Immigration restrictions on non-local students will be relaxed starting next Monday, allowing them to gain work experience during studies and local employers to recruit them without having to go through massive amounts of paperwork after their graduation.

The initiative is one of a series of measures Chief Executive Donald Tsang announced in last year's policy address to develop Hong Kong into an education hub in the region.

Immigration Department assistant director Helen Chan announced yesterday that non-local graduates will be allowed to stay in Hong Kong for a year even without a job. Those who choose to go home after completing their studies may return to Hong Kong within six months after graduation provided that they have found a job here.

Employers taking in these graduates will no longer have to prove that local people cannot be found to fill the position.

The pay offered to these non-local graduates should not be below the market level.

Non-local students will also be allowed to participate in internships related to their studies for up to a year or one-third of the duration of their studies with the approval from their universities.

They will also be allowed to take part-time jobs on campus for up to 20 hours a week, and summer jobs between June 1 and August 31.

Chan said the new measure will help the city retain talents.

"Some companies expressed their willingness to employ non-local graduates, but their plans are hindered by the application procedure that requires a lot of paperwork," she said.

The new procedure will take two days instead of the current 12 weeks.

According to government figures, 895 mainlanders who graduated in Hong Kong worked in the city last year, up from 550 in 2006.

Hong Kong Association of Mainland Graduates vice president Rowena Li welcomed the new arrangement.

She believed allowing postgraduate students from the mainland to work part-time is a good measure as they often do not have time to work as full-time interns.

(HK Edition 05/15/2008 page1)