LCQ20: Admission of non-locally trained nurses
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Question:
In recent years, the Government has introduced a number of measures to actively admit non-locally trained nurses, including amending the Nurses Registration Ordinance (Cap. 164), to create new pathways for admitting eligible non-locally trained nurses, as well as introducing a new channel under the General Employment Policy (GEP) and the Admission Scheme for Mainland Talents and Professionals (ASMTP) to allow persons who meet the requirements of the Technical Professional List to apply for entry into Hong Kong to join eight specified skilled trades, including nursing. However, some frontline nurses and nursing students are concerned that the admission of too many non-locally trained nurses may affect the employment opportunities of locally trained nurses. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the following information regarding the respective recruitments of non-locally trained nurses by the Department of Health (DH) and the Hospital Authority (HA) since the passage of the Nurses Registration (Amendment) Bill 2023 in July 2024: (a) the number of job applications received, (b) the number of persons participating in interviews, (c) the number of conditional offers issued and (d) the number of persons who reported for duty;
(2) among the cases mentioned in (1)(c) where conditional offers have been issued, of the number of persons who have subsequently applied to the Nursing Council of Hong Kong for (a) special registration, (b) special enrolment, (c) limited registration and (d) limited enrolment to obtain local practising qualifications; among such applications, the respective numbers of those that have been approved, with a breakdown by employing institution and by region in which the applicant obtained the nursing qualifications;
(3) of the respective numbers of applications for the admission of nurses received and approved since the launch of the Technical Professionals Stream under GEP and ASMTP on June 30, 2025 regarding the category of nurse in the Technical Professionals Stream, with a breakdown by employing institution (i.e., (a) DH, (b) HA, (c) residential care homes for the elderly (RCHEs), (d) residential care homes for persons with disabilities (RCHDs), (e) nursing homes and (f) others);
(4) of the monthly salary level of the appointed personnel among the approved applications mentioned in 3(c), (d) and (e), with a breakdown by type of employing institution (i.e. (i) RCHEs, (ii) RCHDs and (iii) Nursing homes)(set out in the table below); and
Employing institution:_______________________
| Range of monthly salary | Approved under GEP | Approved under ASMTP |
| Below $22,145 | ||
| $22,145 | ||
| $22,146–$24,999 | ||
| $25,000–$29,999 | ||
| $30,000–$34,999 | ||
| $35,000–$39,999 | ||
| $40,000–$44,999 | ||
| $45,000–$49,999 | ||
| $50,000 or above | ||
| Total |
(5) of the measures put in place by the Government, regarding the recruitment of non-locally trained nurses, to prevent the abuse of the mechanisms for the Technical Professionals Stream under GEP and ASMTP and to ensure that employers in DH, HA and the social welfare sector accord priority to employing locally trained nurses?
Reply:
President,
To ensure a sufficient supply of nurses in public healthcare institutions to meet increasing demand for medical and nursing services, the Government amended the Nurses Registration Ordinance (NRO) (Cap. 164) in July 2024 to create new pathways (namely limited registration (LR)/enrolment (LE) and special registration (SR)/enrolment (SE)) for admitting non-locally trained nurses to practise in Hong Kong.
Regarding the question raised by the Hon Chau Siu-chung, having consulted the Labour and Welfare Bureau, the consolidated reply is as follows:
(1) and (2) Between July 2024 and December 31, 2025, the Hospital Authority (HA) received 3 759 applications from non-locally trained nurses for long-term service posts. Amongst these applicants, 1 093 attended interviews and 101 were issued conditional offers. Non-locally trained nurses who received conditional offers must apply to the Nursing Council of Hong Kong (NCHK) for registration. As at December 31, 2025, 36 non-locally trained nurses who received offers and successfully applied for registration had commenced service, whereas another 141 joined the HA for a 1-year short-term exchange under LR through the Greater Bay Area Healthcare Talents Visiting Programmes. The Department of Health (DH) has so far not received application from non-locally trained nurses.
As at December 31, 2025, the HA, the DH and the Primary Healthcare Commission (including District Health Centres and District Health Centre Expresses) employed 30 386, 1 291 and 246 nurses respectively, while the respective shortage of nurses stood at 3 284, 257 and 32. The vast number of vacancies indicates the nursing manpower in the public departments remains extremely strained and unable to meet service demand, with no employment difficulty for locally trained nurses. There is a need to employ non-locally trained nurses to alleviate manpower shortage and to ensure the quality of healthcare services will not be compromised.
According to the information provided by the NCHK, as at December 31, 2025, Hong Kong has over 75 000 registered/enroled nurses. Amongst which, the statistics on the number of applications submitted by non-locally trained nurses and applications approved, including SR/SE and LR/LE, are tabulated below (according to their types of employment):
| SR | SE | LR | LE | Total | |
| Number of applications (Note 1) | |||||
| Number of applicants (Note 2) | 41 | 0 | 393 | 297 | 731 |
| Number of approved applicants | 32 (Note 3) | 0 | 228 (Note 4) | 142 (Note 5) | 402 |
| Number of applicants with registration/enrolment effected | 30 (Note 6) | 0 | 227 (Note 7) | 137 (Note 8) | 394 |
| Employment institutions (only those whose registration/enrolment took effect) | |||||
| HA | 30 (Note 9) | 0 | 179 (Note 10) | 0 | 209 |
| DH | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Residential care homes (RCHs) for the elderly, RCHs for persons with disabilities, and other relevant institutions such as social service units as specified by the Director of Social Welfare | 0 | 0 | 48 | 137 | 185 |
| Country/region where nursing qualifications were obtained (only those whose registration/enrolment took effect) | |||||
| China (apart from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region) (Note 11) | 22 | 0 | 207 | 137 | N/A |
| The United Kingdom | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Australia | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | |
| New Zealand | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Canada | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| The United States | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Singapore | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| South Africa | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| India | 3 | 0 | 15 | 0 | |
| Others | 1 (Note 12) | 0 | 1 (Note 13) | 0 | |
Note 1: The numbers of applicants and approved applicants are figures as at December 31, 2025 after the passage of the amendments to the NRO in July 2024.
Note 2: It refers to applications received with complete information.
Note 3: Among the 41 applications for SR, none were rejected, four were withdrawn and five were pending approval.
Note 4: Among the 393 applications for LR, four were rejected, 10 were withdrawn and 151 were pending approval.
Note 5: Among the 297 applications for LE, two were rejected, 26 were withdrawn and 127 were pending approval.
Note 6: Among the 32 applicants approved for SR, one had his/her SR effected only after December 31, 2025, and another one had his/her SR terminated on or before December 31, 2025 upon leaving the service.
Note 7: Among the 228 applicants approved for LR, one had his/her LR effected only after December 31, 2025.
Note 8: Among the 142 applications approved for LE, one withdrew his/her application, two had their LE effected only after December 31, 2025, and another two had their LE terminated on or before December 31, 2025 upon leaving the service.
Note 9: 13 out of the figure above started service after December 31, 2025 due to other reasons (such as pending the issue of visas).
Note 10: 19 out of the figure above started service after December 31, 2025due to other reasons (such as pending the issue of visas).
Note 11: Include Chinese Mainland, Macao Special Administrative Region and Taiwan region. Amongst which, 141 are nurses under short-term exchange through the Greater Bay Area Healthcare Talents Visiting Programmes.
Note 12: The involved country/region of the SR nurse is Malaysia.
Note 13: The involved country/region of the LR nurse is Malta.
(3) to (5) The statistics above suggests that non-locally trained nurses contribute to less than one per cent of the overall nursing manpower of over 75 000 nurses, which is extremely low. The Government has since June 30, 2025 introduced a new channel under the General Employment Policy (GEP) and the Admission Scheme for Mainland Talents and Professionals (ASMTP) to allow young and experienced non-degree mid-level talents with relevant professional and technical qualifications to come to Hong Kong to join eight skilled trades facing acute manpower shortage, including nurses. An applicant must be aged between 18 and 40, and meet the requirements specified for the specific skilled trade on the Technical Professional List, including academic qualifications, work experience and professional skills (such as registration or licence to practice), etc. In addition, according to the prevailing requirements under the GEP and ASMTP, the relevant professionals are required to have secured employment from local employers before application, and the remuneration package should be commensurate with the market level for similar jobs. This new channel will last for three years with an overall application quota of 10 000. The application quota for each skilled trade is limited to 3 000 to prevent occupations with larger industry scales from exhausting the quotas.
From the introduction of the new channel up to February 28, 2026, the Immigration Department (ImmD) received 174 applications for the skilled trade of “nurses”, all of which were under the ASMTP. The statistical breakdown by employer of the applications received and approved is as follows:
| Employer | Number of applications received | Number of applications approved |
| HA | 2 | 2 |
| Residential care homes sector | 172 | 147 |
| Total | 174 | 149 |
For applications from the residential care homes sector, the ImmD does not maintain the statistical breakdown by type of RCHs. The breakdown by monthly remuneration of the approved applications in the residential care homes sector is tabulated below:
| Monthly remuneration | Number of applications approved |
| $22,000 - $29,999 | 146 |
| $30,000 - $39,999 | 1 |
| $40,000 or above | 0 |
| Total | 147 |
The HA and the DH will accord priority to employing locally trained nurses, and offer non-locally trained nurses similar remuneration packages as locally trained nurses. The Health Bureau will work with relevant bureaux and departments to encourage other designated institutions under the NRO to similarly accord priority to employing locally trained nurses. The ImmD will follow the established mechanism in examining whether an applicant meets the relevant eligibility criteria, and refer the application to relevant policy bureaux and departments or professional bodies for verification on his/her qualifications where necessary. The ImmD will ensure that only applications meeting the eligibility criteria are approved. The Government has been closely monitoring the implementation of the new arrangement and plans to conduct a review after the first year of implementation.
Ends/Wednesday, April 1, 2026
Issued at HKT 15:35
Issued at HKT 15:35
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