Hong Kong Good Citizen Applications Jump as People Eye Exit

(Bloomberg) -- Interest from Hong Kong residents in leaving the city has surged since street protests broke out in the former British colony.

About 200 people showed up at a seminar organized by InvestUK, an adviser that helps people secure investor visas to move to the U.K. from Hong Kong, in July compared with about 40 people usually, according to the firm’s Chairman Rupert Gather. That’s part of a wider trend as applications for Hong Kong good citizenship cards jumped almost 50% in the first two weeks of August from a year earlier, in another sign residents may be more seriously contemplating an exit.

The good citizenship documents certify a person doesn’t have a criminal record and are needed to apply for foreign visas, or residency in another country.

Tensions have flared in the former British colony as pro-democracy protests that started in June show no sign of letting up: last weekend began with the formation of a peaceful human chain across the city and ended two days later with police firing a weapon and using water cannons.

“This is evidence that many Hong Kongers are seeking to move overseas, or at least obtain residency overseas so that they have the option to go,” said Georg Chmiel, executive chairman of real estate site Juwai.com. “While the data doesn’t show for sure that people are applying for these police checks for their foreign visa applications, it is relatively rare to seek these documents for any other purpose.”

U.K. Interest

The number of U.K. visas granted to Hong Kong nationals qualifying as investors and entrepreneurs more than doubled in the second quarter from a year earlier, government data show. That outpaced an overall 55% rise in these so-called Tier 1 visas, according to the figures from the U.K.’s interior ministry.

In the second quarter, 13 Hong Kong nationals obtained Tier 1 investor visas, which offer permanent residency in return for investing 2 million pounds ($2.44 million) in the U.K., compared with just four during the same period in 2018. The less exclusive Tier 1 entrepreneur visas were granted to 41 residents of the city.

“The more high net worth you are the more options you have to move to other countries,” Naomi Hanrahan-Soar, a managing associate at London-based immigration law firm Lewis Silkin, said by phone. “The U.K.’s very popular with people from around the world in part because we have such a reliable legal system.”

--With assistance from Shawna Kwan, Neil Callanan and Chris Vellacott.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Emma Dong in Shanghai at edong10@bloomberg.net;Oliver Telling in London at otelling1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Katrina Nicholas at knicholas2@bloomberg.net, Peter Vercoe

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With assistance from Bloomberg