610, 6th floor ithum tower, sec 62 Noida
610, 6th floor ithum tower, sec 62 Noida
Hong Kong is one of the most desired immigration Destinations for citizens living in India due to its high-recognition among the most developed countries that exists for the Asia-Pacific region. Hong Kong emerged as an important economic, social and cultural hub and is currently the best place to make an investment for both highly skilled professionals as well as entrepreneurs. Therefore, along with high standards of living and social benefits, immigrating to Hong Kong will surely boost your career opportunities and add value to your distinguished profile.
The Quality Migrant Admission Scheme (QMAS) is one of the most sort-after streams opted by skilled individuals and entrepreneurs who intend to immigrate to Hong Kong for pursuing professional careers or staring their own business. In order to become eligible for settling down in Hong Kong through QMAS, it is required for the applicants to satisfy a set of prerequisites, while also clearing points-based test and competing with other eligible candidates for quota allocation. Successful applicants are able to get Hong Kong visa for a period of one-year and are also allowed to bring their family members via the same application. The details on eligibility criteria, requirements for bringing dependents along with the main applicant and other relevant information is as follows.
The QMAS (Quality Migrant Admission Scheme) has been designed with an objective to attract highly talented or skilled individuals to settle in Hong Kong and facilitate the economic development of Hong Kong.
The major benefit of this scheme is that the successful applicants are not needed to have a prior job offer before making an entry in Hong Kong for settling.
The applicants are only required to complete certain pre-requisites before any points can be awarded to them under one of the two most prominent point-based tests for Hong Kong. These are named as General Points Test and Achievement-based Points Test, under which all the eligible candidates compete for allocation of quota. Further, successful candidates are allowed to bring their partner through same-sex civil partnership, same-sex marriage, same-sex civil union, opposite-sex civil partnership or opposite-sex civil union. The relationship status should be legally recognized by the local authorities in the place of celebration.
The main applicant can also bring along unmarried dependent children, who must be under the age of 18, provided that the applicant should be capable of providing support and accommodation to their dependents through their own financial resources without taking any assistance from the Hong Kong Government.
This particular scheme is not applicable to citizens belonging to Afghanistan, Cuba, Laos, Nepal, Vietnam and Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea).
All the applicants who intend to apply under this Scheme are needed to fulfill certain pre-requisites before they could be granted any points through one of the two most relevant points-based tests considered under the Scheme.
Applicants that have met all the requirements mentioned under the prerequisites, then they may choose to get evaluated either under the Achievement-based Points Test or General Points Test. There is only one point-scoring factor that is considered under the Achievement-based Points Test and six points-scoring factors that come under General Points test.
A minimum passing mark has been kept for individuals you apply via the General Points Test. For those who choose to assess their eligibility using the Achievement-based Points Test are necessitated to evaluate if their credentials are appropriate to meet the criteria for minimum passing marks before lodging their application.
Selection exercises are done on frequent basis in order to allocate quota to applicants. During every selection exercise, those applicants that satisfy both prerequisites as well as the minimum passing mark (assessed under the General Points Test) or the one point-scoring factor (assessed under the Achievement-based Points Test) are ranked according to scores awarded in one of these points tests.
High-scoring applications are the short-listed for conducting further evaluation.
The Director of Immigration seeks advice from the Advisory Committee on Admission of Quality Migrants and Professionals on the evaluation, scoring points on the test grid, quota allocation under the scheme.
Please note that by only meeting the minimum passing mark or coming under the high-scoring applications does not guarantee quote allotment. Results of each selection exercise are published on the website of Immigration Department. As it takes considerable amount of time to process applications, they would be considered under processing until the applicant would receive a notification on refusal by the Immigration Department.
Applicated who are being allocated a quote during the selection exercise are sent an “Approval-in-principle letter”. Such applicants then come to Hong Kong to attend a face-to-face interview and present their original documents submitted along with the application to Immigration Department for verification purpose. In this scenario, they have the option to come to Hong Kong on visitor conditions.
Please note that just receiving an Approval-in-principle letter does not guarantee approval applicant’s entry to or their settlement in Hong Kong under the QMAS Scheme.
If all the original documents sent for verification are satisfactory and if each application procedure is finalized, then the successful applicants are issued with a entry permit or visa under the QMAS Scheme, which allows then to stay in Hong Kong.
All applicants are required to satisfy all the prerequisites listed below:
Age
The applicant should be aged 18 or above while filling the application under the QMAS Scheme.
Financial requirement
The applicant should be able to demonstrate that they are capable of supporting themselves along with their dependents, if any by using their financial resources and not relying upon the public assistance while staying in Hong Kong.
Good Character
The applicant’s profile should be devoid of any criminal record or any adverse immigration record, either with respect to Kong or for any other country.
Language proficiency
The applicant must be proficient in writing and speaking Chinese (Cantonese or Putonghua) or English.
Basic educational qualification
The applicant should have good education background. This includes first class degree from a recognized university or some tertiary educational institution. In some special circumstances, good technical qualifications are taken as a direct proof of professional abilities and/or achievements and experience that are directly supported through documentary evidences and will be taken into consideration appropriately.
In case the applicant fails to provide sufficient supporting documents, which shows that they meet all the mentioned prerequisites (listed above), then their application will not be processed further and the Immigration Department will refuse the same immediately.
Applicants applying under the QMAS scheme are also eligible to apply to bring their spouse or some other individual under the same-sex civil partnership, same-sex marriage, same-sex civil union, opposite-sex civil union or opposite-sex civil partnership as announced by the applicant and the status being legally recognized by the local officials at the place of celebration. The main applicant is also allowed to bring along unmarried dependent children who should be under the age of 18 through the prevailing dependent policy.
Individuals applying for admission through the QMAS Scheme will be therefore the main sponsor of those accompanying them to Hong Kong. The total length of stay of these dependents will be linked with that of their sponsors.
Applicants under the QMAS Scheme are strictly advised to submit dependent entry permit or visa applications for all the accompanying dependents (partner, family members) along with their visa application. If an applicant claims points, based on the educational level of their married spouse and/or a certain number of dependent children, who would be accompanying the main applicant under the General Points Test, then the applicant should submit a dependent visa or entry permit application for these family members that would be linked with the primary application submitted under the QMAS Scheme.
