What will Hong Kongers’ lives in the UK be like?

Britain introduced the new visa in response to the national security law which Beijing imposed on Hong Kong last June, declaring the legislation a “clear and serious breach” of the Sino-British Joint Declaration that was signed between the two countries before the 1997 handover.

The new BN(O) visa would allow everyone with BN(O) status, and their dependants, to live, study and work in Britain and, after six years, apply for citizenship.

Hong Kong residents who registered as British National (Overseas) citizens before July 1, 1997,
can apply for the BN(O) visa for themselves and their family members from January 31, 2021.

Find out if you’re eligible for this visa route by taking the following quiz.

1/7. Do you hold BN(O) status?

Unless you are a dependant of those who have BN(O)
status, you are not eligible for the visa.

If you do not hold BN(O) status and are aged between 18 and 30, you can apply for the
youth mobility scheme, which has 1,000 places
available each year.

Individuals from Hong Kong will also be able to apply to come to Britain under the
terms of the country’s new Points Based System,
allowing people in based on a wider range of professions and at a lower general
salary threshold than in the past.

Congrats! Please move on to the next question.

2/7. Do you normally live in Hong Kong or Britain?

You have to be ordinarily a resident in Hong Kong,
which includes those currently in Britain but who are also ordinary residents in
Hong Kong.

Congrats! Please move on to the next question.

3/7. Can you financially support yourself in Britain for at least
six months?

You need to demonstrate your ability to accommodate and support yourself in Britain
for at least six months.

As well as money for housing costs, you’ll need at least the same amount as someone
who would get on Income Support in Britain.

How much you need depends on how many family members are applying with you. For
example, you’ll need about:

• • £2,000 as a single adult
• • £3,100 as a couple with a child
• • £4,600 as a couple with 3 children
• • £9,200 as a couple with 2 parents and 2 adult children

Congrats! Please move on to the next question.

4/7. Do you have a commitment to learning English?

On entry, there will be no English language requirement. But when you apply to settle
in Britain after living there for five years, you will be asked to take an English-language test and another called the Life in the UK Test, which is about your knowledge of
the country. Some people will not be required to take the English-language test
though. They include people aged 65 or above, or those
with a degree taught in English.

Congrats! Please move on to the next question.

5/7. Can you get a tuberculosis test certificate?

You need to hold a current tuberculosis test certificate from a clinic approved by the UK Home Office.

Congrats! Please move on to the next question.

6/7. Can you pay a fee for the visa and an immigration health
surcharge of £3,120 per adult for five years?

Sorry, you must pay for the fee. The visa application fee costs:

• • £180 if you’re applying for two years and six months
• • £250 if you’re applying for five years

(You’ll also need to pay £19.20 to have your fingerprints and a photo [biometric information] taken as part of your application.)

You and your family members will also each need to pay the health care surcharge. This is so you can use the National Health Service (NHS) in Britain. You’ll still need to pay for some NHS care such as prescriptions, dental care and eye tests.

• For each adult (18 or older) it costs:
• • £1,560 if you’re staying for two years and six months
• • £3,120 if you’re staying for five years

• For each child (under 18), it costs:
• • £1,175 if you’re staying for two years and six months
• • £2,350 if you’re staying for five years

You pay the health care surcharge as part of your online visa application

Congrats! Please move on to the next question.

7/7. Do you have serious criminal convictions?

Congrats! Please submit your answers.

You should not have engaged in behaviour unconducive to the public good as deemed by the government, and not be subject to other general grounds for refusal in Britain’s immigration rules.

Submit

How many people will apply for the visa?

A British government estimate published last October predicted that more than a million
Hongkongers might move there over the next five years, although that was the maximum forecast. A more likely number was estimated to be around 320,000 over five years.

Sources: UK Parliament, UK Home Office

Median monthly wage of full-time workers by industry

Salaries in London are higher than the median monthly wage in Hong Kong across most key industries. The biggest difference is for those working in finance and insurance who would earn around £5,000 per month in London, compared to £3,000 per month in Hong Kong. Those working in science, construction and IT all earn significantly more in London than Hong Kong. The salaries closest to those earned in Hong Kong are for jobs in real estate, administration, and the food and beverage sector. (However, the standard salary tax rate in Hong Kong is 15 per cent, compared to between 20 per cent and 45 per cent in Britain, depending on how much you earn.)

Source: Office for National Statistics

Average weekly household expenditure in London

Housing costs, fuel and power typically take up the most of a weekly budget for a household of 2.6 people, costing around £129 per week. Transport costs make up around £78 per week. The total weekly budget is estimated at around £686 per week.

Notes: The data is based on a three-year average from 2017-19 for an average number of 2.6 persons per household; Housing expense excluding mortgage interest payments, council tax and Northern Ireland rates.

Source: Office for National Statistics;

Housing affordability

Hong Kong has racked up a 11th straight year in 2021 as the world’s least affordable housing market

A family in the city would need to save up for 20.7 years to afford a home in the city, according to the annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Study, which ranks 92 major markets across the world based on median affordability scores. In contrast, the same family would need to save 8.6 years for a home in London and 5.8 years in New York.

Click on the play button below to experience the speed of buying a home in the three cities.

Average house price and floor area in London

The average price of a property in England is £266,742. However London house prices are significantly higher than the average with the most expensive borough to purchase a property being Kensington and Chelsea, where the average cost was £1.5 million in 2020.The cheapest borough to purchase a property was Barking and Dagenham, where the average cost was £302,000 in 2020.

Hover/tap the map to see more details

Notes: The data for average home prices is collected from residential property transactions in November 2020; Monthly rents data is based on self-contained properties with two bedrooms including houses, bungalows, flats and maisonettes and was recorded between October 2018 and September 2019. All figures excluded commercial transactions.

Sources: HM Land Registry; Valuation Office Agency

Dwellings in London are smaller than in other regions in Britain, because 49 per cent of the stock in London is comprised of flats. However, a London flat is larger than the average Hong Kong flat at around 63 square metres compared to 47 square metres.

Notes: The size of the median floor area of Hong Kong accommodation is based on the calculation of private residential flats, villas, bungalows, modern village houses and simple stone structures as well as traditional village houses in 2016. The data for floor space in London was collected from Q1 2012 to Q1 2015.

Sources: London datastore; Census and Statistics Department

Average price by property type in London

A combination of foreign demand, including those from emigrating Hongkongers, and a rush to beat the impending property tax, pushed London home prices to rise, according to a study by a London-based real estate agency, Benham and Reeves. A detached house in London costs an average of £963, 565, a semi-detached house is £615, 937, while a terraced house costs £527, 239 with a flat being the cheapest option at £418, 740, according to data collected in October 2020.

Cost of living

Hong Kong topped research data firm ECA International’s list of the most expensive cities in the world for overseas workers while London ranked sixth place, according to the data released in December 2020. Take a closer look at the cost of common items including groceries and recreational goods in the two cities. For example a Big Mac is £1.89 in Hong Kong compared to £3.39 in London. However, milk is almost double the cost in Hong Kong at £2.18.

Sources: Wellcome; Tesco; Adidas; Starbucks; Apple store; Netflix; GlobalPetrolPrices.com; Cable.co.uk; Numbeo

Medical services

The National Health Service is the publicly funded healthcare system in England. Most NHS services are free to people who are ordinarily resident in Britain. British National (Overseas) visa applicants will each need to pay the health care surcharge as part of their online visa application so they can use the National Health Service (NHS). However, patients will still need to pay for some NHS care such as prescriptions, dental care and eye tests. As stated on the NHS website, the prescription charge is currently £9.15 for each prescribed item. Hong Kong’s public hospitals, heavily funded by the government, provide not free but “near-free” service to local residents.

Hong Kong has one of the world’s top ranked medical services. Its public hospitals take 90 per cent of the patients in the city. But the universal, low-cost public health care system has a downside – including long waiting times due to a shortage of practitioners and increasing numbers of older people. Although Britain is among countries with the highest number of recorded Covid-19 cases, the median waiting time in the NHS is still less than that in Hong Kong’s public hospital system. The NHS set a goal of an 18-week waiting list target for its non-urgent referrals. Below is a chart comparing median waiting times for non-urgent cases in Hong Kong’s public hospitals and the NHS in London commissioning region by specialist treatments.

Notes: The data for Hong Kong Hospital Clusters is based on specialist outpatient clinics in Hong Kong East, Hong Kong West, Kowloon East, Kowloon Central, Kowloon West, New Territories East and New Territories West reported between January 2020 and December 2020. The figures for London are based on the average waiting times for patients waiting to start treatment by NHS providers in the London Commissioning region as of November 2020.

Sources: Hong Kong Hospital Authority; NHS England and NHS Improvement