Hong Kong CIES

Hong Kong's New Capital Investment Entrant Scheme requires HK$30 million Net: at least HK$27 million into permissible assets you choose and own, plus HK$3 million into a government directed portfolio you do not control. It buys residence in Hong Kong, not a passport, and the route to permanent status rewards people who genuinely move rather than people who visit.

The scheme, usually shortened to New CIES, was relaunched in 2024 and is run by two bodies: the New CIES Office, under InvestHK, which assesses net assets and certifies the investment, and the Immigration Department, which decides and issues the visa. The mandatory HK$3 million goes into the CIES Investment Portfolio, overseen by Hong Kong Investment Corporation Limited.

What does the New CIES actually get you?

Approval grants permission to stay for not more than 24 months on time limitation only. That phrase matters: you are not tied to an employer or a sponsor, so you and your family may work, study or start a company from the first day. Extensions are normally granted for not more than three years at a time, while the investment is maintained. What the status does not give you is a travel document: you continue to travel on the passport you hold, and it confers no visa free access of its own.

What counts towards the HK$30 million, and what does not

The HK$27 million may be held in permissible financial assets: equities listed in Hong Kong, eligible debt securities, certificates of deposit, subordinated debt, eligible collective investment schemes and, within a published cap, ownership interests in certain eligible private funds. Real estate is permitted, but only within limits that surprise most applicants: the scheme caps how much real estate may count at all, applies a lower ceiling to residential property, and sets a minimum transaction price below which a single residential property does not count. These limits have been revised since the scheme relaunched, and the one that applies can depend on when a purchase completes, so we confirm the current figures against the New CIES Office schedule for each case.

This is not a property programme. Buy a home in Hong Kong and only a fraction of the price counts. If property is the strategy, the golden visa and residency hub sets out routes built for it. The HK$3 million portfolio placement cannot be substituted or deferred, and its returns and liquidity sit outside your control.

Who can apply, and who cannot

The scheme is open to foreign nationals, Chinese nationals with permanent resident status in a foreign country, Macao SAR residents and Chinese residents of Taiwan. It does not apply to nationals of Afghanistan, Cuba and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and applicants must be 18 or above when applying for the Net Asset Assessment.

Two requirements cause most of the difficulty. The first is the net asset test: you must show net assets or net equity with a market value of not less than HK$30 million Net throughout the six months preceding the date you lodge the application. Six months, not two years, and continuous, so a liquidity event or borrowing that briefly depresses net equity can disturb it. The second is self support: you must satisfy the Director of Immigration that you can support and accommodate yourself and your dependants without relying on any return on the permissible investment assets, on employment or self employment, or on public assistance in Hong Kong. Income that exists only because of the invested capital does not answer that question.

Family scope is free of extra investment: your spouse, or the other party to a same sex civil partnership, and your unmarried dependent children under the age of 18 may accompany you, and the HK$30 million requirement does not rise with family size.

What the Government charges, and how long it takes

Immigration fees were restructured on 26 February 2025 into an application fee plus a visa issuance fee that varies with the length of stay granted. They are charged per person rather than per family, and fall due again at each extension. The published schedule and the figure in our data backbone do not presently agree, so the calculator on this page marks those rows as requiring confirmation rather than showing a figure we cannot stand behind. They are in any case small next to professional and accountancy work, custody and brokerage charges and stamp duty.

No official end to end processing time is published, and we will not invent one. The sequence is fixed: Net Asset Assessment, approval in principle, investment and portfolio placement within the permitted window, confirmation by the New CIES Office, then permission to stay. The step that usually extends a timetable is the investment itself.

How is income taxed in Hong Kong?

Hong Kong operates a territorial tax system: only Hong Kong sourced income is generally taxable, and foreign sourced income is generally not taxed. There is no general capital gains tax, no VAT or GST, no estate duty and no withholding tax on dividends or interest. Salaries tax on Hong Kong employment income is charged at progressive rates subject to an overall standard rate cap, with the lower computation applying. Property attracts stamp duty, and your wider position depends on the other jurisdictions that tax you. This is general information, not tax advice.

Right of abode after seven years, and how it can be lost

After residing continuously in Hong Kong for seven years, an entrant may apply for the right of abode, which is Hong Kong's permanent residence. Two qualifications, routinely left out elsewhere, deserve emphasis. First, it is not automatic: under the Immigration Ordinance a person claiming that status does not hold it until the Director of Immigration has approved the application, and the Director must be satisfied that Hong Kong has been taken as the place of permanent residence, considering habitual residence, whether the family is in Hong Kong, whether there is a reasonable means of income, and whether taxes have been paid in accordance with the law. The scheme publishes no fixed minimum number of days per year, but ordinary residence means what it says.

Second, this permanent status can be lost. Where it was acquired through the seven year route by a person who is not a Chinese national, it ceases if that person is absent from Hong Kong for a continuous period of not less than 36 months after ceasing to be ordinarily resident. A residual right to land is preserved, but permanent resident status is not. For an internationally mobile family that is material.

Nor does any of this lead to citizenship. Nationality is governed separately by the Nationality Law of the People's Republic of China, which has no investment route and does not recognise dual nationality. The HKSAR passport follows Chinese nationality rather than permanent residence, so a permanent resident who is not a Chinese national may instead obtain a Hong Kong Document of Identity for Visa Purposes. The corollary is a genuine strength: nothing here asks you to surrender the nationality you hold.

Who this suits, and who it does not

It suits the investor who wants a real base in a leading financial centre, who values a common law system, no exchange controls and a territorial tax regime, and who intends to spend meaningful time in Hong Kong rather than collect a status, and it suits families, because the investment does not scale with family size. It suits you less well if you want a second passport, visa free travel, a status held from abroad, or full control of every tranche. At HK$30 million it is among the most demanding residency programmes in the world. Investors wanting a lighter footprint often look at the United Arab Emirates Golden Visa or Thailand Elite residency, while those seeking a western common law base compare it with New Zealand's Active Investor Plus visa.

If Hong Kong is where you intend to live and invest, the case is strong and the rules are clear. Speak with Mirabello Consultancy for a complimentary consultation and we will tell you honestly whether the net asset test, the presence expectation and the portfolio requirement suit your circumstances, before you commit a single Hong Kong dollar.