“Over 100 Inquiries on 1st Day” of New Hong Kong CIES Golden Visa

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In a press release, Invest Hong Kong – the official body responsible for evaluating the financial element of applications for the territory’s Capital Investment Entrant Scheme, which recently reopened with a new HKD 30 million price tag – said it had received “over 100 inquiries from different channels” on its first day of operations, on Friday.

Of these, the department indicated, some 70% had come from professional service providers, i.e., immigration consultants.

Director-General of InvestHK, Ms. Alpha Lau, said the her department had also received a number of applications during the opening day. She commented that the volume of inquiries and applications indicated that “high net worth individuals have confidence in Hong Kong’s stable business environment” and that they displayed an interest in “the diverse investment channels the city has to offer and wish to settle in Hong Kong with their families.”

Speaking to Radio Television Hong Kong, Lau said the agency had expedited the program’s launch due to strong interest from overseas individuals and companies.

While she did not say precisely how many applications the program had garnered on its first day, she “many of the interested parties are from Southeast Asia and the Middle East.”

While she pointed out that the government had not set any official target in terms of application volume, she said her department ha the capacity to handle more than 4,000 applications a year thanks to its experience from the former CIES.

InvestHK has now also issued detailed rules for its new program in a 39-page PDF published on its website. In brief, to qualify, applicants must:

• Be above the age of 18;
• Be a foreign national, Chinese national with permanent residency in Hong Kong, a resident of Macao, or “Chinese residents of Taiwan”;
• Have net assets of at least HKD 30 million;
• Have no criminal or adverse immigration record;
• Place HKD 3 million in a new CIES Investment Portfolio (government-administered development fund); and
• Invest at least HKD 30 million in Permissible Investment Assets, of which at least HKD 27 million must be in any of the below:
  • Equities;
  • Debt securities;
  • Certificates of deposit (no more than HKD 3 million);
  • Subordinated debt;
  • Eligible collective investment schemes;
  • Ownership interest in limited partnership funds
  • Non-residential real estate (no more than HKD 10 million)

Between 2003 and 2019, Hong Kong approved 35,259 applications for its erstwhile CIES program.