Photo shows a view by the Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong, June 11, 2020. (LI GANG / XINHUA)

Up to 45,000 talents from around the world are expected to arrive in Hong Kong to take advantage of the latest measures meant to attract top global talents to settle in the city, according to a leading local immigration consultancy company.

There will be a substantial surge in the number of immigrants moving to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region next year after the HKSAR government on Dec 23 unveiled the new measures on “Competing for Talents and Enterprises”, Tina Cheng, senior director of Business Strategy at the Midland Immigration Consultancy, said Thursday. 

The influx of people is anticipated partly as a response to the government’s favorable measures, and partly due to the backlog of roughly 10,000 Quality Migrant Admission Scheme applications which were left unapproved in 2020 and 2021 because of pandemic disruptions

The influx of people is anticipated partly as a response to the government’s favorable measures, and partly due to the backlog of roughly 10,000 Quality Migrant Admission Scheme applications which were left unapproved in 2020 and 2021 because of pandemic disruptions, Cheng said. 

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Even without the measures to attract more global manpower and the introduction of the Top Talent Pass Scheme, 2023 would have seen over 30,000 potential applicants moving to the city, said Cheng. 

The new succession of measures designed to streamline the application process, shorten the vetting period and make the requirements less rigorous will result ina  considerable number of talents eligible for resettling in Hong Kong, she noted. 

“The government’s estimate is 30,000 (new immigrants in 2023), which is too conservative. We would put it to 45,000,” said Cheng. 

A one-stop manpower information portal was launched on Wednesday by the Talents Service Unit of the SAR government, through which applicants can submit all documents required online with the promise that they will receive a decision within four weeks. 

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Other major improvements include the removal of quotas and the extensions of stay in Hong Kong. For instance, the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme will no longer adhere to the old quota-based regime. The limit on staying, under the Immigration Arrangements for Non-local Graduates, is now extended from one year to two years. The Top Talent Pass Scheme is designed for individuals who had an annual salary of at least HK$2.5 million ($320,440) in the past year, and for individuals who graduated from the world’s top 100 universities and who had at least three years of work experience in the past five years. Such individuals will be issued two-year passes so they can explore opportunities in Hong Kong, without any quota limit.

“We (Midland Immigration Consultancy) have received an avalanche of enquiries from everywhere in the world — 1.5 to 3 times more than we’d got before the government made the  details of the schemes public,” said Cheng. 

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Despite the talent bleed that Hong Kong has been experiencing over the past two years, the city is ready to rebound and to recover the vote of confidence from international talent. “The debilitating population loss in Hong Kong will be plugged by over-achieving graduates, entrepreneurs and investors from the Chinese mainland and abroad,” said Cheng.