Top Talent Pass Scheme Eligibility
Top Talent Pass Scheme (TTPS) eligibility is assessed against fixed criteria at the date of application: your income in the preceding year, your undergraduate degree and your work experience. There is no job offer requirement, no sponsor and no points test. That clarity cuts both ways. The Hong Kong Immigration Department applies each criterion strictly, and applicants are refused not because their profile is weak but because they applied under the wrong category or misread a definition. Here is exactly what each category requires, and the exclusions that override all of them.
The Three Eligibility Categories
Every applicant must qualify under one, and only one, of three categories:
Category A: annual income of HKD 2,500,000 or above in the year immediately preceding the date of application. No degree required.
Category B: a full-time bachelor's degree from an eligible university, plus at least three years of work experience accumulated over the five years immediately preceding the date of application.
Category C: a full-time bachelor's degree from an eligible university awarded within the five years immediately preceding the date of application, with less than three years of work experience. Subject to an annual quota.
The categories do not combine. A listed-university graduate earning below HKD 2,500,000 is assessed purely on the degree criteria; a high earner without qualifying tax documentation cannot rely on income alone and must independently satisfy Category B or C if applying under those routes.
Category A: The Income Test in Detail
The HKD 2,500,000 threshold applies to income earned in the single year immediately preceding the application, not an average across several years and not projected future earnings.
What Counts
Qualifying income is taxable employment or business income only:
Salary, wages, allowances and bonuses
Income from share options
Profits derived from a business owned by the applicant
Income from multiple concurrent employments or businesses can be aggregated, and earnings do not need to arise in Hong Kong or in any particular currency.
What Does Not Count
Income generated from personal investment is excluded in full. This removes rental income, dividends from passive holdings, capital gains, cryptocurrency disposals and one-off asset sales, regardless of amount. The Immigration Department also expects the income to be evidenced through official documentation, typically tax assessment notices issued by a competent tax authority. Employer reference letters and self-prepared management accounts do not, on their own, establish the income. Applicants relying on business profits should hold audited accounts and the corresponding tax records for the relevant year, as this is the most heavily scrutinised Category A profile.
Category B: The Degree Plus Experience Test
Category B has two limbs, and both must be satisfied at the date of application.
The degree limb. The applicant must hold a bachelor's degree from an institution on the aggregate list of eligible universities, obtained through full-time study, at a standard equivalent to a recognised Hong Kong bachelor's degree. The undergraduate degree is the one that counts: a master's degree or doctorate from a listed university cannot substitute for a bachelor's degree from an unlisted institution.
The experience limb. At least three years of work experience must have been accumulated within the five years immediately preceding the application. The Immigration Department counts full-time employment and self-employment undertaken after graduation. The following do not count towards the three years:
Part-time work
Internships or placements completed during study
Periods of self-employment that cannot be documented
The experience does not need to be in Hong Kong, in the applicant's degree discipline or with a single employer, but each period must be verifiable through employment or business records.
Category C: The Recent Graduate Route
Category C applies where the eligible-university degree was awarded within the past five years and the applicant holds less than three years of work experience. Two eligibility features are specific to this category.
The quota. Category C is capped at 10,000 places per year, allotted on a first-come, first-served basis. An otherwise fully eligible applicant is ineligible once the year's quota is exhausted, which makes timing a genuine eligibility condition rather than a procedural detail.
The local graduate exclusion. Non-local students who obtained their undergraduate qualification through a full-time, locally-accredited programme in Hong Kong cannot apply under Category C. Those graduates fall outside the TTPS for this purpose and are instead covered by the arrangements for non-local graduates under IANG.
Note the boundary between B and C: a listed-university graduate with exactly three years of experience belongs in Category B, not C. A graduate whose degree is more than five years old and who has less than three years of experience qualifies under neither graduate category.
The Eligible Universities List
Categories B and C both depend on the aggregate list of eligible universities published by the HKSAR Government. The list currently covers around 200 institutions and is revised periodically; the most recent update took effect on 1 January 2026, adding institutions and removing four whose graduates are no longer eligible for new applications.
An institution qualifies principally by having ranked among the top 100 within the past five years in at least one of four rankings: Times Higher Education World University Rankings, QS World University Rankings, U.S. News and World Report's Best Global Universities Rankings, and the Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities.
Eligibility is assessed against the list in force at the date of application. If an institution has been removed, degrees from it no longer support a new Category B or C application, even if the institution was listed when the degree was awarded.
Mode of Study Restrictions
The degree must have been completed through full-time study. Bachelor's degrees obtained through any of the following modes are ineligible under Categories B and C, even where the awarding institution is on the list:
Online or distance learning
Evening study
Part-time study
Self-taught programmes assessed by examination
Applicants must also hold the degree certificate or formal proof of graduation at the time of applying. Expected or pending graduation does not satisfy the criterion.
Eligibility Criteria Compared
Criterion | Category A | Category B | Category C |
Income of HKD 2,500,000+ in preceding year | Required | Not required | Not required |
Full-time bachelor's degree from eligible university | Not required | Required | Required |
Work experience | Not assessed | Three or more years within past five years | Less than three years |
Degree awarded within past five years | Not assessed | Not required | Required |
Annual quota | None | None | 10,000, first-come, first-served |
Open to graduates of full-time, locally-accredited Hong Kong undergraduate programmes | Yes, via income | Yes | No |
General Exclusions and Baseline Requirements
Two further conditions sit above all three categories.
Nationality. Nationals of Afghanistan, Cuba and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea are not eligible under any TTPS category, irrespective of income, qualifications or residence elsewhere.
Standard immigration requirements. Applicants must be aged 18 or above, hold a valid travel document and satisfy the Immigration Department's normal immigration requirements, including the absence of any security or criminal-record objection. A qualifying income or degree does not displace these baseline checks.
If your profile sits near any of these boundaries, such as business-profit income, a recently delisted university or a mixed employment history, the criteria can be assessed against your documents before you apply. Details are on our Top Talent Pass Scheme service page, or you can book a visa consultation for a case-specific review.
FAQs About Top Talent Pass Scheme Eligibility Can income earned outside Hong Kong count towards Category A?
Yes. The HKD 2,500,000 threshold is not tied to Hong Kong-sourced earnings. Income earned in any jurisdiction qualifies, provided it is taxable employment or business income and is evidenced by official tax documentation from the relevant authority.
Does self-employment count as work experience for Category B?
Yes, self-employment after graduation counts towards the three-year requirement, but it must be documented. Business registration records, contracts, invoices and tax filings are the kind of evidence needed; undocumented freelance periods will not be counted.
My bachelor's degree is from an unlisted university, but my master's is from a listed one. Am I eligible?
No, not under Categories B or C. The eligible-university requirement attaches to the undergraduate degree specifically. A postgraduate qualification from a listed institution cannot cure an unlisted bachelor's degree, although Category A remains open if the income test is met.
How is the five-year graduation window for Category C counted?
The five years run backwards from the date of application to the date the degree was awarded, as shown on the graduation certificate or proof of graduation. An applicant whose award date falls outside that window cannot use Category C, whatever their experience level.
Do my spouse and children need to meet TTPS criteria?
No. Only the principal applicant is assessed against the TTPS categories. A spouse and unmarried children under 18 apply under the standard dependant visa criteria, which turn on the relationship and the sponsor's ability to support them.
Can I apply under Category B while employed part-time?
Your current employment status does not itself matter; what matters is whether you have accumulated three years of full-time employment or self-employment within the past five years. Part-time work is simply excluded from the count, so a currently part-time applicant qualifies only if enough prior full-time experience exists.
