Who's eligible for ASSG?

[IceEagle]

Good observation. I can only think of those born overseas before 1997 to Hong Kong PR parent with Chinese nationality who themselves were not born in HK (e.g. born in mainland), so the children did not inherit ROA because the parents did not have British nationality.

In some cases, if that parent left Hong Kong and never naturalized as a BDTC, then that person actually lost their HK PR. (My dad remembers getting a letter from HK at the time he left stating this.)

The really interesting bit though is that it only says your parent has to be a Chinese national settled abroad at birth - no mention of holding HK PR at birth, only at the time of application. Previously, I've noted ways that HK seemed to favor children with Chinese nationality over those born with foreign nationality, but this flips everything I've said on its head.

So take a Chinese mainlander who marries and moves to Canada (and has no connection to HK at this point in time), settles there, has a child born in Canada, then naturalizes as a Canadian, and then later is able to come to HK as a Canadian citizen (say under GEP) and gets ROA after saying 7 years there.

That person's child seems to be eligible for ASSG (as long as the other requirements like age, degree, work experiece, etc at met). However, if the parent were for some reason not deemed to be settled abroad, and by the time the parent gets HK PR the child is over 21, then the child gets nothing (even though in this case the child may possess Chinese nationality).

On the other hand, an HK PR parent (who has this status at the time of birth of the child), who later naturalises to a foreign nationality and then has to renounce the Chinese citizenship (e.g. applying for a security clearance in a foreign country with the parent's other nationality) and doesn't get the chance to return to HK in over 3 years, will get downgraded to RTL. With only RTL, even though the parent had HK PR status at the time of the child's birth, the child would seem to not be elgible for ASSG.

[IceEagle]

Not without restrictions. You will be granted an initial visa for one year, but will need to be employed for subsequent visa renewals.

How difficult would this be? Is it like GEP where the employer has to justify the hiring of a foreigner? Or is it closer to someone on a dependent visa or RTL, where the employer doesn't need to prove that they can't find a local to do the same job?

To answer my own question, the IANG scheme seems to most closely mirror ASSG, down to the one year with no restrictions followed by employment (and form ID 990B thereafter) for visa renewal. For IANG, IIUC the employer doesn't need to justify anything - the point is that the new graduate is on the same level as a local. ImmD can deny the application on some grounds (for example, the job doesn't pay enough), but supposedly that is more about making sure the new hires can support themselves and not become a burden on welfare.

Since ASSG only started in Q2 of last year, no one who has applied and been accepted has hit the one year renewal point yet. So may still be an open question, but the way the requirements are spelled out suggest it's on the same level as IANG.

I do have another question. Under IANG, it's not a one shot deal. If you are eligible (e.g. graduated from an HK University) but left HK, you can return many years later and try again (though this time you need to secure employment first before the visa will be approved).

I haven't seen anything in the FAQs on ASSG to suggest that one can do this under that scheme. That is, applying for ASSG, then job hunting for a year, then going back home (perhaps because the market in one's particular industry was unexpected bad at that time, or the realization that one needs stronger credentials (e.g. needing a Master's degree but only having a BA or a BS)), and then coming back several years later to try again (when the industry has improved or after receiving one's Master degree). My suspicion is that it's a one-shot deal, but as ASSG is still relatively new (no one who has been accepted into ASSG having finished the first year under it yet) ,this is probably another open question.

[kma88]

In addition to children of Hong Kongers who did not have BDTC (eg. Born in mainland), this scheme also applies to those born to Hong Kong parents who had to renounce their BDTC to take up a foreign nationality (eg Germany, Singapore, etc). In this case the children would not have been able to get RTL by virtue of BDTC / BNO by descent.

[IceEagle]

In addition to children of Hong Kongers who did not have BDTC (eg. Born in mainland), this scheme also applies to those born to Hong Kong parents who had to renounce their BDTC to take up a foreign nationality (eg Germany, Singapore, etc). In this case the children would not have been able to get RTL by virtue of BDTC / BNO by descent.

Hmm. This doesn't sound right to me.

I would have expected that the parents would have had to give up all nationalities in such a case - including their Chinese nationality. But having a parent with Chinese nationality is a requirement under ASSG. (Well, unless the parents did not naturalize until after the children's birth, but in that case the children were born as BDTCs/BNOs by descent and can get ROA/RTL that way.)

[kma88]

We are taking about people who emigrated long time ago. Pre-handover, they would have no Chinese nationality to give up, so they would've only given up BDTC (or nothing at all if they only had certificate of identity) to take up another citizenship.

[User]

We are taking about people who emigrated long time ago. Pre-handover, they would have no Chinese nationality to give up, so they would've only given up BDTC (or nothing at all if they only had certificate of identity) to take up another citizenship.

Those who emigrated before 19970701 have always been identified as Chinese citizens, according to PRC Nationality Law.

[IceEagle]

We are taking about people who emigrated long time ago. Pre-handover, they would have no Chinese nationality to give up, so they would've only given up BDTC ... to take up another citizenship.

Those who emigrated before 19970701 have always been identified as Chinese citizens, according to PRC Nationality Law.

That's a really good point. Some may have emigrated (and naturalised) before the PRC Nationality Law was even passed in 1980.

Most likely did so before the 1996 Interpretations, so they may have reasonably assumed that any Chinese nationality that they possessed was automatically lost under Article 9. If pressed by the relevant German or Singaporean authority, they probably could have gotten a letter to that effect from the nearest PRC embassy which probably would have been good enough.

And even if the relevant authority had decided to revisit and press the matter post-handover, the individual concerned could probably regularise their status simply by renouncing their Chinese nationality post-handover - but by then the children were already born and of course this wouldn't be dated back retroactively.

(or nothing at all if they only had certificate of identity)

Hmm. Now that you mention it, I'm not sure at all how this would have worked. A pre-handover CoI does have a line stating the nationality of the holder (though that line might have been blank for a de jure stateless individual), and generally a mainland-born CoI holder would have the word "Chinese" written there. At least in the US in the 1980s, such a person would have their former nationality listed on their newly issued US Naturalization Certificate as Chinese.

On the other hand, a PRC consulate would have had no record of a CoI holder and thus would not have really been able to provide services to such an individual. While a UK consulate would have likely not provided much in the way of services either, on the basis that the CoI holder did not hold any form of British nationality. This was a really confusing situation back then where a person was or at least could be considered to be a Chinese national de jure but was actually de facto stateless. So if a mainland-born CoI holder had been pressed to get official documentation showing that their former nationality was formally renounced, and this had happened pre-handover, then I have no idea how this would have been handled.

[kma88]

I know as a fact that Hkers who immigrated to Singapore back then only gave up their BDTC/BNO when taking up Singaporean citizenship. After 1997 these people as with other Hkers have been granted Chinese nationality, and they are treated as such by the HK govt. So technically they are still eligible for HKSAR passport. Their children born after they had renounced BDTC would not have RTL but are eligible for ASSG.

Re certificate of identity, I think the holder was technically considered Stateless, but with right of abode in HK. So there was no citizenship to renounce.

[IceEagle]

I know as a fact that Hkers who immigrated to Singapore back then only gave up their BDTC/BNO when taking up Singaporean citizenship. After 1997 these people as with other Hkers have been granted Chinese nationality, and they are treated as such by the HK govt. So technically they are still eligible for HKSAR passport.

Interesting. So those individuals can hold both a Singaporean and an HKSAR passport with no consequences? What a fascanating technicality.

Their children born after they had renounced BDTC would not have RTL but are eligible for ASSG.

Agreed.

Re certificate of identity, I think the holder was technically considered Stateless, but with right of abode in HK. So there was no citizenship to renounce.

"Techinically stateless" and "de facto stateless" are the same thing.

I know that in, e.g , South Korea, such a person would be considered not stateless but of Chinese nationality, even before the handover.

[Hairball]

Interesting. So those individuals can hold both a Singaporean and an HKSAR passport with no consequences? What a fascanating technicality.

I suppose it probably isn't allowed either, but they renounce "something" (which was the BDTC/BNO) to get Singaporean citizenship at the time, it just happened to later on this HKSAR passport existed and they applied for it. It's possibly still in contravention of Singaporean law, but if you keep quiet probably nothing will happen.