Hong Kong Student Visa

Do not submit the visa application or follow up documents directly to the Immigration Department. Submit your student visa application to HKUST as HKUST will submit your application to the Hong Kong Immigration Department. You will receive an automatically generated email when we have physically received your visa application documents. 

The Immigration Department will not process an application until all required documents are received. HKUST will contact you if further information and/or documents are required. Please check your email frequently. If you do not hear from us, your visa application is under processing normally.

Approval of your student visa application is at discretion of the Immigration Department. You can refer to the department’s website (http://www.immd.gov.hk) for the latest policies on student visa.

For international students or Mainland Chinese who are studying overseas and will enter Hong Kong from places other than Mainland China, your travel document is your passport. If you do not have one, you must apply for it immediately in order to submit your student visa application. If you are renewing your passport, please submit your visa application using your current expired or to-be-expired passport first. Once you receive your renewed passport, please send a photocopy of it to summer.school@ust.hk.

For Mainland Chinese who are studying in Mainland China or who are studying overseas but will enter Hong Kong from Mainland China, your travel document is your EEP (Exit-Entry Permit for Travelling to and from Hong Kong and Macao 往來港澳通行證). If you do not have an EEP now, you can use your passport information instead, in order to submit your student visa application. However, you still need to apply for an EEP later by yourself as you will need to use your EEP to enter Hong Kong eventually. If you do not have a passport neither, please apply for an EEP immediately in order to submit your student visa application.

You will receive an automatically generated email when we have physically received your visa application documents at HKUST. The whole student visa application process may take up to 8-10 weeks or longer to complete.

If there are no complications with your application, HKUST will send your student visa to you before the expected arrival date if possible. Your “e-Visa” will be sent to your email address on MyStudyAbroad system.

Your student visa is an “e-Visa” in PDF file format. Check your name on the student visa and see whether it matches your name on your passport (or EEP for Mainland Chinese citizens who will use EEP to enter Hong Kong). Save a soft copy of the student visa on a personal mobile device or print it on a sheet of A4 white paper and present it at the immigration counter when you enter Hong Kong. Make sure the immigration officer issues you a student landing slip when you arrive Hong Kong. Otherwise, your student visa is not validated, and you will not be permitted to get registered at HKUST. Please check the following information on the student landing slip:

1. Student - Permitted to remain until dd/mmm/yyyy
2. Studying the approved course at THE HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
3. Your name
4. Your travel document number
5. Your arrival date

Please keep your landing slip during your stay in Hong Kong.

In fact, within the permitted period of your visa stamp, you can travel in and out of Hong Kong with the student visa as many times as you want (except Taiwanese students). Don’t get confused.

Based on your citizenship, you may be required to apply for an exit permit from authorities of your country in order to study in Hong Kong. In this case, you are responsible to find out such requirements and complete any relevant procedures.

For Mainland Chinese, if your travel document is your EEP, remember to apply for it as well as a relevant exit endorsement (逗留 D) for studying in Hong Kong from the Public Security Bureau Office (公安局) where your household registrations (戶籍) are kept. You are responsible to find out the information and complete any relevant procedures.

Holder of student visa cannot take up any paid or unpaid job.