UK to Expand Special Visa Scheme to Cover Hongkongers Born After 1997

Recent graduate Asuka Law, 23, poses with her British National (Overseas) passport in her favourite part of the city and the place she would miss the most if she leaves, near a shopping mall, in Kwai Chung, Hong Kong, on June 3, 2020. (Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images)

The UK government has announced its intention to expand the special visa scheme for British national (overseas) status holders to cover young Hongkongers born after the 1997 handover.

The scheme was rolled out in July 2020 following the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime’s imposition of a draconian national security law on Hong Kong. It allows BN(O) status holders to live, study, and work in the UK for five years and eventually apply for citizenship.

But the government has acknowledged that a gap in the current arrangement means some young Hongkongers born after the handover of sovereignty to Beijing on July 1, 1997, have been unable to apply for the visa.

In a written ministerial statement issued on Feb. 24, immigration minister Kevin Foster said that, under the current rules, Hongkongers born on or after July 1, 1997, can only apply as a dependent as part of their BN(O) parent’s household and must apply at the same time as the parent.

“However, some of this cohort cannot currently access the BN(O) route because their BN(O) parent does not wish to apply, because they are not part of their parent’s household, or they are unable to apply at the same time,” he wrote.

Foster said this gap is “creating unfair outcomes for the families of BN(O) status holders with some children able to access the route independently as they were old enough to be registered for BN(O) status, while their younger siblings aged between 18 and 24 are unable to access the route.”

To address this problem, he said, “the government has made the decision to enable individuals aged 18 or over who were born on or after July 1, 1997, and who have at least one BN(O) parent to apply to the route independently of their BN(O) parent.”

The government intends to revise the rules in September and expects the changes to take effect in October, the minister said.

Campaigner Benedict Rogers speaks at a rally for democracy in Hong Kong at Trafalgar Square in London on June 12, 2021. (Laurel Chor/Getty Images)

Hong Kong Watch, a London-based NGO that has been calling on the government to expand the arrangement, welcomed the announcement. The organisation is “delighted” that the government has taken the “bold and moral step” to “plug the gap in the policy,” CEO Benedict Rogers said in a statement.

“We greatly appreciated the parliamentary and civil society alliance that has stood with the people of Hong Kong to ensure the government lived up to its historic, legal, and moral obligations to help those most in need of a lifeline out of the city,” he said.

The BN(O) visa scheme started on Jan. 31, 2021. By the end of last year, 103,900 Hong Kong residents had applied for the visa.