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Promoters of VTC courses are marketing them as a cost-effective means for Chinese women in Hong Kong to obtain residency for their newborns, pointing to prices as low as HK$100,000, including commissions. This pathway is claimed to facilitate their children's admission to top mainland universities and enhance prospects of civil service employment.

However, skeptics question if this strategy truly replenishes Hong Kong's youth demographic and urge authorities and VTC to protect local resources and prioritize talent cultivation.

The South China Morning Post discovered that agencies were pushing VTC courses to pregnant women from mainland China, highlighting that the bundled fees were less than HK$100,000 and more affordable than pursuing a master's degree, which costs around HK$79,000 annually. These agencies argued that the VTC route offered an advantageous alternative, especially for women in their thirties who were seeking to give birth in Hong Kong to secure permanent residency for their infants, thereby granting them access to free public education and better opportunities in mainland universities.

The promoters detailed a case of a 30-year-old woman with a secondary school diploma who was admitted to a VTC higher diploma course in international hospitality and tourism management, despite concerns about attendance requirements. The VTC agent assured the woman that as long as she maintained an 80% attendance rate, she could skip classes during pregnancies by presenting sick leave certificates, although completion of the certificate would not be mandatory.

The agent also noted that classes were infrequent, meeting only a few times a week, implying that attending sporadically would not pose significant challenges.

The agencies emphasized that completing the VTC programme was a separate matter from maintaining the student visa and warned that attendance or graduation were not under the agency's purview. They also denied claims that coming to Hong Kong with the intention of giving birth was illegal, stating that many students engaged in such practices as long as they held valid visas.

The agent provided visual evidence of a hand resting on a pregnant woman’s belly, purportedly taken at a school canteen during a visit, to reassure the reporter that the arrangement was legal.

Despite the growing trend, public hospitals in Hong Kong have restricted the admission of pregnant mainland women whose husbands are not Hong Kong permanent residents, introducing a "zero quota" policy in 2013. The Hong Kong government has also seen an increase in VTC course enrollments, with a 22% rise in non-local intake from 678 students in the 2024-25 academic year to 829 in 2025-26. The VTC reported a retention rate of about 95% in recent years but did not specify the period.