Opening in Hong Kong: GEP First, ESLS Cooks in Phase Two

For a Hong Kong opening, the first thing to fix is that the head chef (GEP) and the cooks under them (ESLS) can be ready by opening day on completely different timelines. GEP carries no local-headcount quota and can move in a matter of weeks once the paperwork is ready. ESLS cannot: importing one cook requires three full-time local staff already employed in that section (the ratio tightened to 3:1 from 16 June 2026), plus a completed 6 week local recruitment exercise for that specific post. A brand-new restaurant has neither on day one, so treat ESLS cooks as a second-phase addition once the local kitchen is running, not part of the opening-day team.

1. Who to send and when: GEP first, ESLS as phase two

Send the head chef on the General Employment Policy (GEP). It carries no local-headcount quota, and processing normally takes four weeks once the documents are ready. The evidence a chef without a degree needs (track record, awards, references) is covered in full in our English guide.

Sending cooks under the Enhanced Supplementary Labour Scheme (ESLS) is a different matter. Importing one cook requires three full-time local staff already working in that kitchen or table-service section (since 16 June 2026, up from 2:1). A newly opened restaurant does not have those local staff yet. Treat ESLS cooks as an addition you make once the head chef has hired and trained a local kitchen team and the ratio is met, not as part of the team you plan to have on opening day. Plan the opening day kitchen around the head chef (GEP) plus local hires alone.

2. The chicken-and-egg problem in the 3:1 ratio

ESLS has a second condition beyond the 3:1 ratio. Before applying to import a cook, you must run a 6 week local recruitment exercise for that specific post (advertising in the first two weeks, then a Labour Department job fair every two weeks after), and show that no suitable local candidate was found. A restaurant that has not yet opened has no track record of having tried and failed to fill the post locally either.

The practical conclusion for an opening plan: even if you want to send several people from Japan, plan on sending effectively none of them under ESLS at the point of opening. Build the opening-day team around one GEP head chef and local hires, and treat ESLS cooks as a later addition once the local kitchen team exists and the 3:1 ratio is met.

3. Cost of the opening team by headcount

How the required local headcount and the annual cost scale if you later add ESLS cooks once the ratio can be met, using the median our English guide gives for Cook (Japanese Cuisine), HK$19,670 a month.

The ESLS figures are the HK$19,670 median x 12 months, plus the levy (up to HK$9,600 per worker over a 24 month contract). The local staff figures use the same median as an illustrative basis; actual local pay varies by role and experience. The table's point: every ESLS cook you add brings roughly three times their own cost in required local headcount along with it. The head chef's own GEP cost, and why GEP carries no such quota, are in the cost table in our English guide.

4. A backward schedule for the opening

The GEP processing time is official; the months are a planning allowance.

The Labour Department publishes no fixed processing time for ESLS itself, and our English guide notes that even the Department's own guidance for renewals is to start 8 to 9 months ahead. A first catering case opened alongside a brand-new restaurant is unlikely to be faster. Do not build ESLS into your opening-day plan.

5. Secondees versus local hires: MPF and tax

Whether someone travels as a secondee or a genuine local hire is a separate decision from GEP versus ESLS. Unlike Singapore, this choice in Hong Kong has a direct effect on social insurance cost.

• MPF (Mandatory Provident Fund): unlike Singapore's CPF, Hong Kong's MPF generally applies to GEP and ESLS holders as well as local staff. Our English guide's own cost table counts employer MPF (capped above HK$30,000 monthly income, up to HK$1,500 a month) as a real cost for a GEP hire. We could not confirm the conditions of any exemption for a short-term overseas assignment or for someone already covered by an overseas retirement scheme, so plan on MPF applying and check the specifics with the MPFA or a Hong Kong payroll adviser. Keeping a secondee enrolled in Japan's health insurance and pension on top of this is a genuine double social insurance cost, not an avoided one.
• Social security agreement: as of 2 March 2026, Japan and Hong Kong have no social security agreement in force, according to the Japan Pension Service, so contribution records cannot be coordinated between the two. Continuing Japan-side coverage is purely the company's own choice, to keep the employee's Japanese pension record unbroken.
• Tax: Hong Kong salaries tax is charged on income from a Hong Kong employment, and works differently from Singapore's day-count residency test. Someone employed by a Hong Kong company under GEP or ESLS is generally within the Hong Kong salaries tax net regardless of how many days they are physically present. On the Japan side, an employee posted abroad for a year or more is generally treated as a non-resident for Japanese income tax, so the result depends heavily on whether salary is paid from Japan or Hong Kong. Confirm the specifics with tax advisers in both countries.
• The practical dividing line: a head chef you expect to bring home or move to another site later usually travels as a secondee, keeping the Japan employment contract in place. A cook you expect to keep in Hong Kong for the longer term usually becomes a genuine local hire. Either way the immigration application is the same; the contract and HR structure is decided alongside the corporate design.

6. Checklist

• Is the opening-day kitchen planned around the head chef (GEP) plus local hires alone, with no ESLS cooks assumed on day one?
• If the head chef has no degree, has the evidence bundle (track record, awards, references) been started at least 6 months out?
• Is ESLS treated as a post-opening addition, timed to when the local team meets the 3:1 ratio?
• If you plan to use ESLS later, is the 6 week local recruitment exercise for that specific post scheduled before the application, not alongside it?
• Has the MPF cost for GEP and ESLS holders been budgeted, and has any possible exemption been checked with the MPFA?

General information, not legal, tax or immigration advice. Scheme details were checked as of September 2026. Check the Immigration Department, the Labour Department and the MPFA for current requirements, and consult tax advisers in both Japan and Hong Kong.