Having migrated to Singapore with her family four months ago, Lindsey quickly found her feet in the city-state. She enrolled her children in school, hired a domestic worker, rented a 1600-square-foot apartment, and started her own business consultancy firm.
A former executive at an international consulting company, Lindsey said that she decided to leave mainland China due to her growing sense of insecurity with the government strengthening its authoritarian rule.
A salesman in Tsim Sha Tsui promoting Hong Kong residency, insurance, further education, and bank accounts. File photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
Her first choice was to emigrate to the US. As a “cost-free back-up plan,” she applied for Hong Kong’s Top Talent Pass Scheme (TTPS), targeting graduates from top universities. Lindsey, who graduated from a top university in mainland China, got the visa.
However, when the US plan fell through in early 2024, she and her familydecided not to relocate to Hong Kong. Instead, they opted for Singapore, which the middle-class family considered to have more advantages than Hong Kong, especially in terms of economic development and political autonomy.
For topics we can’t talk about in China, can you say it in Hong Kong now? You can’t.
Lindsey, Top Talent Pass Scheme visa holder in singapore
“Ultimately, does it make any difference between going to Hong Kong and staying in mainland China?” asked Lindsey in Mandarin. “For topics we can’t talk about in China, can you say it in Hong Kong now? You can’t.”
Lindsey, who is living in Singapore on an employment visa after setting up her own company, is not interested in going to Hong Kong. “My TTPS visa should expire early next year, but I am not planning to extend it,” she told HKFP.
Lindsey is among a wave of mainland Chinese who have successfully obtained a TTPS visa but decided not to live in Hong Kong. She and several other TTPS visa holders agreed to speak with HKFP under pseudonyms due to privacy concerns and the sensitivity of the topic.
Motorists travel along a road in the central business district in Singapore on March 6, 2025. Photo: Roslan Rahman/AFP.
Hong Kong launched the TTPS in December 2022 to attract talent after an exodus of professionals following the imposition of a national security law and years of strict Covid-19 curbs.
💡HKFP grants anonymity to known sources under tightly controlled, limited circumstances defined in our Ethics Code. Among the reasons senior editors may approve the use of anonymity for sources are threats to safety, job security or fears of reprisals.
TTPS applicants are not required to secure any jobs in advance. But they need to fulfil at least one of three criteria: an annual income no less than HK$2.5 million during the past year; a degree from a top university and at least three years of work experience over the past five years; or a degree from a top university over the past five years, with no work experience required. The government keeps a list of recognised “top universities,” which currently numbers 199.
Once approved, visa holders are able to work and live in the city for two to three years. They can renew their visa if they are employed as a full-time worker or establish a business in Hong Kong. After seven years, they can apply for permanent residency.
With a lower threshold than other talent programmes, the TTPS now contributes to a major share of work visas in Hong Kong. As of December 2024, the Immigration Department approved over 270,000 work visas under various schemes over the past two years. One-third of them – or more than 90,000 visas – were TTPS visas.
Three-quarters of the overall work visa holders were from mainland China, official figures showed. Under the TTPS, the share of mainland Chinese was much higher: a whopping 95 per cent.
So far, there is no data as to how many TTPS visa holders have decided to stay – or turn their back on the city like Lindsey.
The TTPS has had its share of criticism, including from former chief executive Leung Chun-ying. He said on Facebook in late February that he had met visa holders who went back to mainland China as soon as they got their residence permit.
“They came to Hong Kong just to obtain residency status, solely to conveniently travel to and from Hong Kong; to enrol their children in either schools for Hong Kong residents’ children in mainland China or in Hong Kong schools; or even to enjoy a tax rate for Hongkongers in mainland China,” he wrote.
Angela, a graduate from a top mainland Chinese university, told HKFP that the TTPS provided her with a “convenient travel visa to Hong Kong.”
She was living in Shenzhen, working in the investment sector, when she obtained a TTPS visa in early 2023. Angela never moved to Hong Kong, but she visited the city at least once a month for fun.
Angela, in her 20s, said she was not interested in relocating across the border. “The living cost in Hong Kong is too high,” Angela said in Mandarin, “and I don’t have any network in Hong Kong.”
People on a ferry in Hong Kong. File photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
When a headhunter offered her a new job in Shanghai a few months ago, Angela accepted itand moved there.
“I forgot when my TTPS visa would expire, probably soon. Anyway, I won’t renew it,” Angela told HKFP.
‘Stockpiling food’
When Hong Kong leader John Lee announced the TTPS in October 2022, mainland China was still in the grip of strict Covid-19 pandemic restrictions. Amid years-long lockdowns and mandatory health checks, “Runology” – an online term referring to discussions on how to emigrate and “run away” overseas – became a popular topic on Chinese social media.
Emma was living in Beijing at that time, working in the new media industry. She and her friends often shared information about emigration.
“It was the time when everyone felt frustrated with a sense of crisis. We were not sure what would happen,” said Emma.
She decided to apply for a TTPS visa because she believed she would easily fulfil the criteria. After all, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree from a top university in mainland China and a master’s degree from a university in Hong Kong.
It’s like stockpiling food before the end of the world. And Hong Kong is the easiest to add to the pile.
EmmA, TOP TALENT PASS SCheme visa holder in beijing
“It’s like stockpiling food before the end of the world, ” she said. “And Hong Kong is the easiest to add to the pile.”
Within one week, her application was approved. However, China suddenly scrapped all its Covid-19 restrictions in early 2023. Having been able to keep her job in a new media outlet despite the economy slowdown, she decided to stay put.
“Ultimately, Hong Kong is not very attractive to me,” Emma said. “And you can’t foresee any good development of the media industry in Hong Kong either.”
Workers wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) are seen on a street in Beijing near a residential community that just opened on December 9, 2022, after a lockdown due to Covid-19 coronavirus restrictions. Photo: Noel Celis/AFP.
She told HKFP that at least six of her friends also got TTPS visas, “but none of them actually went to Hong Kong or tried to look for a job there.”
Lindsey said mainland Chinese who wished to emigrate would compare Hong Kong with other destinations like Singapore and Japan – the two countries that saw a rapid rise in Chinese immigrants over the past few years.
As a businessperson, Lindsey found the industrial structure of Hong Kong “too homogeneous,” mainly relying on tourism and finance, whilst Singapore had more diverse industries, including manufacturing.
She also said her business was well placed in Singapore as more Chinese consumer goods companies established offices in the city-state in their bid to enter Southeast Asian markets, bringing more clients to her consulting firm.
‘Three race lanes’
In contrast, Lily – who, like Lindsey, is also in her late 30s – decided to move to Hong Kong because she said the city offered more opportunities for her two young children.
A family in a Hong Kong shopping mall in March 2025. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
A graduate of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, Lily obtained a TTPS visa in early 2023. Eight months ago, she moved to Hong Kong and set up an international trading company. Her husband and children would join her early next year.
“My husband and I realised a long time ago that our children were not cut out for study,” said Lily told HKFP in a café. “We just don’t want them to live like us again, to work so hard to get an enrolment to Sun Yat-sen University.”
Lily said that most students in mainland China have “only one race lane” to succeed, which is the gruelling, highly competitive university entrance exams, known as gaokao.
But if her kids become Hong Kong residents, there will be “three race lanes” for them to choose, said Lily. “They can apply to universities in Hong Kong with DSE [the city’s Diploma of Secondary Education], they can apply to universities in mainland China as Hong Kong residents, and they can also apply to foreign universities with results from Hong Kong exams.”
Starting in 1985, Beijing provided a special mechanism for students from Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and overseas Chinese nationals to be enrolled in mainland Chinese universities, without having to compete in gaokao.
Hong Kong’s lawmaker Jesse Shang in his office in the Legislative Council in March, 2025. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
Not long after Lily arrived in Hong Kong, sensing a high demand, she set up a groupfor mainland Chinese parents to provide them with information about not only schools in the city but also visa applications.
Jesse Shang, a pro-establishment lawmaker who moved from mainland China to Hong Kong in 2011, concurred with Lily. He believed that one main motivation for mainland Chinese talent to stay in the city was to seek a better education for their children.
Among those who came to Hong Kong, I would say two out of three were for their kids’ education.
Jesse SHang, Hong Kong lawmaker
“Among those who came to Hong Kong, I would say two out of three were for their kids’ education,” he told HKFP in an interview, adding that the government should do more to assist new arrivals to enrol their children in school.
‘We are Chinese’
David, who graduated from a top Chinese university, was working in the investment industry in Shanghai when the city went under a months-long Covid-19 lockdown in 2022.
“We lived in a nice community in Shanghai, a middle-class one, and it was completely locked down for three months,” he recalled. “The entire community came to a standstill. We couldn’t even walk out of our home.”
He and many other residents were frustrated, he said, “but we do not have any channels to say anything. It was futile.” Living under lockdown motivated him to leave mainland China. He was not interested in going abroad with his family, however.
A job fair organised by the Hong Kong Top Talent Services Association on February 28, 2024. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
“Hong Kong is the best option for us because we are Chinese,” he told HKFP in Mandarin. Other factors included sending his children to Hong Kong schools and seeking new business opportunities in the city.
In early 2023, David obtained a TTPS visa and switched jobs to work in the insurance industry. He became a Hong Kong-licensed insurance agent, with mainland Chinese customers as his main clientele. He currently runs a team of more than 50 insurance agents, most of whom are top university Chinese graduates working in Hong Kong on TTPS visas or other work visas.
David still splits his time between Hong Kong and Shanghai, meeting potential customers in Shanghai and signing insurance contracts with clients in Hong Kong. He hopes his wife and child will join him in Hong Kong in one or two years.
“I love outdoor activities, and in Hong Kong I enjoy a lot of hiking,” David said. “I suffer from rhinitis, and every time I arrive in Hong Kong, I feel better.”
He is also learning Cantonese to settle better in Hong Kong.
People outside a job fair organised by the Hong Kong Top Talent Services Association on February 28, 2024. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
So far, the government has shrugged off the criticism against the TTPS.
“I often compare talent matching to dating,” labour and welfare chief Chris Sun wrote on Facebook in early March. “If talent finds Hong Kong is suitable for them, they will stay; if they choose not to, it is normal to ‘break up peacefully.‘”
It has been over two years since TTPS came into effect. According to Sun’s statement on Wednesday, nearly 10,000 TTPS visas will expire by June and the government will disclose visa extension data after that.
“If [the number of] visa extensions is not ideal, I am afraid the public discourse will turn out to be negative, partly because those who do not choose to stay in Hong Kong tend to say bad things about the city,” Shang told HKFP.
The lawmaker estimated that half of the 40,000 people who obtained TTPS visas in 2023 would not renew their visas. “Some just did not think it through when they applied, while some failed to secure a job even after they tried,” Shang said.
If [the number of] visa extensions is not ideal, I am afraid the public discourse will turn out to be negative, partly because those who do not choose to stay in HK tend to say bad things about the city.
JESSE Shang, Hong Kong Lawmaker
He said talent which decided to stay should tell more good stories about the city.
Shang said the city should improve its economic performance to attract talent from elsewhere, not just north of the border, because Hong Kong’s education system – an important pull factor for mainland Chinese parents – may not be enough for foreign parents.
“Foreign professionals are not interested in Hong Kong’s education resources,” he said. “After all, our education goal is to send our kids [for higher education] to their countries in the US and Europe, right?”
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