GEP Visa Sponsorship HK: Cap. 115 and ImmD ID(E) 991

The visa is granted by the immigration authorities, never by the employer. What the employer supplies is evidence: that the company is a genuine business, that the vacancy is real, that the candidate's skills match the post and that the remuneration package, including income, accommodation, medical and other benefits, sits at market level. The support letter is the centrepiece. It sets out the business need, the recruitment exercise run in Hong Kong and the reasons local applicants did not fit, which is the test in paragraph 8(d) of the ImmD guidebook ID(E) 991. The terms schedule then records the post, salary, fringe benefits and employment period, the four items ImmD expects to find in the employment contract or letter of appointment.

A sponsorship pack is not an offer letter, which rarely says a word about local recruitment. Nor is it the short employer confirmation letter used for an extension of stay with the same employer, which only states the position, total monthly remuneration and period of employment. Some foreign hires need no sponsor at all. Holders of a Top Talent Pass Scheme visa, or of a visa under the Immigration Arrangements for Non-local Graduates (IANG), stay on time limitation only, and dependants of a GEP professional are not prohibited from taking employment. Hiring any of them means checking their status, not sponsoring it.

The GEP is an administrative policy, not a statute, and it is quota-free and open to every sector. Its legal force comes from the Immigration Ordinance (Cap. 115), under which permission to land or remain is given subject to a limit of stay and conditions of stay (section 11). A GEP professional is admitted on employment condition: they may only take the employment approved by the Director of Immigration, and any change of employer needs prior approval. Breaching that condition is an offence under section 41. The employer's exposure sits in section 17I. Since the Immigration (Amendment) Ordinance 2021, employing a person who is not lawfully employable carries a heavy fine and up to ten years' imprisonment, and directors whose consent, connivance or neglect contributed can be prosecuted personally. The statutory defence turns on whether the employer took all practicable steps, starting with inspecting the employee's identity card or travel document, and skipping that inspection is a separate offence.

Procedure follows guidebook ID(E) 991 and the Immigration Department's eligibility criteria and document checklist for the General Employment Policy, which lists five conditions, among them a genuine job vacancy and a package "broadly commensurate" with the prevailing market level. Since 17 January 2025, GEP applications can only be filed electronically, so the employer's part, historically the paper Form ID 990B, is now completed and signed online by the company's authorised signatory. Fees follow Schedule 2 to the Immigration Regulations (Cap. 115A), which treats the GEP as a specified scheme. Any document not in English or Chinese needs a certified translation. Under section 42, a false statement to an immigration officer is an offence, and a visa obtained on it has no effect. Once the professional starts, the Employment Ordinance (Cap. 57) applies in full, and the same Hong Kong employment and HR templates under Cap. 57 used for local staff govern the relationship.

The standard case for employment visa sponsorship is a Hong Kong company hiring a specialist from overseas after a local search came up short: a quantitative analyst, a cybersecurity engineer, a compliance lead. The pack also covers a change of employment. A GEP professional already in Hong Kong cannot simply resign and join you; the new employer files a fresh application and waits for approval before day one. Groups moving staff between offices use it for intra-company transfers. ImmD waives proof of local recruitment where the post is managerial or professional, the transferee has worked for the company for at least a year, the package is at market level and the number of transferees stays reasonable for the size of the business.

Eligibility has limits worth checking first. Nationals of Afghanistan, Cuba and North Korea are excluded from the GEP, and Chinese residents of the Mainland apply under the Admission Scheme for Mainland Talents and Professionals, where the employer documents are identical. Overseas Chinese holding PRC passports can use the GEP only with permanent residence overseas, or after living overseas for at least a year and applying from there. If the role appears on the government's Talent List, or the package reaches the high salary threshold in ImmD's facilitation measures, you no longer need to prove recruitment difficulty, but the letter must still explain the business need. Relocating staff also need a flat, and a residential tenancy agreement for Hong Kong flats is usually the next document.

• The statement of business need opens the support letter. It describes what the company does in Hong Kong and why the post exists now, because ImmD reads the vacancy against the company's real operations and may run a field visit to check.
• The local recruitment record lists where the role was advertised, for how long, how many applications came in and why each shortlisted local candidate missed a stated requirement. Specific reasons such as "no CFA charter" persuade; a bare "not suitable" invites a request for more documents.
• The candidate fit paragraph ties the applicant's degree, technical qualifications and experience to each duty of the post. It answers paragraphs 8(b) and 8(d) of the guidebook in one place.
• The remuneration package clause sets out salary, bonus, housing, medical cover and other benefits, with the same figures as the contract. These terms slot straight into our employment contract drafted to Cap. 57 and the 468 rule, so the two documents never contradict each other.
• The visa condition clause makes the start of employment conditional on the grant of the visa and the employee's admission on employment condition with your company. If ImmD refuses, the offer lapses, and the employee confirms they will take no other work in Hong Kong without approval. For hires handling client data or code, pair it with a confidentiality and IP assignment deed for Hong Kong employees.
• The ID 990B checklist maps every employer upload, from the Business Registration Certificate to the business plan required of companies under 12 months old, and flags which items fall away under the facilitation measures. It also lists papers ImmD may request on top, such as a staff list.

Financial services. A GEP visa lets the professional work for the sponsor; it does not license them. Carrying on a regulated activity for a licensed corporation requires a licence from the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) under the Securities and Futures Ordinance (Cap. 571), and bank staff doing the same work need entry on the register kept by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority under the Banking Ordinance (Cap. 155). The regulated part of the role cannot start before that, so the letter should state the licensing plan and its timing, and the contract should make continued employment conditional on the licence.

Healthcare and registered professions. Doctors, lawyers and teachers face a second gatekeeper. A doctor trained abroad needs full, limited or special registration under the Medical Registration Ordinance (Cap. 161) before treating patients. A foreign lawyer must register with the Law Society under the Legal Practitioners Ordinance (Cap. 159) before advising on foreign law, and a school teacher must be a registered or permitted teacher under the Education Ordinance (Cap. 279). ImmD will not treat a job as viable if the candidate cannot lawfully perform it. The pack records the registration route and its expected timing.

Start-ups and new companies. A company set up within the last 12 months must upload a detailed business plan covering source of funds, capital injection, projected turnover and the local jobs it expects to create. Where the candidate is a founder or significant shareholder rather than a hire, the employment route may be the wrong one: the GEP has a separate stream for investment as entrepreneurs, which this pack does not cover. When a director signs for the company, a short board resolution authorising the sponsorship and the signatory removes doubt about who binds it.

Skilled trades and non-degree hires. A candidate without a degree can qualify under the standard GEP only in special circumstances, with good technical qualifications or proven professional ability backed by documents. Trades on the Technical Professional List now have a dedicated Technical Professionals Stream for applicants aged 18 to 40, with a quota allocated first come, first served and a minimum contract duration per trade. Under that stream, employer and employee must both notify ImmD within seven days if the contract ends early. Hires under that stream need the trade evidence on top of this pack.

You start with the company: legal name, Business Registration number, date of incorporation, and whether it is listed in Hong Kong or has obtained an employment visa for non-local staff in the past 24 months. Those answers decide which corporate documents appear on your checklist, and a company set up within the last 12 months is also asked for the business plan figures ImmD expects. Next comes the role, described by duties rather than title, followed by the candidate's nationality, qualifications and work history so the letter can draw the link ImmD looks for. The recruitment section asks where and when you advertised, how many people applied and why the shortlisted local candidates fell short. If a facilitation measure applies, such as an intra-company transfer or a Talent List profession, the questionnaire adapts and the letter cites the measure instead. You then enter the remuneration package and contract terms, which feed the letter and the terms schedule with identical figures. Finally, you name the authorised signatory who will sign the online declaration. The finished pack downloads in Word and PDF, ready for letterhead and upload.

The most expensive mistake in employment visa sponsorship is letting the candidate start work on a visitor stay while the application is pending. Visitors may attend meetings and sign contracts, but they may not take employment, paid or unpaid, and the company then becomes the employer of a person not lawfully employable under section 17I. Nothing that looks like productive work should happen in Hong Kong until the e-Visa is issued and the employee has entered on it. The second classic is a support letter that says "no suitable local candidate was found" and stops there. ImmD reads that as no evidence at all and asks for the advertisements and reasons, which costs weeks.

Inconsistency sinks more files than weak candidates do. A salary in the letter that differs from the contract, or a job title in the online form that matches neither, signals a problem even when the explanation is innocent. Inflating seniority to fit a degree is worse, because it moves the file into section 42 territory. Groups also forget that moving the professional to a sister company is a change of employment needing prior approval. Finally, diarise the limit of stay, normally 36 months or the contract term if shorter, and file the extension at least six weeks before expiry. A pending extension does not allow the employee to stay past the expiry date.