Officials on Friday advised tens of thousands of people waiting for months to find out whether they can move to Hong Kong under the Quality Migrant Admission System to scrap their applications and start again via a new process they hope will be quicker.

Some 80,000 applications are in limbo, with the waiting time for them to be vetted stretching to about nine months, according to the Immigration Department.

Officials say the new process they've devised should slash the application process down to about six months.

Instead of filling out details and having officials score them item by item, from now on applicants will only have to complete an online questionnaire and answer 12 "yes or no" questions.

Younger people will no longer get a higher score and applicants now just need to state whether they are 50 or under.

Multiple doctoral or master's degrees won't improve an applicant's chances anymore and they just need to state whether they have one from one of 198 universities covered by the Top Talent Pass Scheme, or one of six business schools ranked among the top ten in the world over the past five years.

Other ways to get a “yes” include having an annual income of HK$1 million or above, owning a company with an annual profit of HK$5 million or above, or having work experience of five years or more.

Being bilingual or having good English writing and speaking skills is another way to get a "yes".

Those who get six or more “yesses” on the questionnaire will be referred to a government internal review committee, run by Secretary for Labour Chris Sun, who will then pass its recommendation to the Immigration Department for a final decision.

The Labour Bureau said it would advise existing applicants still waiting to find out whether they've been accepted to withdraw their original application and file another one to get a speedier decision.