Hong Kong residents’ green light for UK visa

AROUND 300,000 people are expected to leave Hong Kong for Britain using a new visa route.

From Sunday, Hongkongers with British National (Overseas) status and their dependants are eligible for the visas.

After five years they will be able to apply for settlement, followed by British citizenship after a further 12 months.

Some 2.9 million people in the former colony are eligible to move to the UK, with a further estimated 2.3million dependants.

However, the Government expects take-up of the offer to be far smaller.

Boris Johnson said the visas “honoured our profound ties of history and friendship with the people of Hong Kong”.

The BN(O) status was created before the UK handed responsibility for Hong Kong back to China in 1997.