A mainland Chinese woman has been acquitted of fraud charges for allegedly using a fake academic degree to obtain a Hong Kong top talent visa, after a judge accepted the possibility that her agent made the fake application.
Magistrate Raymond Wong acquitted Xu Lina, 36, of conspiracy to defraud at Shatin Magistrates’ Courts on Monday. according to for local media.
The prosecution accused Xu of conspiring with a man surnamed Sun to deceive the director of the Immigration Department and other staff on her application for the city’s Top Talent Pass Scheme (TTPS) visa by falsely claiming she had 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, said in court last month that she was defrauded by Sun, her mainland agent in handling her visa application, to whom she paid about HK$520,000. While Xu wanted to apply for a Category A visa, which only requires an income of HK$2.5 million from the previous year, Sun submitted her application for a Category B visa, which also requires a degree from a “top university”.
The judge said on Monday that Xu and her husband appeared to have met the income threshold of category A, given that the couple bought a house in Shenzhen in 2023 with a single installment of HK$5.4 million.
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, indicating the possibility that the agent filled out the application online.
It was possible the agent could have “secretly” applied for a Category B visa at a higher fee and kept Xu in the dark, believing he was submitting a Category A application, Wong said.
The magistrate criticized Xu for never checking the application materials after paying Sun the fee and submitting her documents.
During the trial last month, Xu said neither she nor her husband had a bachelor’s degree. Her husband is a businessman, while she is a full-time homemaker. 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 graduates and graduates from top universities amid a wave of immigration. The government holds one list of the well-known “best universities”, which currently the numbers 199.
HKFP reported at the beginning of 2025 that, with a lower threshold than other talent programsTTPS now contributes to a large proportion of work visas in Hong Kong.
According to the Department of Immigration, as of December 2025, the authority had approved more than 120,000 visas under the TTPS. Most visa holders are mainland Chinese.
