The key eligibility to apply for the funds - whether the branch has substantive business operations in Hong Kong, fund departments will make reference to various factors, such as:

- nature of the business operation in Hong Kong
- size of the business operation in Hong Kong if whole operations consist of more than one countries
- amount of investment in Hong Kong, for example by reference to how much business money kept in the bank account in Hong Kong
- number of employees in Hong Kong, as the branch cannot have more than 50 employees, i.e it must be a small to medium size
- years of establishment
- whether profits are assessable in Hong Kong (This is a key consideration, it means whether the company is local company and is not offshore Hong Kong company)
 - information/assessment issued by relevant financial and professional organisations, for example overseas recruiting agency setup a branch in Hong Kong, and register recruiting business by recruiting licence, and it will automatically become "Local company"

However, it is not the considerations whether the directors/shareholders hold Hong Kong ID or not, live in Hong Kong or outside Hong Kong.