Other and Special Route Visas

The British National (Overseas) visa is a settlement route for BN(O) status holders who are ordinarily resident in Hong Kong, the UK or the Crown Dependencies. The adult child of a BN(O) status holder can apply under this same visa as a principal applicant in their own right, not merely as a family member added to a parent's application, and eligible family members of either can also apply. It gives broad permission to work and study from the outset, offers a choice between two published permission lengths, and leads to settlement after a qualifying period of continuous residence, alongside the same English language and Life in the UK Test requirements as other settlement routes. Professional sportsperson or sports-coach work is the one kind of work it does not permit, and the route carries no access to public funds.

An Electronic Travel Authorisation is not a visa at all: it is a lighter-weight, pre-travel digital permission for nationalities that would otherwise be able to visit the UK without a visa. It confirms permission to travel before departure rather than granting a defined immigration status, covers only visiting-type purposes — tourism, family visits, business, short study, a narrow creative-worker concession, a permitted paid engagement, or transit where the passenger passes through UK border control — and does not itself allow work for a UK company, or marriage or civil partnership in the UK.