You came here to study, and the last semester always goes faster than the others. The end date on your student visa is suddenly close, classmates are comparing offers, and someone at home asks the question you have been asking yourself: so, are you staying? That is true whether you are finishing a bachelor's degree, a master's, or a doctorate as one of the PhD scholars on the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme.
Here is the short answer. Hong Kong's Immigration Department (ImmD) runs the Immigration Arrangements for Non-local Graduates (IANG), which lets a non-local graduate of a full-time, locally-accredited programme stay on, or come back, to work in Hong Kong. If you apply within six months of graduating, you do not need a job offer first. This guide covers the Hong Kong side, as ImmD states it on its pages today.
What the IANG Visa Is, and Who Counts as a Non-Local Graduate
The IANG visa is ImmD's arrangement for people who came to study and want to stay, or return, to take up a job in the HKSAR. ImmD defines a non-local student as a person who entered "for the purpose of education with a student visa / entry permit issued by the Director of Immigration." If that was you, and you have "obtained an undergraduate or higher qualification in a full-time and locally-accredited programme" in the HKSAR, you are a non-local graduate.
That qualification is specific. It is a bachelor's, master's or doctoral degree with "a study period of not less than one academic year," or a programme accredited at Hong Kong Qualifications Framework Level 5 or above with 120 or more QF credits and the same one-year minimum. It must be awarded by an institution on the list in Annex I of ImmD's guidebook, ID(E) 991. Postgraduate non-degree qualifications, such as a Postgraduate Diploma in Education, also count. The scheme is "quota-free and non-sector specific."
Every applicant must meet the normal immigration requirements: a valid travel document with adequate returnability to your country of residence or citizenship, a clear criminal record, and no likelihood of becoming a burden on the HKSAR. Approval is never automatic. It is "entirely discretionary," and the Director of Immigration "reserves absolute discretion to refuse any application even if the application meets all eligibility criteria." The criteria can change without prior notice.
Are Filipinos Covered? The Nationality Check
Philippine nationals are not on either of ImmD's nationality lists, so nationality does not shut this door for you. The page names the nationalities it excludes, Afghanistan, Cuba and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and those it restricts: nationals of Laos, Nepal and Vietnam qualify only through full-time local programmes at universities funded by the University Grants Committee, not their self-financing, continuing-education or exchange programmes, or as GBA campus graduates. The Philippines is in neither list, as of the page's revision of 29 April 2026.
That settles nationality and nothing else. Your qualification, your institution and the normal requirements still decide your case, and the lists can change, so read the page again on the day you apply.
Recent Graduate or Non-Recent Graduate: The Six-Month Line
Whether you need a job offer depends on one date: the six months after the date shown on your graduation certificate, counted to the day your application is submitted to ImmD. Apply inside it and you are a recent graduate. Apply after it and you are a non-recent graduate.
As a recent graduate, you are "not required to have secured an offer of employment upon application," and you "may be granted 24 months' stay on time limitation only without other conditions of stay," provided the normal requirements are met.
As a non-recent graduate, the one requirement that changes is the offer. The application is favourably considered "so long as the job is at a level commonly taken up by degree holders and the remuneration package is at market level." ImmD's FAQ explains that the level is judged on "the skills and knowledge needed for the job, complexity of the duties," and that even a short contract can still be granted 24 months.
It is never too late, and never only once. Applications are accepted regardless of when you graduated, with no limit on how many times you apply, including after you have left for good and want to return. The six months are the only door that opens without an offer. Walk through it on purpose, not by accident. While you are still enrolled, lean on your university: if it runs a career office, book time there before you lose student access.
GBA Campus Graduates
A GBA campus graduate is someone who finished a full-time programme at a higher education institution jointly established by Mainland and Hong Kong universities in the Mainland cities of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, under the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools. The same six-month split applies, and a GBA campus graduate applies to come and work in Hong Kong rather than to stay. ImmD's FAQ points to a Chinese-language list of these campuses.
ImmD's extra documents for Mainland residents, a consent letter and, after approval, an exit endorsement, are for Chinese residents of the Mainland. As a Philippine passport holder, a GBA campus graduate follows the non-Mainland route: a valid travel document and the e-Visa.
Before Your Results Are Out
A recent graduate whose results are not out yet can apply to extend their student stay while waiting. ImmD's FAQ calls this an extension of stay on student condition, with your institution's sponsorship waived; you use form ID 91 with your valid travel document and Hong Kong identity card. During that interim stay you cannot take up employment without ImmD's prior approval.
You do not have to wait for the certificate itself. A proof of graduation from your university, usually stamped and countersigned by the academic registrar, is enough to apply, so ask the registrar early. What ImmD cannot do is process an application without any proof of graduation at all.
Documents: What You Upload, and What an Employer Uploads
An application under the arrangement needs your own documents, and an employer's only if you already hold an offer. Yours, from ImmD's list: a recent photograph; your valid travel document and, if you are already in the city, the page with your latest arrival stamp, landing slip or extension of stay label and your latest issued e-Visa; your Hong Kong identity card, if you have one; and your official transcript, graduation certificate or a supporting letter from your university. The extra documents for Mainland, Macao, Taiwan and overseas Chinese residents are for those applicants, not for a Philippine passport holder.
If you have an offer, the employer uploads the employment contract or letter of appointment showing the post, salary, fringe benefits and employment period, plus its Business Registration Certificate, proof of financial standing and, for a company set up within the last 12 months, a business plan. Those company documents are not needed from a company listed on the Main Board or GEM of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, or one that obtained an employment or training visa for a non-local staff member in the 24 months before the application.
Anything not in Chinese or English needs a certified Chinese or English translation. A false statement to an immigration officer is an offence, and any permission to enter or stay obtained with one "shall have no effect."
How to Apply, What It Costs, and How Long It Takes
You apply online through GovHK, and it costs HK$600 to apply plus a second fee if you are approved. Every document is uploaded with the application fee paid, and a spouse or children applying with you can be submitted as a group, up to four applications per group.
ImmD's fee page sets the amounts. Since 26 February 2025 this has been one of ImmD's "specified schemes." The principal applicant and each dependant pay a HK$600 application fee, non-refundable whatever the result, and, if approved, a visa issuance fee of HK$1,300 for a stay of more than 180 days (HK$600 for 180 days or less). Payment is by credit card, Payment by Phone Service or the Faster Payment System. Collecting the fee "does not constitute any guarantee or assurance that the application will be approved."
Processing takes about two weeks for a recent graduate and four weeks for a non-recent graduate, counted from receipt of all the required documents and the fee. The June to August summer rush can take longer, and nothing starts until the file is complete. Treat those as a guide, not a promise.
One protective word from us. You can file this yourself, online, through GovHK. No one can guarantee an approval, because the Director's discretion is absolute, so anyone selling a "guaranteed" IANG, or asking for money to "secure" one, is selling something ImmD itself does not offer. Pay fees only through ImmD's and GovHK's own channels.
After Approval: The e-Visa and Your Hong Kong Identity Card
Approval arrives as an e-Visa you download yourself: ImmD issues the visa or entry permit in that electronic form. The approval notice carries a link to pay the issuance fee, and once you pay, you download or print it. At arrival you show your travel document and the e-Visa, on your phone or printed on A4 paper, and scan its QR code at the immigration counter.
The identity card rule, as ImmD states it, is simple: a new arrival aged 11 or over who is permitted to stay more than 180 days must register for an identity card within 30 days of arrival, in person at a Registration of Persons Office. That includes any child of yours aged 11 to 17, who must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian when they apply.
What the 24 Months Allow
For 24 months you may take any job, change jobs, or leave a job, without asking ImmD first. In ImmD's words you are "free to take up and change employment during [your] permitted stay without the need to seek prior approval," and if you quit, its FAQ says you "may stay in the HKSAR and seek another job." You also need no re-entry visa while your limit of stay is current and the circumstances of your stay are unchanged.
If you are already working under the General Employment Policy, you can keep that job, but changing employer needs prior permission. Applying under the scheme removes that step.
The extension test is the career test. Two years from now, ImmD will ask whether you hold a job "at a level commonly taken up by degree holders" at market pay. You are free to take any job in the meantime; whether you can extend is a separate question. So the 24 months are not a waiting room. They are the first rung. Every month should build the skills, the track record and the references the next rung will ask for. Opportunity here is built, one deliberate year at a time.
Extending Your Stay: The Extension Ladder
Staying beyond the first 24 months takes an application for extension of stay, filed online through GovHK from inside the city. ImmD says to apply within the last three months of your limit of stay and "in all circumstances, at least six weeks before" it ends. You must be physically present to apply and to collect the e-Visa.
What you need is a job at a level commonly taken up by degree holders at market pay, or proof of a business you have established or joined. Successful applicants are "normally" permitted to stay on "the 3-3 year pattern," which ImmD's FAQ puts as "not more than three years, or until the expiry of their employment contract in the HKSAR, whichever is shorter." If you are unemployed when you apply, the extension may be refused. Processing normally takes two to three weeks. Your dependants apply for their own extension of stay within three months before their own limit of stay expires, and their stay is normally linked to yours.
The warning that matters most: you must leave before your limit of stay ends, even if your extension is still being processed, unless the Director of Immigration approves otherwise. Overstaying is "a serious criminal offence."
There is also a top-tier employment stream. After at least two years under the scheme, with assessable income for salaries tax of not less than HK$2 million in the previous year of assessment, you may apply to be assessed under it, and successful applicants are normally granted six years. That is a threshold, not an expectation.
For any extension you upload your travel document and your identity card, and what your employer provides depends on how you came in. If you entered as a recent graduate, your first extension, and any later one with a new employer, needs the employer's documents listed in Part VII(B) of ID(E) 991; a later one with the same employer needs a letter from your current employer stating your position, total monthly remuneration and period of employment. If you entered as a non-recent graduate, the employer's documents go with a change of employer, and the letter without one.
Bringing Your Family
You can apply to bring a spouse or recognised civil partner and unmarried dependent children under 18 as your dependants. ImmD looks for a genuine relationship, no record against the dependant, and your ability to support them "at a standard well above the subsistence level" with suitable accommodation. Their stay is normally linked to yours, they may take up employment or studies, and each pays the same fees. The list does not include fiancés or cohabiting partners, and the dependant rules do not apply to nationals of Afghanistan and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The Seven-Year Line, Stated Carefully
Seven years of continuous ordinary residence lets a person admitted under the arrangement apply for the right of abode; it does not grant it. ImmD's own sentence is that such people "who have ordinarily resided in the HKSAR for a continuous period of not less than seven years may apply for the right of abode in the HKSAR in accordance with the law." A non-Chinese citizen applying must declare that Hong Kong is their only place of permanent residence. It is something you may apply for after a long stay, not something the arrangement gives you.
Before Your Student Visa Runs Out
- Find the date on your graduation certificate and mark six months from it.
- Ask the registrar for a stamped proof of graduation if the certificate is not out yet.
- Check that your passport is valid well beyond your plans.
- Read ImmD's page and its nationality lists again on the day you apply.
- Scan your transcript, certificate, photograph and passport pages for upload.
- Budget the HK$600 application fee, and the issuance fee if approved.
- Aim your CV at roles a degree holder would take; the extension will ask.
- Mark the three-month extension window on your calendar the day you are approved.
When the offer comes, our guide to your first months in a new job is the next read.
The Questions Filipinos Ask Us Most
What are the requirements for an IANG visa?
Hong Kong's Immigration Arrangements for Non-local Graduates (IANG) require an undergraduate or higher qualification from a full-time and locally-accredited programme in the HKSAR, earned as a non-local student, or from a full-time programme at a GBA campus. You also need to meet the normal immigration requirements. Apply within six months of graduation and you need no job offer; after that, you need an offer at a level commonly taken up by degree holders, at market pay.
How long does it take to get an IANG visa?
Hong Kong's Immigration Department says an application takes about two weeks for a recent graduate and four weeks for a non-recent graduate, counted from receipt of all the required documents and the fee, and longer in the June to August rush.
Can an IANG visa be extended?
Yes. You apply for an extension of stay within the last three months of your limit of stay and at least six weeks before it ends, with a degree-level job at market pay or proof of a business. ImmD normally grants up to three years, or until your contract ends if that is sooner, and you must leave before your limit of stay expires even while the application is pending.
What are the requirements for a Hong Kong visa if I did not study there?
If you did not study in Hong Kong and are not a GBA campus graduate, the graduate arrangement does not cover you. ImmD's General Employment Policy, set out in its guidebook ID(E) 991, is for people coming to work in Hong Kong with "special skills, knowledge or experience of value to and not readily available in the HKSAR," and it needs a confirmed job offer. Read our guide to the professional route when you already hold an offer.
Sources
- IANG eligibility, documents, fees, processing, extension, dependants and right of abode — Immigration Department (HKSAR): https://www.immd.gov.hk/eng/services/visas/IANG.html
- IANG frequently asked questions — ImmD: https://www.immd.gov.hk/eng/faq/non-local-graduates-return-employment-arrangement.html
- Guidebook for Entry for Employment as Professionals, ID(E) 991 (Annex I institution list) — ImmD: https://www.immd.gov.hk/pdforms/ID(E)991.pdf
- Fee structure for specified schemes — ImmD: https://www.immd.gov.hk/eng/specifiedschemes.html
- Online application — GovHK: https://www.gov.hk/en/residents/immigration/nonpermanent/applyiang/npr.htm
- Online extension of stay — GovHK: https://www.gov.hk/en/residents/immigration/nonpermanent/applyextensionstay/IANGentrants.htm
- Identity card registration — ImmD: https://www.immd.gov.hk/eng/services/hkid/reg_replace.html
- Right of abode: verification of eligibility — ImmD: https://www.immd.gov.hk/eng/services/right-of-abode-in-hksar/apply.html