Hong Kong 2026: Can Entrepreneurs Sponsor Themselves Under ASMTP?

No — not in the way most founders mean it. Under the Admission Scheme for Mainland Talents and Professionals (ASMTP), the sponsoring entity is your Hong Kong-registered company, not you personally, and owning that company does not exempt you from a single eligibility criterion. As set out on the Hong Kong Immigration Department’s ASMTP Frequently Asked Questions page, applications “must be submitted by the employer in the HKSAR and the employer must be a registered company in the HKSAR,” and “the fact that you are the owner of the company concerned does not exempt you from any of the eligibility criteria.”

So the honest framing is this: you can be sponsored by your own company, but you cannot sponsor yourself. Everything below is general reference only and is not a substitute for advice on an individual case — where your own facts matter, the officially published criteria and a qualified professional’s view should govern.

What “self-sponsorship” actually looks like in practice

The scheme’s objective, per the Immigration Department, is to attract qualified Mainland talents and professionals whose special skills, knowledge or experience are of value to Hong Kong and “not readily available or in shortage locally.” That test applies to the person, not to the cap table.

In practice the founder appears twice in the same file: as the applicant, and as the director or shareholder of the sponsoring employer. The department assesses the application against the same ASMTP criteria it would apply to any hired professional. Being the one who signs the company’s own supporting letter does not change the standard of review.

That is the structural difference from the pure entrepreneur or startup-permit models found in some investment-migration programmes, where the applicant’s business plan and capital alone are the qualifying asset. Hong Kong’s employment-entry route is built around a genuine employer-employee relationship with a locally registered company, plus a labour-market test on the individual.

Who has to file, and can the Mainland parent company do it instead?

The Hong Kong company files. Not the Mainland parent, not the founder personally.

The official position is explicit on two points:

• Applications must be submitted by the employer in the HKSAR.
• That employer must be a registered company in the HKSAR.

A Mainland enterprise setting up a Hong Kong entity in parallel cannot use its Mainland company name to file. The Hong Kong entity has to exist on the register first, and the online employment application goes in under its name.

What does a newly incorporated company have to show?

New companies get a concession, not an exemption. Instead of an annual financial report or proof of business performance, they may submit a business plan with relevant supporting documents.

The department’s stated test is whether the business will bring benefits to the HKSAR in the long run — for example by enhancing economic development or creating job opportunities for local people — and whether the applicant meets the ASMTP eligibility criteria. There is no fixed period the future business plan must cover, but it should show the company’s commitment to developing its business in Hong Kong on a long-term basis.

If the department is satisfied, it may approve short-term employment initially. Once the business development plan is materialised, the applicant may be granted an extension of stay to continue assisting the company’s operations, subject to continuing to meet the scheme’s criteria.

The three tests that sink owner-applications

Refusal, according to the Immigration Department, mainly turns on the employee failing the eligibility criteria. Concretely, that means one of three findings:

1. The applicant does not possess knowledge, skill or experience not readily available in Hong Kong.
2. The post can readily be taken up by the local workforce.
3. The remuneration package offered is not commensurate with the prevailing market level for professionals in the relevant field in Hong Kong.

The third is the one founders underestimate. “I will pay myself whatever the company can afford” is a weak answer when the benchmark is the prevailing market level for a professional in that field. Assume a hypothetical founder applying as “General Manager” of a two-person Hong Kong company: the question is what a general manager of comparable scope in Hong Kong is paid, not what the startup’s cash flow allows.

Can you start on a business visit endorsement and switch later?

Yes, and this is the two-stage sequence the department itself describes for Mainland business executives. Visitors, however, may not work. A Mainland resident holding an Exit-entry Permit for Travelling to and from Hong Kong and Macao with a Business Visit Endorsement is a visitor and “not allowed to take up any employment whether paid or unpaid.”

Work that a visitor may generally do includes concluding contracts or submitting tenders, examining or supervising installation or packaging of goods or equipment, participating in exhibitions or trade fairs (other than selling goods or supplying services direct to the general public), settling compensation or other civil proceedings, participating in product orientation, and attending short-term seminars or business meetings. Day-to-day operation of the Hong Kong company is not on that list.

The sequence, in order:

1. Enter Hong Kong on a Business Visit Endorsement to do preparatory work for setting up the company.
2. Register the Hong Kong company.
3. Have that company file the ASMTP application online with all supporting documents.
4. Collect the entry permit issued in the form of an e-Visa.
5. Apply for an Exit-entry Permit for Travelling to and from Hong Kong and Macao with the relevant exit endorsement from the Mainland authorities.
6. Enter Hong Kong and present the endorsement-bearing permit together with the e-Visa.
7. Start short-term employment to set up the office and begin business.
8. Apply for an extension of stay once the business plan has materialised.

Note step five carefully: a PRC passport does not substitute for the Exit-entry Permit route. A successful applicant must follow that entry arrangement even if already in Hong Kong on an “Exit-entry Permit for Travelling to and from Hong Kong and Macao for official purposes” — in that case, they must return to the Mainland first to obtain a proper permit and endorsement.

ASMTP, intra-company transfer, or something else?

If you already run a Mainland enterprise, intra-company transfer is the alternative the department names alongside ASMTP. It is not a different visa so much as a different evidentiary route within the same application procedure.

	ASMTP (standard)	Intra-company transfer	Business Visit Endorsement
Who may use it	Mainland talents and professionals sponsored by a Hong Kong-registered employer	Local enterprises with Mainland factories or offices; Mainland enterprises with Hong Kong branch offices; multinational companies with branches in both	Mainland residents entering as visitors
Core requirement	Special skills, knowledge or experience not readily available locally; post cannot readily be filled locally; market-level pay	Managerial or professional post; employed in the Mainland office for not less than one year at the time of application; pay broadly commensurate with market level	None of the employment tests — and no employment permitted
Company evidence	Business plan and supporting documents for newly set-up companies	Plus documentary proof of the connection between the local and Mainland enterprises, and proof the transfer meets operational or research needs	Not applicable
Typical outcome	Employment entry permit; initial short-term stay possible for new companies	Employment entry permit	Visitor landing; no work, paid or unpaid
Processing	Normally four weeks upon receipt of all required documents	Normally four weeks upon receipt of all required documents	Not a processing route

Two further constraints apply to intra-company transfer: the number of transferees a company sponsors at any one time should be reasonable relative to its total employment and the nature of its business, and the employing company must produce proof that the arrangement meets its operational or research needs.

How long does it take, and what happens at renewal?

Processing normally takes four weeks upon receipt of all the required documents, and the department will not begin processing until everything required has been received. The same four-week indication applies to dependant applications, intra-company transfer applications, and change-of-employment applications.

For extension of stay, apply within the three months before your limit of stay expires. Supporting material includes the applicant’s valid travel document, the Hong Kong identity card, and a current company letter stating position, total monthly remuneration and period of employment in Hong Kong.

There is also a top-tier employment stream. Professionals who have been permitted to work in Hong Kong under ASMTP for not less than two years and who have an assessable income for salaries tax of not less than HK$2 million in the previous year of tax assessment may be assessed under that stream, which requires documentary proof of that income — for example, a notice of salaries tax assessment from the Inland Revenue Department.

Change of employment is normally a fresh application to the Quality Migrants and Mainland Residents Section. Top-tier professionals whose stay is subject only to a time limit, with no other condition of stay, need only notify the department of the change through its online service within the currency of their permitted limit of stay.

What about family, and does this lead anywhere permanent?

Dependants can come. An ASMTP entrant may apply to bring in a spouse — or the other party to a same-sex civil partnership, same-sex civil union, “same-sex marriage”, opposite-sex civil partnership or opposite-sex civil union that is legally and officially recognised where it was celebrated — plus unmarried dependent children under 18. The sponsor must satisfy the Director of Immigration that they can support the dependants at a standard well above subsistence level and provide suitable accommodation in Hong Kong. Dependants are not prohibited from taking up employment or studies under existing policy.

On residence: there is no specific minimum number of days an ASMTP entrant must spend in Hong Kong, though the department expects the person to work predominantly in Hong Kong rather than overseas or in the Mainland. The seven-year continuous ordinary residence requirement for the right of abode is assessed case by case under the relevant provisions of the law.

The practical point for founders is continuity. Because the initial grant for a new company may be short-term and tied to the business plan materialising, the extension decision is where the founder’s own remuneration, the company’s local hiring, and the plan’s delivery all get tested again.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a shareholder-director sponsor their own Hong Kong work visa?

Not personally. The ASMTP application must be submitted by an employer that is a registered company in the HKSAR, so your own Hong Kong company is the sponsor. Your ownership does not exempt you from any eligibility criterion, and the department assesses you as it would any employed professional.

Can my Mainland company file the application instead of the Hong Kong entity?

No. Applications under ASMTP must be submitted by the employer in the HKSAR, and that employer must be a registered company in the HKSAR. A Mainland enterprise cannot apply using its Mainland company name, even while the Hong Kong company is being set up.

My Hong Kong company was incorporated this year and has no accounts — is that fatal?

No. A newly established company may submit a business plan and relevant supporting documents in place of an annual financial report or proof of business performance. The department looks at whether the business will benefit Hong Kong in the long run and whether the applicant meets the ASMTP criteria, and it may approve short-term employment first.

How long does an ASMTP application take?

It normally takes four weeks to process an employment entry permit application upon receipt of all required documents. The department will not start processing until every required document and piece of information has been received.

Can I run my Hong Kong company while visiting on a Business Visit Endorsement?

No. Holders of that endorsement are visitors and are not allowed to take up employment, paid or unpaid. Visitor status covers activities such as concluding contracts, attending trade fairs or short seminars, and supervising equipment installation — not daily operation of the company.

Does time on ASMTP count toward the right of abode?

The seven-year continuous ordinary residence requirement is assessed by the Immigration Department on a case-by-case basis under the relevant legal provisions. There is no minimum number of days an ASMTP entrant must spend in Hong Kong, but they are expected to work predominantly in Hong Kong.

References

• Hong Kong Immigration Department — Admission Scheme for Mainland Talents and Professionals (ASMTP) Frequently Asked Questions
• GovHK — Apply for Employment Visa / Entry Permit
• GovHK — Application for Extension of Stay for ASMTP Entrants
• GovHK — Change of Employment / Sponsorship Application
• GovHK — Application for Residence as Dependant