London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Oct 14, 2025

London making it easier for Hongkongers to apply for BN(O) visas

London making it easier for Hongkongers to apply for BN(O) visas

New guidelines mean husbands, wives, and children can now apply separately, while children born during process and new partners of BN(O) passport holders are now also eligible.

London has made it easier for Hongkongers to access the new pathway to citizenship under the controversial British National (Overseas) visa scheme, allowing husbands and wives and their children to apply separately.

The concessions also allow children born while their parents are in the middle of the application process to be considered, and if a BN(O) status holder meets a new partner after being granted permission to live in the UK, that person would also be allowed to stay.

The London government issued a new set of guidelines for its Home Office staff last Thursday, advising caseworkers on how to consider applications for entry clearance and permission to stay on the Hong Kong BN(O) visa route.

“It is permissible for the BN(O) status holder’s spouse or partner and dependent child under 18 to apply for the Hong Kong BN(O) route separately from the lead applicant,” the updated guidelines state.

“Some applicants may have staggered their applications so that one parent moves to the UK first to arrange affairs before the other parent and children join them; this would also be permissible under this concession.”

Britain introduced the new visa last July in response to Beijing’s imposition of a national security law on its former colony, an act London described as a breach of the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, the agreement that paved the way for Hong Kong’s return to China in 1997.

As many as 5.4 million Hongkongers are estimated to be eligible under the programme, including holders of BN(O) status and their dependents, to stay in the country for up to five years, with the right to work and study, and to apply for citizenship in the sixth year.

The British government estimated last October that more than a million people might make the move over the next five years, although that was the maximum forecast. A more realistic number was around 320,000.

Beijing has said the scheme violates the Joint Declaration and was an “interfering in China’s domestic s affairs”. It also withdrew recognition of the BN(O) passport in retaliation.

The visa scheme opened on January 31, and by mid-March it was reported that some 27,000 Hongkongers had filed applications for the special visa. Last month, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the visa reflected Britain’s “historic and moral commitment” to Hong Kong people.

Associate director of Midland Immigration Consultancy, Tina Cheng, said it was too early to judge its popularity.

“Our companies received more enquiries about emigrating to the UK after the launch of the special visa, but, not many of them have actually filed applications, as far as we know,” she said. “The high costs of living and housing, and the high tax rates in Britain are among the major concerns.”

A British National (Overseas) passport.


Chan Wai-keung, a political scientist at Polytechnic University, also said the UK economy was bad, and London might have to make the scheme more attractive to draw more capital and talent from Hong Kong.

Hard hit by Covid-19 and uncertainties after Brexit, the UK economy contracted 9.9 per cent last year. According to the Office for National Statistics, the UK’s unemployment rate between November and January hit 5 per cent, leaving 1.7 million people out of work.

“The new rules might be attractive to some upper middle class families who are very eager to leave Hong Kong,” Chan said. “There is not much else the Beijing or the Hong Kong government can do to counteract that, unless it dares to take a more dramatic move to void the Hong Kong permanent resident status for those Hongkongers who left via the new visa scheme.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Australian Prime Minister’s Private Number Exposed Through AI Contact Scraper
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Australia Faces Demographic Risk as Fertility Falls to Record Low
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
×