The UK Government has announced that it will offer the right to live and work in the UK to nearly 3 million Hong Kong citizens eligible for a British National Overseas (BNO) passport if China were to impose the new security laws.<\/p>\n
Hong Kong has about 350,000 residents holding a BNO passport whilst another 2.5 million are eligible. Currently, a BNO passport holder can visit the UK for up to 6 months without applying for a Standard Visitor visa. However, BNO status does not include the right of abode or work in the UK. Therefore, BNO holders do not have any automatic right to live or work in the UK, and are subject to immigration controls like all other non-EU citizens.<\/p>\n
On 3 June 2020, the PM wrote an article for the Times stating:<\/p>\n
\u2018If China imposes its national security law, the British government will change our immigration rules and allow any holder of these passports from Hong Kong to come to the UK for a renewable period of 12 months and be given further immigration rights, including the right to work, which could place them on a route to citizenship<\/em>.\u2019<\/p>\n However, the announcement clearly lacks a degree of clarity and details. Further, it is important to note that there are a variety of requirements and charges on the path to citizenship, including thousands of pounds in application fees and the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS).<\/p>\n Finally, not everybody will be able to take advantage of this policy, for instance the right to a BNO passport cannot be pass onto children and a Hong Kong national born after 1997 will not be eligible for an BNO passport.<\/p>\n Contact Our Immigration Team<\/strong><\/p>\n For expert advice regarding the UK citizenship and British passport application, please contact our immigration team on 0203 384 3075.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The UK Government has announced that it will offer the right to live and work in the UK to nearly 3 million Hong Kong citizens eligible for a British National Overseas (BNO) passport if China were to impose the new security laws. Hong Kong has…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4018,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n