British Passport Eligibilty

Could anyone with similar experience please provide me with advice on the eligibilty criteria for an Hong Kong Chinese obtaining a British passport?


My 25 year old daughter is Hong Kong Chinese and has lived continuously in Britain for the past 10 years, three years for school, five years for university and two years in post-graduate (training) employment. She has a Masters degree and has worked in the financial sector for two years, one year as post-graduate experience and one year on a holiday visa which permits her to work. That visa expires shortly.


She is single and feels much more at home in Britain than in Hong Kong, such that she would like to apply for British citizenship and continue living there. She holds only a BN(O) passport - I did not apply for a British passport for my family pre-1997 (as an insurance policy) although many civil servants did. However, the BN(O) passport appears to be quite worthless.


My daughter has a break of 28 days in her 10 years of visa approvals, through no fault of her own. She is concerned that this will mean that her 10 years continuous residence will not be recognised by the UK Immigation Department and she will thus have to forfeit the 1,000 pounds it will cost her to make a British citizenship application. She does not earn a high salary and most of her salary is used up paying rent, travel, energy bills food, and other unavoidable outgoings.


Could anyone please point her in the right direction, or give advice on how best to enhance her British citizenship application, e.g. obtain character references from native British friends who have known her since she was a little girl, a testamonial from her employer, etc.?


Advice would be greatly appreciated.

I am not 100% sure but I thought that studying etc did not count towards residency at all? she would need to work now for 4 yrs and get residency and then another year to get a passort but I might be wrong.. but I might be wrong - she just needs to go to Immigration to find out really.

Best bet is to contact the embassy they are the only ones who will give you accurate info on such a complex subject.

Again not sure but I know a HK Chinese who was kicked out after 14 years of schooling in the UK having obtained degree in Chemical Engineering - unbelievable I know. The excuse was priority had to be given to EU nationals. However, I think things may be a bit more flexible now. If the Home Office and Immigration authorities are unhelpful, as a last resort she can always arrange to meet with her local Member of Parliament click on list link for a full list with emails http://www.parliament.uk/directories/hciolists/alcm.cfm . My wife was in a similar position and this was useful though she eventually qualified for a UK passport via the HK 50,000 heads of household scheme. This does have some effect because a) the MPs are craven for votes and b) the authorities have to follow up on request from MPs

Thank you for all the advice. I hadn't thought about canvassing her local MP and it's certainly worth a try.