Use the graduation-certificate date and programme details, rather than ceremony dates or a friend's category. The situations allowing an initial application without a job offer have defined limits.
What to have ready
Before you start
Eligibility depends on the current qualifying full-time, locally accredited programme and qualification requirements. The GBA-campus route concerns qualifying higher-education institutions jointly established by Mainland and Hong Kong universities under the specified rules, rather than every university in the nine cities. Submission within six months of the certificate's graduation date is the recent-graduate category, generally without a secured job offer for initial application. Later applicants need an offer for a graduate-level job with market remuneration.
What to do, step by step
- Obtain the institution's exact programme, full-time and accreditation or joint-campus information, comparing it with the current IANG definition. Check separate arrangements for diplomas, associate degrees or other qualifications before assuming that every graduation qualifies for the same scheme.
- Mark the six-month boundary and current student-stay expiry. If graduation is confirmed but the certificate is outstanding, obtain institutional proof. If results are still pending, investigate the appropriate extension route instead of entering an unconfirmed graduation date as fact.
- Submit identity, travel, qualification and category-specific records. Non-recent graduates add job and employer evidence. Use the official online service and applicable application fee, retaining submission confirmation and requests so the application history remains easy to follow and complete.
- After approval, pay the applicable issuance fee and check the e-Visa. Mainland residents also arrange the Exit-entry Permit and relevant endorsement. Initial permission is generally twenty-four months on a time limit, with the issued grant determining the actual permitted dates.
Costs, timing, and things to check
Initial recent-graduate eligibility without an offer does not remove later renewal requirements for employment or business. Start filing appointment letters, pay, tax and company records from the first job so later evidence describes genuine activity rather than a rushed reconstruction.
Work permitted while still a student follows that grant and any No Objection Letter. A pending IANG application does not automatically remove student restrictions, and returning as a visitor does not substitute for the immigration permission required to work.
A practical example
A certificate records graduation on 15 June. A qualifying September applicant uses the recent-graduate route. Applying the following year requires the relevant job evidence; a photograph from a later graduation ceremony cannot reset the certificate date or the application category.
Confirm the programme and certificate date, then assemble the recent or non-recent application.
Official information and enquiries
These are the reference and service entry points for this guide. Check current fees, eligibility, and schedules with the authority. The preparation date is not each source's official update date.