This is only a general question so I hope those not familiar with this scheme can chip in and give their opinion. A friend of mine needs some help filling in the application for a residence visa under the Capital Investment Entrant Scheme (CIES). The forms are here in both English and Chinese, but he's going to use the English version:
http://www.immd.gov.hk/pdforms/id%28e%29967.pdf (English)
http://www.immd.gov.hk/pdforms/id%28c%29967.pdf (Chinese)
More specifically, page 4 of the form asks the applicant to report "personal liabilities/debt" and then calculate his net personal assets. From what I understand, it's not necessary to supply any proof that you're debt-free (if you are) and the HK immigration department should be able to carry out some kind of check on this. But what kind of liabilities or debt does the HKID have in mind? Would tax arrears come under this heading of personal liabilities/debt and is this something they would perform a background check on (e.g. contact tax authorities of applicant's country of domicile)? If he has no tax arrears, would he have to prove this and how? How about uncashed checks or money owed to friends and family? How would they check this?
Those were his questions. I told him they would probably just dig up his credit report and if he doesn't owe anything to anyone (he didn't tell me if he does!), it's pretty straight forward, but he does want to "streamline the application process" as the HKID puts it, so I'm thinking it's better to enclose as many supporting documents as possible in the application, so HKID doesn't come back too many times to ask for more. I think he's tried to contact them a few times but they obviously weren't too helpful and the CIES hotline didn't even pick up the phone!
So, any advice as to the questions above?