Before you apply for Investment as Entrepreneur Visa |
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Hong Kong is well-known as one of the
vibrant metropolises across the Asia. It is a perfect city not only to work in,
also to set up business in here. Hong Kong possesses with its unique strategic
location, its stable economic environment, its transparent and friendly
business environment, its well established legal and banking system, its simple
and low tax regime, its world-class infrastructure and its well-educated &
productive workforce.
While Hong Kong is situated at the heart of
Asia and next to mainland China, it becomes an imperative gateway to enter
China markets. In addition, the Hong Kong Express Rail Link commenced operation
in the third quarter of 2018 and connects Hong Kong with the national
high-speed rail network in Mainland China covering most major cities. It will
take about 15 minutes, 45 minutes, 8 hours and 9 hours to reach Shenzhen,
Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing respectively.
Therefore, if you would like to initiate a business in Hong Kong, you would have to incorporate a Hong Kong company here which is a simple process even when you are afar. Not long after your company is well-stablished and operating smoothly, you may realize that you would like to station in Hong Kong and manage your business, that is the moment when investment as entrepreneur visa comes to play.
While regular staffs apply for employment visa, for business owner should go for investment as entrepreneur visa since he/she is the director and shareholder of the Hong Kong company. Not limited to starting up a business, the applicant may consider acquiring the shares of existing company to become the shareholder and director for the application of the investment as entrepreneur visa.
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The purpose of this investment as entrepreneur visa is to encourage foreign investors to setup business here to generate economic contributions to Hong Kong. To enhance the successful rate of visa approval, the applicant ought to show the contributions to Hong Kong economy by the followings:
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To be more convincing, a sound and feasible
business plan for the upcoming 3 years is instrumental to the application. Based
on our experience, Hong Kong Immigration Department (hereinafter referred as to
“ImmD”) focus on the development of the company in reference to possible office
expansions, newly created positions for locals (to set out the organizational
structure of the company) and turnover projections. So that to demonstrate the
viability of the proposed company and how it could contribute to the growth of
Hong Kong economics. Some of the elements such as the nature of business,
market and competitive analysis, market positioning, business direction, sales
targets, marketing strategy are suitable content to be included in the business
plan. (Please do not exaggerate the business plan as it will become one of the
visa extension consideration base on your execution of the plan)
It is an advantage if the business is with
these industries such as: trading & logistics, tourism, financial services,
professional services, transportation, exhibition, manufacturing, cultural
& creative industries, introduction of innovative technology or government-accredited
incubator program.
Besides the company financial statements,
personal bank statements are one of the crucial proofs to evaluate how deep the
applicant’s pocket is. By providing the personal bank statements, the HK ImmD officer
will have an idea how much back-up funding is available whenever the company
needs further capital injections for the contingency and estimate the strength
in financial of the applicant. In addition, the applicant’s educational
background and previous working experience is best to be relevant to his/her
business so that it will be more promising to the application. It is important
to have your source of income documents in hands to prove that the fund is from
work or other businesses and the capital investment to the Hong Kong company
has nothing to do with money laundering. Therefore, cash-intensive businesses,
complicated company structuring or shell companies (intend to hide under the
radar to conceal ownership) that are related to the Hong Kong company are not
recommended. |
Based on the above information, I guess you would have an idea that the company has to be up-and running before the investment visa application. Therefore, to start from scratch it can take up to half a year for the preparation of documents for this visa application. This will give you a general idea on the timeframe for every step of the preparation:
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As you see, the whole process from head-to-tail
can stretch up to 9-12 months, and we can expect that ImmD would request further
supplementary documents in the middle of process. So, patience and
attention-to-details are extremely important along the way. We always recommend
the applicant to submit a complete set of documents to reduce the possibility
of a great volume of supplementary documents that might be requested by ImmD.
This investment as entrepreneur visa program is under general employment policy
of Hong Kong immigration ordinance. The
Last but not least, the applicant requires
a sponsor for his/her investment visa. This can be any Hong Kong residents or
other business entity which has a commercial relationship with applicant
and his/her business (Please note that the applicant’s owned company for the application
cannot be used as sponsor).
In conclusion, it is not a rocket-scientist project to apply for the investment as entrepreneur visa. However, all the paperwork has to be there and ready in primary submission or request for evidence stage to fulfill ImmD requirement. If you need any assistance on Hong Kong visa programs, please contact our specialists for more details or assessment. |
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Related Topics: Investment as Entrepreneur Visa | Hong Kong Employment Visa |
Should you need any assistance or wish to obtain more information, please also browse our official website at www.kaizenvis.com or contact us through the following means:
T: +852 2341 1444 M: +852 5616 4140, +86 152 1943 4614 WhatsApp / WeChat / Line: +852 5616 4140 Skype: kaizencpa |
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