Employment and immigration lawyers in both the United Kingdom and Hong Kong are seeing a surge in inquiries from both corporate and private clients following the U.K. government's offer of a path to citizenship for Hong Kong residents.

"There has been a significant uptick in inquiries from BNOs (British National Overseas) interested in relocating to the U.K. through this new route," said Matthew Wills, a senior solicitor at Laura Devine Immigration in London, a boutique firm specializing in immigration law.

On July 1, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that up to three million Hong Kong residents with BNO status will be given a path to citizenship in response to the enactment of Hong Kong's new national security law. The U.K. accuses Beijing of violating Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy as promised in the Sino-British Joint Declaration by imposing the law on the special administrative region.

Although full details of the new scheme are still pending, the U.K. government has said that all BNOs and their dependents will be given the right to live and work in the U.K. for five years. After another year, they will then be able to apply for citizenship. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said that the new, "bespoke" visa scheme for Hong Kong residents will have a simple application process with no limits on numbers.

BNO status is a legacy of British colonial rule of Hong Kong. The U.K. gave BNO status to Hong Kong residents who signed up for it before the city's return to Chinese rule in 1997.  The special status is a far cry from full citizenship. BNO passport holders have no right of abode in the U.K. and have visa-free access to the U.K. for just six months. The status also cannot be passed on to dependents.

The U.K. government's proposal represents the country's most significant response to the ongoing political turmoil engulfing its former colony. According to official estimates, there are around 2.9 million BNOs in total, including around 350,000 BNO passport-holders residing in Hong Kong, which has a total population of around 7.5 million people. Those without BNO status cannot apply for one now.

For multinationals in Hong Kong, the new immigration scheme will provide a new way for sending employees with BNO status to work in the U.K. "We are having conversations with corporations, those who want their BNOs to move to the U.K. However, this [new scheme] might be less likely to impact [corporations] because they can go through the traditional immigration routes," Wills said, referring to the current Tier 2 work visa system for employing foreign employees in the U.K.

Currently, Hong Kong BNOs are classed as foreigners under the U.K. visa system. The work visa route has always been available for sending Hong Kong BNOs to work in the U.K. However, this traditional route is also an expensive one. Medium and large companies have to pay £1,000 per year for each foreign employee they sponsor. This is in addition to the normal visa application fees, which companies typically pay for.

As the new BNO scheme will not be a work visa, companies do not necessarily have to be involved in the application process. The company may therefore avoid footing the bill for the applications, leaving it to the employees to cover the cost.

"The [Tier 2 work visa] is a very expensive and onerous route to the U.K., whereas the new BNO scheme appears to be very simple and efficient," said Naomi Hanrahan-Soar, a managing associate specializing in immigration law at Lewis Silkin in London.

Despite the scheme being straightforward and economically efficient, Lewis Silkin's clients in Hong Kong have not been inquiring about relocating employees to the U.K. following the government's announcement, according to firm Hong Kong managing partner Kathryn Weaver, whose clients include U.K.-headquartered companies with operations in the city. Weaver said a common subject of many inquiries has been business continuity planning in light of the U.K. government's plan.

"One of the things companies have been considering is their employees wanting to move. So not necessarily the company proactively moving their employees, but rather them being ready to deal with those that asked to be transferred," she said.

And that's where politics comes into play. After Prime Minister Johnson's announcement, China condemned the new BNO scheme as a "gross interference in China's internal affairs." Given China's pronounced opposition to the program, companies will want to avoid being seen by the Hong Kong or Beijing governments as encouraging employees to leave Hong Kong, Weaver said.

"Our experience is that nobody is proactively putting the option out there [to their employees], probably for political reasons. Corporates are being careful about this issue here," she said.

For the same reasons, Lewis Silkin itself is not proactively offering training courses for companies in Hong Kong about the new BNO scheme. In the U.K., it has offered courses to companies about the country's new settlement scheme for European Union nationals following the country's departure from the EU.

Concerns about how company policy might be viewed by Beijing are less relevant for employers who have employees already working in the U.K. under a work visa, Weaver says. She anticipates a shift for this category of employees from their work visas towards the new BNO scheme. "[There will be] more willingness for companies in the U.K. to say to employees 'here's what you can do if you wish to apply for that scheme,' but I don't think you'll see that replicated [in Hong Kong]."

From the employees' perspective, the BNO scheme is more attractive because it opens the door to securing full citizenship eventually, whereas the work visa only offers settlement rights after five years. But it's not without challenges. Without employers bearing the brunt of the costs, according to Wills, the new route can get too expensive for individuals. Moreover, employees might not want to restart their path to permanent immigration status, which would be required should they move from one immigration category to another.

Challenges also come from a lack of certainty in what the scheme's precise requirements are, Wills points out. These include the exact costs of the application process as well as the eligibility requirements – whether all BNOs are eligible or just those residing in Hong Kong today.

More broadly, the national security law controversy adds to Hong Kong's overall political instability, which already risks driving talent away. In October last year, a Chinese University of Hong Kong survey revealed that 42% of respondents in Hong Kong wanted to leave the city permanently, many of them citing "political dispute" and the absence of democracy as key reasons. Since the enactment of the national security law, Australia and Taiwan have both offered Hong Kong people the chance to relocate to their shores. In the United States, a bipartisan bill titled the Hong Kong Safe Harbor Act proposing to give refuge to Hong Kong residents was introduced in the Senate on June 30.

"The longer-term impact of what's happening in Hong Kong may have an effect on talent attraction and retention," Weaver said. "Talented people may leave, those studying abroad may stay abroad, and we may also not see as many people wanting to relocate to Hong Kong as previously."

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