Asked by: Steve Double (Conservative - St Austell and Newquay)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Department's guidance, Coronavirus (COVID-19): immigration guidance, updated on 27 February 2020, whether (a) Hong Kong nationals and (b) British National (Overseas) passport holders are eligible to have their visas automatically extended.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Hong Kong Nationals, British National (Overseas) Passport holders and foreign nationals in the UK legally and whose visa expired after 24 January are able to extend their visa using this form https://gov.smartwebportal.co.uk/homeoffice/public/ho_form.html if they cannot leave the UK because of restrictions related to coronavirus.
The extension will last until 31 July and will apply to anyone whose leave expired after the 24 January and cannot leave the country because of travel restrictions or self-isolation. To help those who want to apply for visas to stay in the UK long-term, the Home Office is also temporarily expanding the in-country switching provisions until 31 July. Those who already had their visa extended to 31 May 2020, will have their visa extended automatically to 31 July 2020.
A dedicated help centre has been established for those who need assistance. The best way to contact the helpline is via email on CIH@homeoffice.gov.uk or on 0800 678 1767. It is open 9am-5pm Monday to Friday. Those who contact the Home Office for these visa extensions will be expected to return to their home countries as soon as possible once flight and border restrictions are lifted. No immigration enforcement action will be undertaken during this time for those who email the Home Office as outlined above.
More details can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/further-visa-extensions-for-those-unable-to-return-home-due-to-coronavirus
Asked by: Steve Double (Conservative - St Austell and Newquay)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many British National Overseas passport holders there were in Hong Kong in each year since the introduction of that category of passport; whether she plans to review the rights afforded to those passport holders; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Kevin Foster
We are unable to provide data on the volume of British National (Overseas) passports in circulation (valid) prior to 31 December 2015 as the data could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
We do not hold data on the number of British National Overseas passport holder’s resident in Hong Kong. The table below contains information on the number of British National (Overseas) passports in circulation from 2015 to 2019.
Year | Nationality Description | Number of passports (Volume) |
31 December 2015 | British National (Overseas) | 143,219 |
31 December 2016 | British National (Overseas) | 152,351 |
31 December 2017 | British National (Overseas) | 158,107 |
31 December 2018 | British National (Overseas) | 169,653 |
31 December 2019 | British National (Overseas) | 314,779 |
BN(O) status is part of the delicate balance in negotiations that led to the Sino-British Joint Declaration. We believe it would not be right to change the legal status of BN(O)s at this point in time.
Asked by: Steve Double (Conservative - St Austell and Newquay)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of British National (Overseas) passport holders who (a) applied for asylum in the UK and (b) were successfully granted (i) refugee or (ii) humanitarian protection status between 2015 and 2019.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office publishes data on asylum applications, initial decisions and resettlement in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’.
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release
Data on the number of asylum applications from British National (Overseas), and the initial decisions of such applications are published in tables Asy_D01 and Asy_D02 of the asylum and resettlement detailed datasets.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets
Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relates to year ending September 2019. Additionally, the Home Office publishes a high-level overview of the data in the ‘summary tables’. The ‘contents’ sheet contains an overview of all available data on asylum.
Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘https://www.gov.uk/search/research-and-statistics?content_store_document_type=upcoming_statistics&organisations%5B%5D=home-office&order=release-date-oldest