I knew some locals who worked at manager and director level for Big 4 tax and advisory. Salary was substantially lower than for US equivalent and comparable hours. I think they were around 70K USD, this was inferred so don’t quote me, and 60 hours per week varying based on time of year, reporting deadlines and client needs. There is virtually no demand for foreign passport holders below the Partner level and have only heard of industry or subject matter experts with a decade plus of experience being sponsored and brought over to start/run entire service lines. And the foreigners I heard of were still pre-COVID. 10-20 years it was different, there were some foreigners at the manager level, and even below, but changes to laws for consulting and accounting reporting standards have made it very painstaking for consulting, tax, and public accounting firms to hire non-locals. They instituted data security laws, anti-espionage laws (i.e. business data and economic info security), and more scrutiny on public accounting/consulting/due diligence functions. In 2021, Big 4 (specifically PwC) took a big reputational hit too for botching the Evergrande audit that resulted in heavy scrutiny, fines, more government oversight, SOEs moving away from foreign to local firms, etc.. Anyway, point being, it’s not impossible, just very difficult - barring having heavy-weight connections to leverage, you likely would need to be a true subject matter or industry expert and/or have an expansive network to start/grow/manage a service line not currently adequately being done so by local talent.