Britain's New English Test Just Became Hong Kong BNO Holders' Worst Nightmare

The anti-immigration wave sweeping Britain isn't slowing down. In fact, it's getting worse. Even Labour—supposedly the left-wing party—is now racing rightward alongside Reform UK, building barrier after barrier to slash citizenship numbers. Friends are calling it a real-life "Squid Game," where anyone trying to settle in the UK faces brutal screening just to get through.

Britain just raised the English bar—and thousands of Hong Kong BNO holders might not clear it.

For those Hong Kong BNO holders, they're wondering if they'll be spared or if that blade hanging overhead is about to drop. The government's latest bombshell: raising English requirements for specific visa categories from B1 to B2 level—that's A-Level standard, university-level English. If this gets extended to permanent residency and citizenship down the line, plenty of Hong Kong BNO holders with "secondary school English" are going to fail. Young Hong Kong people who recently moved over are already venting online, terrified they won't pass and will be forced back, so they're cramming English courses like their lives depend on it.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood recently laid out the details of this "Squid Game," and each round is more brutal than the last. Earlier, at the Labour Party conference, she made it clear: permanent residency applicants need a job, must pay national insurance, can't claim benefits, and have to be fluent in English to prove their "value and contribution." If they enforce this strictly, masses of people won't make the cut.

This Wednesday, she went even further with concrete requirements. She announced that three "specific visa" categories—Skilled Worker visas, Scale-up Worker visas, and High Potential Individual visas—now require B2 level English, equivalent to A-Level standard. And as Mahmood emphasized, “If you come to this country, you must learn our language and play your part.” She didn't say whether future permanent residency applications would also need this threshold, but British media previously reported that to push immigrant integration, those granted permanent residence would need higher English proficiency too.

The whole direction is clear: reduce permanent resident numbers. Following this logic, there's no reason to think these harsh measures won't eventually hit Hong Kong BNO holders applying for permanent residency.

Right now, Hong Kong people living in the UK on BNO visas can apply for permanent residency after five years, then citizenship one year later. Their English just needs to hit B1 level—enough to handle daily life. But if the requirement jumps to B2, they'll need to understand complex texts, write proper articles, and articulate viewpoints clearly. Immigrants with average educational backgrounds are going to struggle hard with that standard.

The Panic Sets In

Sure, it's not confirmed yet whether these tough measures will target Hong Kong BNO holders, but those with weaker English are already experiencing full-blown "failure panic."

A post-90s young Hong Kong person who moved to the UK posted online earlier, admitting bluntly that after three years there, their English is only at UK primary school level—not even reaching the B1 level needed for permanent residency applications. Even if the government doesn't raise it to B2, they're worried about failing and being "forced back."

They pointed out that since coming to the UK on a BNO visa didn't require any English assessment, plenty of people are likely going to crash and burn when test time comes, wasting five years of their lives.

Another Hong Kong man also complained online about facing two major problems living in the UK. One of them: his poor English foundation means that even though a university accepted him, studying is brutally difficult. He struggles with assignments, can't keep up with the learning pace, and his grades are terrible, leaving him disheartened and considering going back to Hong Kong.

If this guy's English doesn't improve, his chances of clearing the even higher B2 barrier in the future are basically zero.

  

In fact, many Hong Kong migrants discover shortly after landing in the UK that insufficient English proficiency is a serious problem. Years ago, the "Welcoming Committee for Hong Kongers" conducted a survey showing nearly half of respondents still hadn't found work, with many lacking confidence in their English ability, creating major obstacles in job hunting.

It's tough to estimate exactly how many Hong Kong migrants fall into this category, but there are probably quite a few. There should be plenty more like the two men mentioned above sharing similar struggles.

They're already trembling at the prospect of passing the B1 English requirement for permanent residency and citizenship applications. If the government raises that threshold even higher, the risk of "failure" skyrockets. No wonder some people are panicking.

No Way Out

The worst part? The Labour government is actively competing with Reform UK over who can be tougher on immigration policy to reverse its collapsing fortunes. So establishing more barriers to filter out immigrants is an unstoppable trend now.

The "Squid Game" is only going to get harder to play, and raising English proficiency thresholds is just one challenge in this brutal game.

People in this category have only two options: cram English like crazy, or plan an exit strategy early and bail out of the game altogether.

 

Lai Ting-yiu

What Say You?

What Say You?

** The blog article is the sole responsibility of the author and does not represent the position of our company. **

After a 156-day trial, the verdict in Jimmy Lai Chee-ying’s case for conspiracy to collude with foreign forces has finally landed. All three charges were proven. The judge said the prosecution witnesses were clear and convincing—honest, reliable, and hard to shake. On top of that, a mountain of messages between Lai and others backed them up too, making the case about as airtight as it gets.

One line in the judgment really jumped off the page: the court said Lai carried deep hatred toward China’s ruling regime, and that his one and only goal was the downfall of the central authorities. Once that’s on the table, the bigger—and frankly colder—picture comes into focus: teaming up with the United States to chase a “China collapse.” Re-reading the witnesses’ evidence, and Lai’s US activity before and after the 2019 turmoil, the pattern is hard to miss—he’d long been laying tracks for a secret “Shina-implosion” agenda —using “Shina”, a largely archaic and now offensive term for China. That lined up neatly with the “all-out war” posture against China being pushed by US hawkish politicians at the time.

Pence spoke. Lai radicalised. “Shina-implosion” became the plan.

Accomplice witness—and “Fight for freedom, Stand with Hong Kong” leader—Chan Tsz-wah told the court that in early 2020, Lai met the figure nicknamed “Lam Chau Bar” (Liu Zudi) and others at Lai’s villa in Taipei’s Yangmingshan.

Lai’s pitch was blunt: if foreign countries hit China with embargo-style sanctions, and if different “blocs” could be unified and amplified with grassroots force, then what he called a “Shina-implosion” could be triggered: meaning China would collapse from within. And if that collapse came, Lai said, that would be the perfect opening for the United States to transplant democracy into China

Lai didn’t just hope “Shina-implosion” was possible—he seemed convinced after meetings with US top politicians that it was coming, because he believed the US was about to go into full confrontation with China, and that the timing was right to topple China’s regime.

Six months before that Taipei meeting, in July 2019, Lai—helped by his aide Mark Simon and certain behind-the-scenes political operators—met separately with Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and National Security Adviser John Bolton. All three were hawks, right down to the bone. Lai claimed it was about “Hong Kong’s autonomous status,” but it’s far more likely they were discussing a US “new Cold War” against China, and Hong Kong’s role inside that strategy.

When Washington “flipped the table”

Pompeo and Bolton had already floated the idea that the Chinese Communist Party would end up like the Soviet Communist Party—heading toward eventual disintegration. In that story, the US “wins” the ideological war, then gets to transplant American-style democracy into China. That was exactly Lai’s long-held “ideal,” and once he felt those heavyweight allies were onside, his confidence in making “Shina-implosion” happen only grew.

He weaponised his media to shake Hong Kong—US anti-China hawks cheered it on.

And this didn’t start in 2019. A year earlier (October 2018) Pence delivered a speech that Lai saw as nothing less than a “declaration of war” on China, and it lit a fire under him. Cooperating witness and former Apple Daily editorial writer Yeung Ching-kee said that after reading Pence’s speech, Lai told him the US had “flipped the table” on China. Lai believed Washington would rally Japan and other Western countries to confront China, and would seize on China’s weakness to “kick it while it’s down.” In Lai’s mind, this wasn’t just a trade war—it was an “all-out war.” Yeung said that from that moment, Lai became even more radical.

So once Lai realised Pence, Pompeo, and Bolton were lining up a “new Cold War” against China, he then caught another “piece of good news”: President Donald Trump formally signed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act on November 27. That’s why, in Taipei, he spoke so confidently to Chan Tsz-wah and Liu Zudi about the secret “Shina-implosion” plan.

According to the judgment, once Lai learned Trump had formally signed the Act, he told Martin Lee Chu-ming and Mark Simon in a WhatsApp group that Trump clearly understood Hong Kong was a powerful bargaining chip in US–China trade talks—and that Hong Kong would be able to draw more resources for the struggle. Then in June 2020, Lai wrote in The New York Times that the time had come to impose sanctions and punishment on China, and that this might be the best moment for the US to “manufacture a storm” and bring about the collapse of China’s regime.

After the NSL: same goal, quieter methods

Because Lai believed the US would win this “China–US war,” and that China’s regime would then crumble, he didn’t change course even after the National Security Law took effect—just as the judge put it. Instead, he simply moved in a more covert direction.

The judgment said Lai’s only intention was to seek the downfall of the central authorities—even if the final price was sacrificing the interests of people in the Chinese Mainland and in the HKSAR. That verdict nails the damage behind Lai’s offences. And the fact he ultimately couldn’t outrun the law is, plainly speaking, a blessing for Hong Kong.

Lai Ting-yiu