A while ago, I listed the common types of visas used by foreigners when entering and living in Hong Kong, and I've mentioned that I applied for entry under the "Quality Migrant Admission Scheme" (QMAS), which is a much less well-known, but rather interesting scheme. It can be summed up as a way to bring relatively small numbers of relatively high-quality migrants into Hong Kong, according to some rather strict rules. There are two ways to qualify: the "Achievement-based Points Test" which is for globally-exceptional people like Nobel prize winners, Olympic medal winners, or similar leaders in other fields - and the "General Points Test" which is a much saner thing, and the way I applied. Like the scheme famously used in Australia, it's a points test based on education, experience, and other random personal bits and pieces - with applicants being ranked by score. There's an annual quota of 1000, which has never been met (unless, possibly, dependents are included in the quota), and 'selection exercises' (a phrase which rings a slight Nazi bell for me) are held approximately quarterly. Before points are even counted, any applicant must pass somewhat stringent pre-requisites - and show proof. In fact, there are five sets of documents which must be provided at different times in the process:

• Educational qualifications - in my case, a copy of my University degree certificate, and an original transcript of my course modules and results.
• Financial stability - an applicant must be able to prove that they are capable of living in Hong Kong without either work or government support. In my case, a mortgage statement, a copy of my title deed, a copy of my contract of sale and a recent valuation of my flat in London.
• Professional experience - detailed references, showing not only employments dates and positions held, which is all you normally get on a modern reference, but details of duties, responsibilities and major career achievements.
• Language proficiency - fluency in English or Chinese (Mandarin or Cantonese) is a pre-requisite, and applicants who are not from a native English- or Chinese-speaking country should be able to show proof of their fluency. If there's any doubt, HK Immigration can require the applicant to take a language test.
• 'Clean character' - in other words, lack of a criminal record. A police report must be submitted for every country in which the applicant has lived for 12 months or longer, within the past 10 years.

These are not easy - nor, in some cases, cheap - documents to obtain. The financial documents were relatively easy for me, because I know the right people in the UK to get the documents from. The educational documents were a bit harder - had to find the right people at my University. I don't need to prove I speak English fluently, amazingly enough, and I don't need to submit the police records - yet - as they aren't required until the end of the process. I did need to submit detailed references, and that's where things got tricky. I had planned to submit my application in July - at the latest - both to have a chance of getting into the August selection round, and so I had my application in before my previous work visa expired at the end of July. Not that it really matters, but I thought that if I had any trouble at passport control after I ceased to be a HK resident (again!), it might help to be able to point out that I'd already applied for another visa. I sort of made it and sort of didn't - I made a visa run to Macau a couple of days before my work visa expired, only to be told in a firm-but-friendly way that since I still had a valid visa, I had to use it, and I then submitted my application the following day.

Sort of submitted it. I hadn't actually managed to get hold of the right references from previous employers, but since I wanted to get my application into the system, I submitted it anyway. I got a couple of letters back - one saying they'd got my application and assigned me an application number, and one pointing out that I hadn't attached any references and politely asking me if I could send them some, please. I had managed to get hold of some at that point, late August, so I dropped them in at Immigration along with a cover letter - there is a dedicated desk for QMAS stuff, which makes it very convenient to deliver papers in person. I got one further letter, asking me for a reference from SCO, where I worked from 1998 to 2000, but since the company no longer exists - no, the company now trading under that name is not the one which employed me - I had to let Immigration know that I couldn't get a reference for that position. That was in late September, after I obviously missed the August round of processing.

Around this time, I made contact with a guy in Singapore who'd also applied, and it's been pretty useful to compare notes as we went along. We're in similar situations, both IT guys, although he probably gets a slightly higher score than me. He did get more details requests for information, due to personal circumstances, and he wasn't as obsessed as I was about getting every single bit of paper correct. Of course, he's also not relying on it as a way to remain living in the city which is his current home.

So as of early October, I had all the paperwork in, and had told Immigration that I didn't think I had anything else to give them. The way they'd published results in the past was to put up a list of successful (in principle) application numbers as a PDF, late in the month, so I settled back to wait until the November results were published. And waited... and waited...

To be continued.