BNO Visa Now Open to Adult Children Living Apart from Their Parents
16 Apr 2026
If you are an adult child of a British National (Overseas) holder but do not live with your parents, you can now apply for the BNO visa. A change to the Immigration Rules that took effect on 26 March 2026 removed the requirement that adult children must be living in the same household as the BNO parent.
Previously, the BNO route was open to BNO holders themselves and their "BNO Household Members" — a category that required family members to be living under the same roof. Statement of Changes HC 1691 renamed this category to "Adult Child" and dropped the cohabitation requirement. To be eligible, your parent must hold British National (Overseas) status and you must have been born on or after 1 July 1979 — meaning you were under 18 when Hong Kong was returned to China on 1 July 1997. You can now apply regardless of where you currently live.
This matters for adult children who have been living independently — still in Hong Kong, elsewhere in the world, or already in the UK on a different visa — and whose parent holds BNO status. Before 26 March 2026, these individuals could not access the BNO route unless they shared a home with their parent. Now they can apply in their own right and, if granted, build the five-year qualifying period toward ILR and ultimately British citizenship. Adult children who are already in the UK on another visa may wish to consider whether switching to the BNO route makes sense for their circumstances.
The same HC 1691 update also extended identity verification via the UK Immigration: ID Check app to BNO settlement applications, which means some applicants working toward ILR will no longer need to attend an in-person appointment to prove their identity.
If you think this applies to you, check the GOV.UK BNO visa page for the full eligibility criteria and how to apply.
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