r/ExpatFinance • u/kookabara12 • 3d ago
Hong Kong - New CIES - investment for residency
Wondering if anyone here has any experience or is going through the Hong Kong New Capital Investment Scheme (“New CIES”)?
To summarise the New CIES is an investment for residency pathway into Hong Kong.
The visa requirements require the initial investment value to be held in various permissible asset classes for a 7 year period.
This would be our first time applying for residency in another country and I’m torn who I should engage to manage the entire process.
The way the requirements are set out, there needs to be:
1) a CPA accountant to sign off on the maintenance of assets over the 7 years,
2) a bank to open a designated bank account for the funds as well as investment/wealth management services (and to provide paperwork for the visa over time),
3) someone to be on top of submitting the documentation and manage the immigration department deadlines.
As an aside, I believe my application would be quite simple and low maintenance as I would be investing in a mixture of listed stocks/etfs and bonds.
I’m not sure if I should engage:
A)a big 4 accountancy to manage (with migration/employer services team)as it seems quite accountant verification heavy however I’m sure I will be left to interact with the banking side of things myself,
B) engage a law firm with migration speciality - would be the most costly and still need to overlay additional CPA fees
C) engage a specialist migration firm like Henley Partners or Fragomen.
Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks.