Which Degree Gets You the Hong Kong IANG Visa in 2026? Official Education Data

Master’s degrees are what Hong Kong’s graduate route actually runs on. Of the 7,480 applications approved under the Immigration Arrangements for Non-local Graduates (IANG, 非本地畢業生留港／回港就業安排) between January and June 2026, 5,680 were held by people with a master’s degree — about three in four. The figures come from the Hong Kong Immigration Department’s “Visas” page under Facts and Statistics, as that page stood in October 2026. One limit matters from the start: that page records approvals that have already happened, not the wording of who qualifies.

Which qualification levels appear in the IANG approval data?

The graduate route publishes only four qualification rows, under a breakdown titled “Breakdown statistics on applications approved under the Immigration Arrangements for Non-local Graduates.”

Academic qualification	2025	2026 (Jan–Jun)
Doctorate	2,367	909
Master’s Degree	22,232	5,680
Bachelor’s Degree	3,024	891
Other Academic Qualifications at Degree Level or Equivalent	7	0
Total	27,630	7,480

Read the top row against the bottom one and the shape of the route is clear: every approval recorded on this page sits at named degree level, and the near-empty fourth row means even the “degree level or equivalent” catch-all barely registers.

How dominant is the master’s degree?

In 2025, master’s holders accounted for 80.5% of all IANG approvals (22,232 of 27,630). In the first half of 2026 that share was 75.9% (5,680 of 7,480). Add doctorates and the combined postgraduate share stays close to nine in ten: 89.0% in 2025 and 88.1% in 2026 across the January–June window.

The 2026 column covers six months, not a full year, so the drop in the master’s share should be read as a shift in mix rather than a fall in volume. The direction of that shift is visible in the other rows: the doctorate share rose from 8.6% of approvals in 2025 to 12.2% in the 2026 half-year, while bachelor’s degrees moved from 10.9% to 11.9%.

Why do so few bachelor’s graduates appear here?

Compare the same page across two other routes and the bachelor’s picture inverts. Under the General Employment Policy in 2025, bachelor’s degrees or equivalent made up 19,882 of 31,278 approvals — about 64%. Under the Admission Scheme for Mainland Talents and Professionals, bachelor’s degrees were 9,418 of 26,714 approvals. Against those, the graduate route’s 3,024 bachelor’s approvals in 2025 look small.

The numbers alone cannot say why. A plausible reading is that the two employer-driven routes are where degree-holders with job offers are counted, while the graduate route is dominated by people who came to Hong Kong for a taught postgraduate award and then stayed on. Treat that as an interpretation of the published counts, not as something the Immigration Department states on this page.

Do sub-degree or non-degree qualifications show up at all?

Essentially no — and the contrast with the neighbouring tables is the sharpest evidence available here.

• IANG, 2025: 7 cases under “Other Academic Qualifications at Degree Level or Equivalent”; 2026 (Jan–Jun): 0.
• General Employment Policy, 2025: 1,947 under “Other Academic Qualifications” (6.2%); 2026 (Jan–Jun): 599 (4.4%).
• Admission Scheme for Mainland Talents and Professionals, 2025: 11,061 under “Other Academic Qualifications” (41.4%); 2026 (Jan–Jun): 6,170 (45.2%).

The row labels are not identical between schemes, so the categories should not be compared as if they measure the same thing. What the comparison does support is narrower and still useful: alongside the Technology Talent Admission Scheme and the Second Generation scheme, the graduate route is one of the routes on this page whose published outcomes contain almost nothing outside doctorate, master’s and bachelor’s awards.

What can this data not tell you?

Several things a reader usually wants are simply absent from the table.

• Eligibility rules. The page counts approvals by qualification level. It does not set out eligibility conditions, qualifying institutions, study-mode requirements or validity periods, so this statistic cannot be used to prove that any particular programme qualifies.
• Salary and industry. The General Employment Policy, the Mainland Talents scheme and the Technology Talent Admission Scheme each publish pay and sector breakdowns. The graduate route publishes region and academic qualification only.
• Individual odds. A higher count for one degree level describes who applied and was approved in aggregate; it does not describe any one person’s chances.

This article is general information drawn from published government statistics, not advice on an individual case. Anything that depends on your own record should be checked against the Immigration Department’s published scheme requirements or confirmed with a qualified professional.

So which degree should you be aiming at?

Suppose an applicant already holds a bachelor’s degree from outside Hong Kong and is choosing between a short professional certificate and a taught master’s at a Hong Kong institution, with the graduate route in mind. The published breakdown offers no support for the certificate path: there is no certificate or sub-degree row in this table at all, and the only non-standard row is defined as degree level or equivalent, where 2025 recorded 7 cases and the 2026 half-year recorded none. The award level the data actually reflects is the master’s degree.

The same caution applies to the reverse move. A bachelor’s degree awarded in Hong Kong is a standard qualification level on this page and did produce 3,024 approvals in 2025 — it is simply a much thinner channel than the postgraduate one, and the award level with the larger published presence in Hong Kong’s employer-sponsored routes rather than the graduate route.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the IANG route require a specific degree level?

The Immigration Department’s statistics report approvals across four levels: doctorate, master’s, bachelor’s, and other qualifications at degree level or equivalent. The statistical page itself does not state eligibility thresholds, so the listed categories should not be read as the rule.

How many IANG approvals went to master’s holders in 2026?

In the January–June 2026 period, 5,680 of 7,480 approvals were held by people with a master’s degree, or roughly 75.9%. In the full year of 2025 the comparable share was 80.5%.

Are doctoral degrees a large part of the graduate route?

They are a smaller but growing block: 2,367 doctorates were approved in 2025 (8.6% of the total) and 909 in the first half of 2026 (12.2%). No ranking between degree levels appears anywhere in the published data.

Do the IANG statistics cover the whole of 2026?

No. The most recent column covers January to June 2026 only, alongside calendar year 2025. Absolute totals between the two columns are therefore not comparable, though shares are.

Where do most IANG approvals come from by region?

The Chinese Mainland dominates the regional breakdown, with 26,355 of 27,630 approvals in 2025 and 7,017 of 7,480 in the first half of 2026. No other individually named region exceeded 180 approvals in either period, though the aggregate “Others” row recorded 776 approvals in 2025 and 293 in the first half of 2026.

Does the Immigration Department publish salary data for this route?

Not in this table. The graduate route has breakdowns by region and academic qualification only, while other schemes on the same page include monthly remuneration figures.

References

• Hong Kong Immigration Department — Visas (Facts and Statistics)
• 香港入境事務處 — 簽證（數據資料）