Three applications under Hong Kong’s new investment visa scheme have been approved, the government has announced, without disclosing where the applicants came from.
Invest Hong Kong (InvestHK), a government department focused on foreign direct investment, said on Wednesday that a total of 390 applications had been received from March 1 to June 30.
Among them, three have been officially approved after the applicant made the required investment of at least HK$30 million, InvestHK said.
When asked which countries the three applicants were residents of, InvestHK told local media outlets on Thursday that “it had no more information to add at the moment.”
In response to enquiries from HKFP, InvestHK said that of the 339 applications received, 325 came from “foreign nationals or persons with permanent residence overseas,” while the remaining 14 were from “Macao Special Administrative Region residents and Chinese residents of Taiwan.” The three approved applications came from foreign nationals or people with overseas permanent residence.
InvestHK did not provide any further details.
Hong Kong rolled out the New Capital Investment Entrant Scheme (CIES) on March 1 to allow foreign nationals – and residents of Taiwan, Macau and mainland China “that have obtained permanent resident status in a foreign country” – to be granted a two-year visa if they invest at least HK$30 million in permissible assets in the city.
Such assets include non-residential real estate or financial products, and those who successfully renew their visa and continue to live in Hong Kong for seven years can apply to become permanent residents of the city.
“The New CIES brings a vast pool of talents to Hong Kong, attracting successful businessmen and innovative entrepreneurs,” Alpha Lau, the director-general of InvestHK said in a statement on Wednesday. She added that the government expected to draw around HK$10 billion to the city “if more than 300 applications are all approved.”
Applicants from Vanuatu, Guinea-Bissau
Earlier in June, the government revealed that by the end of May, 251 applications had been received under the new investment scheme, with most applicants residents of the South Pacific island nation Vanuatu and Guinea-Bissau, in West Africa.
The figures sparked online discussion about why so many applications came from these two countries, both of which have relatively small populations and low per capita gross domestic product.
Writing on Facebook, a financial commentator said the reason so many residents of Vanuatu and Guinea-Bissau had applied for Hong Kong’s immigration scheme was perhaps because some Chinese nationals had gained permanent residency in “small countries.”
On Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu, immigration agents have posted advertisements promoting “obtaining permanent resident status of Guinea-Bissau for only 20,000 Renminbi.” One of the advantages of becoming a resident of Guinea-Bissau listed was the opportunity to apply for the Hong Kong investment immigration scheme.
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