HkCaGu

Now this made me wonder: If I or any emigrants (not currently residing in HK) who obtained another citizenship (e.g. US, Can, Aus, NZ) were to go fill out papers in Wan Chai giving up our Chinese nationality, hence stripped of our HK ROA (since we haven't been living there in the recent 7 years, unlike those returnees) and thus HKID... How would we renew our BNO, which is supposed to be for life? For those of us holding three passports, can we give up HKSAR without affecting BNO?

Does this make the case that you shouldn't give up Chinese unless you're already living in HK?

:D!

I'm not aware of any specific cases but I expect your ROA may be converted to RTL and you would still keep your HKID.

I don't know if you meant 3 when you said 7.

You can qualify for HKID by being ordinarily resident in HK for 7 years at any time in your life (doesn't mean actually resident - I know one case who got it by being at UK boarding school for 7 years while his parents were resident in HK). It doesn't need to be recent.

If you are not a Chinese citizen, then after obtaining ROA on this basis you need to return to HK every 3 years otherwise ROA is converted to RTL (only differences are can't vote and can be deported after jail sentence). I don't know if they would apply this retrospectively or it would only apply from when your renunciation was granted - but if you are going to Wan Chai in person you would have already reset the clock

If you haven't been resident in HK for 7 years at any time of your life, then your Chinese citizenship is probably based on descent from your parents, and your claim to HKID should be extended from BDTC HK belonger status prior to 1997 (which was transmittable by descent)

If despite all this it was determined that you no longer qualified for a HKID, then I suppose you would just send all the documentation regarding this to HMPO and they would renew your BN(O) eventually. Given that you have another citizenship and the only advantage of BN(O) is no ceremony fee to become a British citizen after fulfilling the criteria.

garykung

I could be very wrong in this, but simply this is my 2 cents.

I think you will able to remain as a BN(O) as the Home Office has no authority to revoke the nationality. But you won't be able to renew the BN(O) Passport.

The only solution - registration as a British Citizen at the Home Secretary's discretion.

nacho

US accepts dual citizenship.

When I changed my nationality I just gave them my BNO - went to the local British Embassy to "give up" my useless BNO. They didn't ask me to hand in my HKID (I guess they don't care/nothing to do with them). I think BNO is rubbish since you need visa to go to most places - not sure the status now but it was worse than the SAR passport.

I return to HK regularly so I got a SAR passport too - I haven't really used it.

I think HK govt doesn't really actively tracing all those people who emigrated and obtained another nationality. As long as you go back once in a while to get your documents renewed then they don't care.

HkCaGu

I'm aware of the RTL but if you lost your ROA I suppose you'd have a different ID that doesn't state that.

IIRC, to regain ROA you'd have to do 7 years.

That's what I wasn't sure about. BNO is supposed to be for life, but it is renounceable. (I've seen some HKers in the US aerospace-defense industry having to do that.) But if you haven't, then could they deny? Or simply make you go through another step?

It's been 18 years and the BNO advantages are starting to show. It ain't the visa-free list anymore, it's the consular protection thing, or specifically the reliability and quality of it. Often there had been groups of HKers in trouble and the UK's assistance was praised and PRC's tarnished. The only significant HKSAR advantage is Russia. (Tsang met Putin/Medvedev and now there's reciprocal 14-day visa free.) And in case of emergency...anyone flying EU-HK or even NA-HK can spend quite a few hours over Russia. CX had a case where HKSAR holders were allowed off airport in Moscow during the 20-hour "rescue wait" while the rest of the plane was "Snowden-ed".

garykung

This is what the U.K. Government has not spelled out, which lead me to think registration as a British Citizen at the Home Secretary's discretion is possible.

nacho

Unless something has changed recently. I doubt that BNO will grant you British citizenship because the Brits defines National as people who do not have a right to reside and become a UK citizen - that's why they replace British Dependency Territories Citizen to BNO in Hong Kong shortly before 1997.

If you have BOC passport (British Overseas Citizen) passport, then you can apply for British citizenship.

I had to get a new BNO passport because my passport was completely full and I went to the British Embassy in Copenhagen to do it. My new BNO isn't machine readable which caused quite some trouble when going through immigration. I was so relieved that I could finally get rid of it.

percysmith

(Provided your parents are ethinically Chinese) My $0.02 is that you will still be considered a Chinese citizen by the PRC and HKSAR Governments.

Unfortunately the PRC Government may not extend you the conveninence of a PRC Citizen's rights to use overseas consulates, but try committing a crime in HK or China and your (deemed) Chinese citizenship will be used to deny British Consulate assistance.

If you do come back to HK and visit the Immigration Department I'm sure you can get your HKID back and get a HKSAR passport as well if you want it. If you are born a HK Permanent Resident and Chinese citizen it cannot be taken away from you just because you haven't renewed your docs.

See http://www.sm128c.com/hk/

bbmatt

I had this same problem. I had a youth permanent ID that expired and I did not renew it for several years. When i returned to HK to renew, i lost my ROA, but they gave me a right to land ID card. I guess for my purposes, it works, as i'm only using it to skip the immigration lines.

HkCaGu

Well if you lost ROA, you were not of Chinese nationality and most likely not BNO.

percysmith

No. He didn't register, so he can't be BNO (like me, he did not "opt in"). He might have been BDTC like me which lapsed on 1 July 1997.

As for ROA (and Chinese citizenship underpinning it), it's a Immigration Department determination that can be appealed the the Immigration Department Registration of Persons Tribunal and can be furthered appealed to the courts.

Of course we don't know bbmatt's circumstances. Roughly:

ROA (Art 24 of BL):
1. Chinese citizens born in HK at any time (before or after establishhent of HKSAR)
2. Chinese citizens ordinarily resided in HK for 7-year continuous period any time
3. Chinese citizens born outside HK to residents under (1) or (2)
4. Non-Chinese citizens who have fulfilled the 7-year residency requirement
5. Children born in HK to residents under (4)
6. Anyone else who only had HK ROA before 1 July 1997

Chinese Citizen http://www.immd.gov.hk/eng/residents...inese/law.html :

Born in China to at least one Chinese national - yes (this includes Colony of Hong Kong and the Chinese in it notwithstanding they may have also been BDTCs because the Chinese didn't recognise that)
Born outside China to at least one Chinese national - yes
Born outside China to Chinese nationals who have settled abroad (i.e. have PR in another country) *and* the child acquired another nationality at birth - no

percysmith

Can UK embassies do it? I thought it was all central processing by mail now. Even HK consulate (albeit not an embassy) can't process BNO which is a PITA for everyone here who still uses them.

nacho

Not anymore - I did a search and it seems that it's all centralized.

nacho

It's funny that they see Taiwan is part of China - my sis has Taiwanese passport and lives in Taiwan and her kid was born in Taiwan, never lives in HK and she got ROA in HK but not mine (mine are half Chinese but that really shouldn't matter)

HkCaGu

Well their other half ethnicity doesn't matter. Your "settled" status abroad and their POB are what matter.