In 2021, the UK government created a simpler migration pathway for select Hong Kong citizens to escape China’s growing pressure, but with a steady decline of issued visas by the Home Office over the last four years is the visa really serving its people?
The British National Overseas visa was introduced in January 2021, allowing BNO passport holders born before the 1997 handover of Hong Kong back to China to gain an exclusive, easier way to migrate into the UK with their dependents and a possible intention of settlement under 2.5/5-year visas.
Between 2021 and the end of 2024, the number of out-of-country applications dropped steadily year by year, with 2024 just a quarter of 2021 numbers.
Although 28,758 further in-country applications mean the Home Office are on track to hit their mid-range estimate of 257,000 applicants by 2025, this visa pathway may not be as attainable as it seems for many.
Hong Kong Watch policy advisor and BNO advocate Thomas Benson said: “The take-up of the visa scheme has been quite good, but there are oversights on the way this policy has been written.
“What we have seen are real examples, real families, where the parents have a BNO passport, the younger child is eligible, but an older sibling is frozen out of the scheme and can’t join their family members in the UK.”
What Benson and Hong Kong Watch are advocating for is a gap in the visa scheme that has gone unnoticed and unacknowledged by many.
The Government’s policy to let children born to BNO holders after the handover into the scheme was a welcome one, but there is a glaring omission for adults who were born before 1997 but do not have BNO passports.
As they do not have BNO status but do not qualify as eligible dependents under the current rules, they have been barred from the visa pathway.
Hong Kong Watch estimates that 20,000-25,000 people, and by extension, their families, have been affected by this, presenting a hard decision on whether to stay until the ineligible relative can seek a different visa, or leave them behind.
Benson said: “This isn’t how the scheme should be designed.
“It is an oversight on the way the policy has been written, and we’re keen to push on the government to make sure that these families can be reunited in the UK.
“Every family member within a family that wants to come should be able to come.”
High costs of migration
Even if Hong Kongers can manage to move their families, there is another major barrier: the financial cost.
Over the last few years, both Conservative and Labour governments have brought in new measures to curb net migration, including restricting most students from bringing dependants, increasing income requirements to sponsor family visas, and reviewing English language requirements for student visas.
Between 2021 and 2024, the Home Office recorded nearly 4.8 million non-temporary visas, with particular spikes in 2022 and 2023.
While this could be a knock-on effect from COVID-19 and the creation of Ukraine Visa Schemes in March 2022, there is no denying that migration had already been on an upward trend.
In Hong Kong, there has traditionally been a positive view on attending university in the UK with prestigious universities like Oxford, Cambridge, and St Andrews scattered across the country.
However, that education comes at a precious price, as BNO visa holders are ineligible for home fees unless they have been resident in the UK for five years, in contrast to other humanitarian schemes or EU students with settlement status who only require three.
This means the earliest possible cohort of out-of-country BNO visa holders to qualify for home fees would only enter university in the 2027-28 academic year.
Universities across the country are currently facing financial trouble, with the Office of Students releasing a report last November that suggested 72% of English institutions could be in deficit by the end of the 2024-25 academic year.
Over the last few decades, many universities pushed hard to recruit foreign students to cover costs as overseas tuition is not capped like home fees are.
The financial stress they are under, in combination with the government cracking down on international students, means that those of university age or with children they intend to put through the UK education system have an additional burden to consider.
In combination with the base application fee (£180/£250 depending on visa length) and healthcare surcharge (which went from £624 to £1,035 per year for most applicants in February 2024), the possibility of both education and moving your family with you becomes increasingly unattainable.
Benson said: “We are keen to push parity with other groups on similar schemes for political asylum and secure access to home fees for Hong Kong students.
“Many young Hong Kongers are getting their results and offers now, the increasing fees are ultimately pricing them out of university education.
“The take up of the visa scheme has been quite good, but we want to make sure that people on the BNO track are able to start new lives in the UK without any impediments.”
Even if they overcome the barrier for entry and education, the prospect of committing to a BNO visa and facing the UK landscape is also a complicated one.
Lack of incentives to stay
Recent university graduate Gabriella said: “Do I think it’s the best way of immigration? No, not by far.
“There’s a massive financial burden for people wanting to move to the UK, and there is no benefit comparable to what you give.
“The government takes a lot of tax here, and we aren’t entitled to a lot of things like other Commonwealth countries for example the youth mobility scheme, and we aren’t allowed to vote.”
As BNO passport holders, her parents were eligible to apply for the new visa track created in response to the imposition of China’s National Security Law.
And with a new clause, implemented in February 2024, allowing the children of those BNO passport holders to apply separately to their parents, the visa was then available to Gabriella.
She added: “I chose not to take the visa, it was too expensive.
“We’re not really a wealthy family so it was an economical choice for my parents to stay while my sister and I went to university on student visas.
”I want to go back to my family and there’s a sense of familiarity there, and the UK’s job market and culture are sometimes not amazing, especially for people that speak English as a second language.
”I’m quite whitewashed and I have good English, and being in London my experience has been quite good as it’s such a diverse population.
“But I know that there’s a lot of animosity towards immigrants in Cambridge or Oxford for example, more conservative areas.”
The Home Office has been contacted for a response.
Join the discussion