im an expat living in Canada for almost a year and it's no problem for me applying for new cards and sending it a an address stateside. I just find it a hassle to transfer funds back to the U.S. to pay off my bills as i get paid in CAD $!! There's no real cheap way to do it without loosing a bit of money. At least the CAD has been stronger recently.

Thanks for the replies; I will definitely look into the cards that've been suggested.

I assume my job/income being non-US is not going to be a problem for purposes of income verification/credit approval?

I don't know if they actually verify your income. I am employed by a U.S. based company so paid in dollars, but never have been notified regarding the amount entered into the annual household income. I think they would start verifying if things started going down hill or if your data on your credit reports were questionable, but excellent credit usually does not get questioned. I am sure you could just enter an equivalent of HKD to USD into the annual household income box.