Why some Hongkongers are taking a fresh look at their British National (Overseas) passports

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With its burgundy cover and coat of arms, the British National (Overseas) passport or BN(O) might look like a regular “full” British passport.

But just as a book cannot be judged by its cover – the relative benefits and rights offered by a BN(O) are complicated.

For nearly a decade after July 1, 1997 – when former British colony Hong Kong was handed back to Chinese sovereignty – the BN(O) passport was the most popular travel document among Hongkongers. At one stage, nearly 800,000 of the passports had been issued.

But by 2015, many residents who are Chinese nationals switched to less-expensive Hong Kong SAR passports, which also provide greater visa-free access abroad.

But amid anti-government protests in 2019, many are taking a fresh look at the BN(O) passports, and there are renewed calls for London to widen citizenship rights offered by the document.

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[dxelson]

They should refer to how Portugal treated the people of Macau. BNO is a joke, they never intended hongkongers to be British. Portuguese Macanese have full Portuguese citizenship, unlike British hongkongers.

[yhong]

Pro-government, and pro-beijing should support the idea of BNO becoming a UK citizen. You wanted them to leave, they get to migrate. Win-win

[RC-jrth]

long story short, BNO is valid as my expired HK Disneyland year pass

[a]

Long story short, BNO = Second Class Citizen. as simple as that.

[leonluo]

Let the holders of BNO document migrate to the UK.

[SuccessforLifester]

Let these young and energetic young HKers migrate aboard. They are young and could channel their energy to their workforce. It will be a win win for the countries and these Hkers

[Sarablueunicorn]

Portugal gives full portuguese citizenship and passport to macaneses.
That's why no one heard about Macau, almost all of them already got the portuguese citizenship, and it's not because their heart is with Portugal, just being a citizen of EU is so convenient.

[yanshanu]

UK should take the HKers who want to move to UK. This is a win-win situation for China and HKers. If UK also likes it, perfect, because then it's a 3 way win situation.

[GeneralStaff]

I support the conversion from BNO passport to a full UK passport provided the passport holders give up their Chinese（Hong Kong) citizenship (i.e. they have to leave Hong Kong).

[thisistotallyfine]

BNO = basically a UK visa but with a passport cover
I mean a passport that only lets you stay for 6mths? Even a US visa can do that!

[BakerStreetDet]

Please grant all these rebels full UK citizenship, send millions of them to the UK, and don’t let them return to Hong Kong.

[CameronPan]

Second class citizen identification. Terrific commemorative souvenirs!

[fharrison]

Britain is the literally the cause of so many conflicts world wide, Britain should man up and give them real passport and rights as colonizer of Macao

[mocuishle]

So BN(O) passport doesn’t allow the HongKong holders to have suffrage rights, instead it only allows one more right as freely traveling in UK and have a homosexual marriage there.😂😂😂😂

[gyzq]

As mainlander, I think Hongkongers with BN(0) passports and their Children should be given a one-time choice to be British Citizen or Chinese Citizen. If their hearts and souls is not with China, just let them leave. They should leave China for Britain when UK allows them, then everyone will be better off.

[yulifts]

Literally a document stipulating your status as a second-tier citizen.

[paulm]

I'm British and I'm all up for giving them full citizenship, problem with that is ofcourse everyone would leave hong kong, our border is stricter now

[chaospilot]

Wow. Im really surprised how objectiv and informativ the south china morning post is. A shame that there aren´t more chinese news like this.

[isaacioane]

I’m a dual citizen. New Zealand and Australia so my comment has no relevance to this topic

[pharisse]

Those ex Malaysians who gave up their citizenship and appealed for british overseas citizenship and then got revoked and became stateless should watch this