Expired British Nationals (Overseas) passport?

Question

MY BNO passport has expired about 3 years ago. Just wondering if the passport can be renewed, considering Hong Kong is now back to China.

Also is it worth renewing? I heard this passport is not as powerful as other passports (ie Australian) I had since changed my name and I don't want to waste my time and money to renew it if it's actually useless!

Thank you for reading

Answer 1

You can renew it with the British embassy. But if you had children and they hadn't gotten the BNO passport before Hong Kong was handed back to China they wouldn't be able to inherit the ability. The UK are trying to discontinue the BNO passports but anyone who has had one can renew it easily enough.

It's more of a safety precaution. Having two passports means that if you loose one you have some sort of back up.

Link goes to the British embassy in Australia for more info on BNOs.

Answer 2

It depends on your situation really. A BN(O) passport entitles the holder to diplomatic assistance from UK embassies/consulates abroad, as you are deemed to be a national of the UK, just without citizenship. The UK has the most complicated nationality laws in the world due to its massive colonial past. If you hold no other nationality or no citizenship of any country, then you are entitled to apply for UK citizenship, as you are their responsibility and statelessness is a highly undesirable position.

All of the above information is purely just about BN(O) in general and not about the passport. you are entitled to all of the above, its just that the passport is one of the only forms of legal documentation of this info. With a BN(O) passport, you are entitled to enter the UK for 6 months visa-free for tourism purposes, vote in the UK in all elections (barring the European Council elections) and stand for public office. The last 2 laws are left over from the old days when there was freedom of movement within the Commonwealth (but if you really want to, you could still run for PM : ) ).

But that's about it. Internationally, they are equal to a HKSAR passport, and you are given the same privileges on both passports (barring when you enter the UK or when you enter mainland China as the mainland doesn't recognise the legitimency of the BN(O) passports.

EDIT

Oh, and one more thing. There have been reports of BN(O) passport holders sometimes being recognised by the Nordic countries and Belgium as full EEA citizens, as the EU law states that all nationals of member states (UK included) are entitled to residence abroad, barring some limitations on new members, unless the passport was issued to a national of an excluded region, of which HK is not part of. There's some food for thought.