As of yesterday, 8 April 2026, the British National (Overseas) (BN(O)) visa policy has been expanded to include children of BN(O) status holders who were children at the time of the handover on 1 July 1997. The expansion is expected to help 26,000 Hong Kongers reunite with their families in the UK.
The move was announced on 9 February in response to the sentencing of pro-democracy media figure and UK citizen Jimmy Lai, following the conclusion of his national security trial in Hong Kong. According to the Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules published by the Home Office on 6 March, the change would be put into effect from 8 April 2026.
Hong Kongers with at least one parent holding a BN(O) passport, who were aged under 18 at the time of the handover, are now eligible to apply for the BN(O) visa scheme, regardless of whether they hold a BN(O) passport themselves.
Hong Kong Watch campaigned to ‘close the gap’ in the BNO scheme for the past three years. We published a briefing calling on the UK government to ‘close the gap’ in the BNO scheme on 1 July 2024. Following persistent campaigning, on 2 April 2025, members of the Hong Kong Watch team met with the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office) and Minister for Migration and Citizenship, Seema Malhotra MP, alongside Charlotte Nichols MP and Sarah Hall MP, to raise concerns over this gap in the BNO scheme. The implementation of the expansion, after three years of effort, stands as a hard-won result of our campaigning and advocacy work.