A mainland Chinese woman has been acquitted of fraud over allegedly using a fake academic degree to obtain Hong Kong’s Top Talent visa, after a magistrate accepted the possibility that her agent made the false application.
Magistrate Raymond Wong found Xu Lina, 36, not guilty of conspiracy to defraud at the Shatin Magistrates’ Courts on Monday, according to local media.
The prosecution accused Xu of conspiring with a man surnamed Sun to defraud the director of the Immigration Department and other staff in her application for the city’s Top Talent Pass Scheme (TTPS) visa by falsely claiming she held a bachelor’s degree from the University of Technology Sydney. Xu also applied for dependent visas for her husband and three children.
The defendant, who pleaded not guilty, told the court last month that she was deceived by Sun, her mainland agent in handling the visa application, to whom she paid around HK$520,000. While Xu wanted to apply for a Category A visa, which only requires a HK$2.5 million income from the past year, Sun filed her application for a Category B visa, which also demands a degree from a “top university.”
The magistrate said on Monday that Xu and her husband appeared to have met the Category A income threshold, given that the couple purchased a home in Shenzhen in 2023 with a single HK$5.4 million instalment.
Wong also noted that the phone number, email, residential addresses and even the signature on Xu’s TTPS application form did not belong to her, pointing to the possibility that the agent filled out the online application.
It was possible that the agent may have “secretly” applied for a Category B visa for a higher fee and kept Xu in the dark, with her believing she was submitting a Category A application, Wong said.
The magistrate criticised Xu for never checking the application materials herself after paying Sun the fee and passing on her documents.
During the trial last month, Xu said neither she nor her husband held a bachelor’s degree. Her husband is a businessman, while she is a full-time housewife. Sun, the agent, disappeared after her husband told him of her arrest on April 16, 2025, she added.
Hong Kong introduced the TTPS in December 2022 to attract more high earners and graduates from top universities amid a wave of emigration. The government keeps a list of recognised “top universities,” which currently numbers 199.
HKFP reported in early 2025 that, with a lower threshold than other talent programmes, the TTPS now contributes to a major share of work visas in Hong Kong.
According to the Immigration Department, as of December 2025, the authority had approved more than 120,000 visas under the TTPS. Most of the visa holders are mainland Chinese.
