BRIEFING PAPER Number CBP 8939, 5 May 2021 Hong Kong British By Melanie Gower National (Overseas) visa Esme Kirk-Wade Contents: 1. Background to British National (Overseas) status 2. Calls to extend BN(O) immigration and citizenship rights 3. The new Hong Kong British National (Overseas) visa 4. The BN(O) visa: topical issues www.parliament.uk/commons-library | intranet.parliament.uk/commons-library |
[email protected] | @commonslibrary 2 Hong Kong British National (Overseas) visa Contents Summary 3 1. Background to British National (Overseas) status 5 1.1 Acquiring BN(O) status: legislation 5 1.2 Immigration and citizenship rights historically conferred by BN(O) status 6 2. Calls to extend BN(O) immigration and citizenship rights 10 2.1 Until May 2020 10 2.2 Summer 2020: Announcement of a new visa route for BN(O)s 11 2.3 Ten Minute Rule Bill: Hong Kong Bill 2019-21 13 3. The new Hong Kong British National (Overseas) visa 14 3.1 Policy, legislation and guidance 14 3.2 Practical details 14 3.3 More generous terms than other visa categories? 18 4. The BN(O) visa: topical issues 19 4.1 How many people might come to the UK? 19 4.2 Integration support and managing the impact on local areas 19 4.3 The gaps in the UK’s offer 21 4.4 What are other countries doing? 21 Cover page image copyright Attribution: Chinese demonstrators, 2019– 20 Hong Kong protests by Studio Incendo – Wikimedia Commons page. Licensed by Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) / image cropped.