LCQ18: Immigration arrangements for non-local students taking up short-term studies
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Question:
Quite a number of post-secondary institutions and self-financing subsidiary institutions are offering various short-term studies at present. Under the existing requirements, Chinese residents of the Mainland, Macao Special Administrative Region and Taiwan (non-local students) taking up full-time local short-term studies may apply to the Immigration Department (ImmD) for a visa to study in Hong Kong (student visa). If the short-term studies to which a non-local student is admitted is not a full-time programme, he/she does not meet the conditions for applying a student visa. Individuals coming to Hong Kong on a visit visa are not allowed to study in any educational institutions in Hong Kong. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the respective numbers of student visa applications and requests for assistance received by the ImmD in each of the past three years;
(2) whether the ImmD has established a discretionary mechanism for processing student visa applications from non-local students; if so, of the relevant numbers in each of the past three years;
(3) as it is required that the short-term studies to be taken up by student visa applicants must be a full-time programme, whether the authorities will consider relaxing the relevant requirement to include part-time short-term studies; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(4) as it is required that the full-time short-term studies to be taken up by non-local students must be offered by Hong Kong higher education institutions with degree-awarding powers (excluding their continuing and professional education arms), whether the authorities will consider relaxing the relevant requirement; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
According to the prevailing entry arrangements for study, non-local persons (except Chinese residents of the Chinese Mainland, Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) (Note 1) and Taiwan) may enter Hong Kong to take up studies in a full-time locally accredited post-secondary programme (including short-term courses). Insofar as Chinese residents of the Chinese Mainland, Macao SAR and Taiwan are concerned, they may also take up full-time short-term programme, but the programmes concerned must be offered by higher education institutions in Hong Kong with degree-awarding powers (excluding their continuing and professional education arms), and the cumulative duration of short-term studies should not exceed 180 days within any 12-month period.
Regarding visa arrangements, student visas/ entry permits are generally only issued to non-local persons studying full-time programmes or part-time locally accredited taught postgraduate local programmes. If the course is a short-term course covered by the prevailing entry arrangements for study, it must also be under a full-time arrangement.
In consultation with the Security Bureau and the Immigration Department (ImmD), our reply to the question raised by the Hon Ginny Man is as follows.
(1) and (2) For non-local persons (including Chinese residents of the Chinese Mainland, Macao SAR and Taiwan) entering Hong Kong for study, in the past three years, the ImmD had received a total of 233 563 applications for student visa/ entry permit, of which 231 062 were approved. Relevant figures are tabulated below:
| 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
| Number of applications received | 62 852 | 75 213 | 95 498 |
| Number of applications approved (Note 2) | 62 079 | 74 466 | 94 517 |
The ImmD would consider special situation of individual applicants on a case-by-case basis. The ImmD does not maintain the breakdown of other statistics mentioned in the question.
(3) As regards short-term courses, at present, the Government will only issue student visa/ entry permit to non-local person who has enrolled in full-time programme, considering that there are considerable differences among various part-time short-term courses in terms of teaching modes, hours of study, etc, which render it difficult to ensure non-local person issued with student visa/ entry permit will not misuse the visa to come to Hong Kong for non-study purposes. The Government has no plan to relax the requirements of student visa/ entry permit to cover part-time short-term courses.
(4) The Education Bureau will continue to maintain close liaison with relevant Chinese Mainland authorities with a view to exploring further enhancement of the entry arrangements to Hong Kong as appropriate.
Note 1: Including former Mainland Chinese residents in Macao SAR who were not settled there on or before January 14, 1979.
Note 2: Applications approved may not necessarily be those received in the same year.
Ends/Wednesday, May 27, 2026
Issued at HKT 14:43
Issued at HKT 14:43
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