Hong Kong has issued around 100,000 working visas in the first nine months of the year, around 2.5 times more than the total number granted in 2022.
The surge was led by the new Top Talent Pass Scheme (TTPS), launched last year to attract talent amid a brain drain.
“As General Secretary Xi Jinping has said, ‘the competition of national strength ultimately comes down to a competition of talent,'” Financial Secretary Paul Chan said in Mandarin at a forum on Monday, quoting a speech made by the Chinese leader at a major congress meeting last year.
“Currently, different economies are all striving for high-quality talent and professionals,” he said, adding that Hong Kong and “its brother cities” in the Greater Bay Area needed to stand out internationally to sustain “high-quality development.”
The 100,000 working visas granted from January to September this year were significantly more than the 38,559 issued last year. Travel restrictions were in effect for most of 2022 as the city maintained strict Covid-19 rules.
According to Chan and labour chief Chris Sun, who also attended the forum, around 39,000 people were approved via the TTPS by September 30.
Introduced during Chief Executive John Lee’s maiden Policy Address last year, the TTPS attracts graduates from the world’s top universities – or who earn an annual income of more than HK$2.5 million – to come to Hong Kong. Applicants do not need to have secured a job offer in advance.
Most TTPS holders were from mainland China. In response to HKFP, the Immigration Department said that 30,183 people had received visas as of July 31, of whom 94.6 per cent of applications came from mainland China.
One per cent of the talent visa holders came from the US, while another one per cent from Canada.
Sun, the labour chief, said in Mandarin that the TTPS served “as a major driving force for our efforts in competing for talent,” adding that the city should provide housing and education support for the families of the visa holders.
Over 80 per cent of the TTPS visa holders were graduates from top universities, while the rest were high earners, according to the Immigration Department.
According to local outlet The Collective, which interviewed visa holders and migrant agents, some who had been approved under the TTPS did not plan to settle in Hong Kong. Instead, they wished to secure the visa as a back-up plan for the future.
Visas relaxed
In the Policy Address 2022, the city’s leader John Lee unveiled a series of measures to “snatch talent.” He said the local workforce had dropped by 140,000 from the second quarter of 2020 to the same period that year.
Apart from launching the TTPS, the authorities also extended the limit of stay from one year to two years for non-local graduates, suspended the annual quota under the Quality Migrants Admission Scheme (QMAS), and eased requirements for three other schemes.
The number of new visa holders has increased following the relaxations. The Immigration Department’s figures showed that 7,022 people have obtained visas under QMAS in the first half year of 2023, of which 98.3 per cent came from mainland China.
In 2022, only 2,845 people were granted the QMAS visas.
Mass exodus
Hong Kong has seen an exodus of local families and expatriates in recent years amid strict Covid-19 restrictions and a national security law imposed by Beijing.
According to a survey of 107 Hong Kong professionals released by a global recruitment consultancy in October, over half considered leaving the city within five years. Among them, 51 per cent were aged between 27 and 42.
Meanwhile, the UK said in February that some 144,500 people had left Hong Kong and moved to Britain in the two years since it launched a visa route for holders of British National (Overseas) passports (BNO) in early 2021.
Among the BNO visa holders, 69 per cent had university degrees, the UK’s Home Office revealed in a survey released last February. Almost 40 per cent were classified as having a “professional occupation.”
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