IANG Visa Renewal When You Run Your Own Hong Kong Company

I am going through this myself. A member of my family is coming up for IANG renewal, and we are going through it via the self-employment route with our own Hong Kong company.

Every figure below marked official was checked line by line against the Immigration Department and the MPFA websites on the date shown at the top of this page. Everything marked observed comes from my own preparation and from conversations with people doing the same thing — useful, but not a rule.

This is not legal, tax or immigration advice. Approval involves subjective judgement, and identical circumstances can produce different outcomes. Nobody can promise you a result.

If you search in English for how IANG renewal works when you are self-employed, you will find law-firm overviews, fintech blog posts and expat guides — and all of them end the same way: contact the Immigration Department directly. None of them quote the actual rules.

So here they are, quoted.

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The three rules that catch people out

1. The filing window is three months — the hard floor is six weeks

official — Immigration Department, verbatim:

Application for extension of stay should be made as early as possible within three months before the expiry of the limit of stay, and in all cases, should be submitted not less than six weeks before the limit of stay expires.

Three months is when the window opens. Six weeks is the absolute floor. Plenty of secondary sources say "apply four weeks ahead" — that is wrong, and it pushes you below the threshold the Department itself sets.

Where the "four weeks" comes from. It is a real rule, applied to the wrong people. official, from the Department's dependants page:

Dependants under the "Specified Schemes" may apply for extension of stay within three months before the expiry of their limit of stay; other dependants may apply within four weeks before expiry.

Four weeks is the window for dependants outside the Specified Schemes. IANG is a Specified Scheme, so three months / six weeks applies. One rule, borrowed into the wrong category, and then repeated everywhere.

Worth knowing if your family files together: the six-week floor applies to Specified Scheme dependants too, not just to the principal applicant.

Processing normally takes about two to three weeks from receipt of all required documents and the fee — and, official, "not all applications for extension of stay will necessarily be approved."

2. Filing does not let you stay. You must still leave before your visa expires

This is the single most consequential rule, and almost nothing written in English mentions it.

official:

A person who is subject to a limit of stay must leave Hong Kong before the expiry of the limit of stay, even if an application for extension of stay has been made to the Director of Immigration and is under process, unless special permission has been granted by the Director. Breach of conditions of stay, including overstaying, is a serious criminal offence.

Read that together with the two-to-three week processing time and you understand why filing at the six-week floor is not a plan.

3. Site visits are official policy, not a rumour

official:

The Immigration Department may conduct site visits when verifying the authenticity of the information and documents submitted.

So a registered address you have never physically used is not a "risk" — it is a thing that can be checked in person, at any time.

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What the Department actually requires from a self-employed applicant

official — the entire published requirement is one sentence:

Applicants must have secured an offer of employment at the time of application. The job should be one normally taken up by degree holders, and the remuneration package should be at market level. Applicants who have established or joined in any business in the HKSAR should produce documentary proof of their business.

That is it. There is:

• no published minimum salary figure
• no published profit requirement
• no published requirement to employ local staff
• no published minimum number of days you must be physically present

Anyone quoting you a specific threshold as "the requirement" is quoting practice, not policy. Practice is still worth knowing — see below — but the distinction matters, because practice changes and nobody owes you a refund when it does.

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Salary and MPF: where the real numbers are

There is no official salary floor. observed, the figure that comes up over and over in Hong Kong and Shenzhen is HK$30,000 per month. Go lower and you risk the job not reading as "one normally taken up by degree holders"; go higher and your company accounts have to support it.

What is official is the MPF arithmetic — and HK$30,000 happens to sit exactly on the cap.

official — MPFA:

So at HK$30,000 a month: employer contributes HK$1,500, employee contributes HK$1,500, HK$3,000 total. Raise the salary further and the MPF contribution does not move.

Two more official points that trip up first-time employers:

• Below HK$7,100 a month, the employee does not contribute — but the employer still does
• A new employee has a 30-day contribution holiday; the employer has none and contributes from day one

And one that is routinely stated wrong, including in an earlier version of this page — enrolment and the first contribution are two different deadlines:

Enrolment is the earlier of the two. It applies to employees aged 18 to 64 employed for a continuous period of 60 days or more.

The reason this matters more than the exact figure: payslips and MPF records accumulate month by month and cannot be reconstructed afterwards. Every week you delay starting is a week of record you will never have. This is the one part of the timeline that cannot be compressed.

Pay from the company account, never a personal one. That transfer record is the most direct evidence that the employment relationship is real.

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Forms and fees

official — form titles as published by the Immigration Department:

official — IANG is a "Specified Scheme" under Schedule 2 of the Immigration Regulations:

The principal applicant and every dependant each pay separately. Fees are non-refundable regardless of outcome.

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How long you get

official: if approved, applicants are normally granted an extension on a 3-3 year pattern, free of other conditions of stay.

There is also a top talent route to a longer extension. official, the criteria are hard numbers:

• You have stayed in Hong Kong under IANG for not less than two years; and
• Your assessable income for salaries tax in the previous year of assessment was HK$2 million or above (evidenced by an IRD notice of assessment or similar)

Meet both, and a successful application is normally granted six years.

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One thing in your favour if you have family here

official: dependants of IANG holders may take up employment in Hong Kong without restriction, and all dependants may study in Hong Kong without prior approval from the Director of Immigration.

official, and worth planning around early: a sponsor may bring unmarried dependent children under the age of 18. Once a child turns 18, they can no longer stay as a dependant and need another basis to remain — a student visa, typically, with the fees that implies. If your eldest is approaching 18, that date belongs on the same timeline as your renewal.

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Frequently asked questions

How early can I apply to extend an IANG visa?

Within three months before your limit of stay expires. The Immigration Department also states that in all cases the application should be submitted not less than six weeks before expiry. Processing normally takes about two to three weeks after all required documents and the fee are received, and not all applications are approved.

Can I stay in Hong Kong while my IANG extension is being processed?

No. The Immigration Department states that a person subject to a limit of stay must leave Hong Kong before that limit expires even if an extension application is under process, unless the Director of Immigration has granted special permission. Overstaying is a serious criminal offence.

Is there a minimum salary for IANG renewal if I employ myself?

The Immigration Department publishes no specific figure. The official wording is that the job should be one normally taken up by degree holders with a remuneration package at market level. HK$30,000 per month is the figure commonly used in practice, but it is a practice benchmark, not a published requirement.

How much MPF do I have to contribute?

Employer and employee each contribute 5% of relevant income. The minimum relevant income level is HK$7,100 per month and the maximum is HK$30,000, so each side contributes at most HK$1,500 per month. Below HK$7,100 the employee is exempt but the employer is not. Enrolment and first contribution are two separate deadlines: the employer must enrol the employee within the first 60 days of employment, and make the first contribution on or before the contribution day (the 10th of the month) following the calendar month in which the 60th day falls. Enrolment is the earlier deadline.

Which forms do I need for IANG renewal through my own company?

Two. The applicant completes ID 91, the Application for Extension of Stay. The employing company, which is your own company, completes ID 990B, the Application for Employment as Professionals in Hong Kong to be completed by the employing company.

How much does IANG renewal cost?

IANG is a Specified Scheme, so the application fee is HK$600 and the visa issuance fee is HK$1,300 for a stay exceeding 180 days, totalling HK$1,900 per person. The principal applicant and each dependant pay separately, and fees are not refunded.

Will my application be refused if my company is not profitable in its first year?

The Immigration Department publishes no quantitative profit standard, so no honest answer can be a guarantee. Its published requirement for self-employed applicants is only to produce documentary proof of the business, alongside repeated emphasis on verifying authenticity including through site visits. That structure suggests the focus is on whether the business is real rather than whether it is profitable, but this is an interpretation, not a rule.

How many days a year must I spend in Hong Kong?

The Immigration Department publishes no annual day threshold for renewal. The only day-based standard it publishes is for right of abode, which requires having ordinarily resided in Hong Kong continuously for not less than seven years. In practice, how genuinely present you are is assessed as a whole rather than by a day count.

Can my spouse work in Hong Kong on a dependant visa?

Yes. Dependants of people admitted under IANG may take up employment in Hong Kong without restriction, and all dependants may study in Hong Kong without prior approval from the Director of Immigration.

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Related

• 中文完整版：IANG 续签材料清单（创业路径）
• 香港身份续签 20 问
• 1v1 consultation

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Written while going through this process myself. Items marked official were checked against immd.gov.hk and mpfa.org.hk on the date shown at the top of this page. Requirements in Hong Kong change from year to year — verify against the official sources before you act. This page is personal experience and observation, not legal, tax or immigration advice.