Overview
- Adult children of BN(O) status holders who were under 18 at the 1997 handover can now apply on their own.
- The change also covers those born between 1979 and 1997 whose parents did not secure BN(O) status for them before the handover, with partners and children eligible to join.
- The Home Office expects roughly 26,000 arrivals in the next five years under the expanded pathway.
- Applicants remain subject to standard suitability checks, application fees and the immigration health surcharge.
- Britain linked the step to Jimmy Lai’s 20-year sentence, as ministers call for his humanitarian release and plan further engagement with Beijing.