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Hong Kong Country Profile

Passport
For more details visit Hong Kong Passport Ranking
  • Passport Grade
    A-
  • Passport Ranking
    37/198
  • Passport Score
    171.7/198
  • Visa-free Countries
    150
  • Visa-required Countries
    48
  • Access to the World's GDP
    69%
  • Access to the World's Surface Area
    75%
  • Access to the World's Population
    64%
  • Access to the Unesco Sites
    86%
Citizenship and Naturalization
Birthright citizenship (Jus Soli)
  • Birthright citizenship (Jus Soli)
    No
    No provisions
Naturalization - Standard Conditions
  • Minimum residency period
    7 years
    After 7 years of residency, you can claim permanent residency, not citizenship.
  • Physical presence requirement
    N/A
  • Language test
    N/A
  • Need to renounce original citizenship?
    N/A
  • Can minor children naturalize?
    N/A
  • Can naturalized parents pass citizenship to a child born abroad?
    N/A
  • Can you lose naturalization due to prolonged absence/ naturalization elsewhere?
    –
Naturalization - Your Spouse is a Citizen
  • Living IN the country: Residency/marriage requirement
    No provisions
  • Living ABROAD: Marriage requirement
    No provisions
  • Language test
    No provisions
  • Need to renounce original citizenship?
    No provisions
Naturalization - Other Beneficial Provisions
  • Your child is a citizen
    No provisions
  • Citizens of specific countries
    No provisions
"–": The provision has not been analysed.
Taxation
For more details visit Cost of Living
  • Taxation Type
    Territorial
A tax resident of a country with a TERRITORIAL tax system pays taxes on the income generated within the country only. Income generated outside of the country remains tax-free.
Sovereign Man's Take on Hong Kong
Many of Sovereign Man’s team members (including our founder Simon Black himself) fell in love with Hong Kong the first time they went there. 

It's an incredible place, and a very unique city. It’s wealthy and sophisticated. It has been doing things “right” for a long, long time.

Hong Kong has been a phenomenal “offshore” jurisdiction that’s considered more “onshore” than “offshore”. In other words, while it might not be a zero-tax jurisdiction, it is low-tax enough to satisfy both the tax police and those trying to do business without being fleeced by the tax man.

We consider it a great gateway to the rest of Asia, and one with Anglo flair, to boot.

For a long time, we also liked the local currency – the Hong Kong dollar, which has been pegged to the US dollar since 1983. 

Its fundamentals were (and still are) much more solid than those of the greenback. HKD used to serve as a great alternative to holding your savings in USD, as it could potentially be decoupled from the dollar… and appreciate in case the USD suddenly tanked under the weight of its own problems.

We used to talk a lot about the Hong Kong banking system, also. (Hong Kong is still much better capitalized than most Western banking systems.)

However, many of the benefits described above are in question now.

China's assault on the remnants of Hong Kong’s independence makes us uncomfortable when dealing with the jurisdiction. It's hard to predict whether Hong Kong will continue enjoying its financial quasi-independence, or whether it will lose its remaining sovereignty overnight.

Also, more recently, Hong Kong’s severe Covid-related restrictions have scared away many freedom-minded individuals.

On a side note, Hong Kong continues to be home to a very developed equities market. Tim Staermose – Sovereign Man’s Chief Investment Officer – used to live in Hong Kong and is very familiar with it. 

In fact, many of the stock picks in the 4th Pillar investment letter are listed in Hong Kong.

Bottomline: We can’t really recommend Hong Kong anymore, as new restrictions by China, the tumultuous years of protests and Covid restrictions have taken a toll on this Asian financial hub.
Sovereign Man's Rolodex
Service Providers available in Hong Kong
  • Immigration (residency, citizenship)
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Hong Kong Overview
  • Region
    Asia
  • Capital City
    Hong Kong
  • Largest City
    Hong Kong
  • Currency
    Hong Kong dollar
  • Languages
    Cantonese, English
  • Population
    7.4 million (103rd)
  • Life Expectancy
    83.6 years (8th)
  • GDP (Nominal)
    $368.4 billion (43rd)
  • GDP/Capita
    $49,759 (23rd)
Useful Data
For more details visit Cost of Living
  • Cost of Living
    Extreme (7/7)
  • Climate
    Comfortable (2/5)
  • Safety
    The Safest (1/7)
  • Pollution
    Polluted (4/5)
  • English Proficiency
    Moderate (3/5)

Sovereign Global Explorer

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PREMIUM REPORTS
Hong Kong inside Sovereign Man resources

Articles featuring Hong Kong

Alerts

Gold and Banking in Hong Kong

We’ve reported several times before that Hong Kong is one of the cheapest places in the world to buy gold. But the bottom line is that it’s getting a bit more difficult to do so. At ………………. Bank, for example,they will now only sell a maximum of HK$120,000 (about US$15,400) worth ofgold coins to non-account holders. This is less than 12 ounces […]

Trends & News

It’s becoming harder to buy and sell gold in Hong Kong

[Editor’s note: Tim Staermose, Sovereign Man’s Chief Investment Strategist, is filling in for Simon today from Hong Kong.] It took me two attempts. But, today I opened an account at the Bank of China. The reason? They’ll no longer buy gold bullion from you unless you bank with them. I wasn’t selling personally. But, an […]

Trends & News

It’s time to rethink the Hong Kong dollar

In 221 BC, the 38-year emperor Qin Shi Huang declared total victory against all of his rivals in northern China. Qin’s ancestors had literally spent centuries invading neighboring states and engaging in complex diplomacy in order to unify China into a single empire. And Qin Shi Huang was the first Emperor to rule over the […]

Trends & News

What you can learn from the founders of Hong Kong

February 5, 2014 Panguipulli, Chile As you may know, I’m an avid reader. I devour especially historical accounts of any kind, because I consider lessons of history to be invaluable. As the Latin proverb says: Historia magistra vitae est—history is life’s teacher. One of my all-time favorite books is a novel by James Clavell, Tai-pan. […]

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