becoming a burden on the HKSAR, etc.) as well as the relevant specific eligibility criteria detailed above before he/she may be considered for the grant of a visa/entry permit. It should be noted that the eligibility criteria may be subject to change from time to time without prior notice.

Note 1:
Annual income means taxable employment or business income including salary, allowances, stock options and profits from self-owned companies. Income generated from personal investment will not be taken into consideration.

Note 2:

The level of academic qualifications of applicants obtained from the eligible universities must be equivalent to the recognised Hong Kong standard of bachelor’s degrees. For the avoidance of doubt, honourary bachelor’s degrees will not be accepted.

Note 3:
The eligible universities refer to those universities/institutions on the aggregate list of eligible universities (hereafter “the aggregate list”), which is compiled by the Labour and Welfare Bureau. The aggregate list is based on (i) the top 100 universities/institutions in four designated world university rankings in the past 5 years, namely Times Higher Education World University Rankings, Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings, U.S. News and World Report’s Best Global Universities Rankings and Shanghai Jiao Tong University Academic Ranking of World Universities; (ii) the top five universities/institutions providing specialised hotel programmes on the QS World University Rankings in the discipline of “hospitality and leisure management” in the past five years; and (iii) the top 10 Mainland universities under the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Best Chinese Universities Ranking in the past five years. For the avoidance of doubt, the academic qualifications obtained from the continuing and professional education arms, the branch schools, the extension schools or the subsidiary schools, etc., established by the eligible universities will not be accepted. For the latest aggregate list, please click here.

Note 4:
The relevant work experience shall be accumulated from full-time employment, or else self-employment, after graduation.

Note 5:
Graduation in the past five years is counted by “year of graduation”.

Note 6:
Non-local students refer to persons entering the HKSAR for the purpose of education with a student visa / entry permit issued by the Director of Immigration.