Canada’s relaxed immigration pathway for Hongkongers drew a strong response last year, with nearly 14,500 applying to work or study there as a step towards obtaining permanent residence (PR).

Most Hongkongers hoping to emigrate eyed moving to Britain, but Canadian applications helped raise to almost 100,000 the total who left or applied to go to the two countries in the first nine months of last year.

A record 38,167 Hongkongers also applied to police last year for certificates of no criminal conviction (CNCC), a requirement for emigration to Canada, the United States and Australia.

Canada announced easier immigration for Hong Kong residents last February.

Canada’s immigration authority, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), told the Post the country’s Hong Kong Pathway programme received 9,110 applications in the first nine months of last year.

The scheme, providing work permits valid for up to three years and leading to PR there, was announced last February. To qualify for PR, applicants must work full-time in Canada for at least one year, or chalk up 1,560 hours in total.

IRCC said 698 of the work permit applications were either refused or withdrawn, but gave no details.

Canada also announced that those who graduated from designated postsecondary learning institutes in the country would be allowed to apply for PR.

That led to a record 5,355 Hongkongers obtaining study permits in the first 11 months of last year, more than double the total in 2020.

Canada announced easier immigration for Hong Kong residents last February, after Beijing imposed the national security law on the city in June 2020, banning acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.

The schemes providing work or study routes to PR remain open for applications until August 31, 2026.

Elmer Ho Ngai-heng, director of Hire Nation Consultants, a Hong Kong firm helping people who want to work in Canada, said most jobs available for Hongkongers applying through the new immigration schemes were “lower class” jobs.

“Around half the Hongkongers, particularly the young, refuse to take up blue-collar jobs such as working in fast food shops or as hotel door attendants,” he said. “Instead, the middle-aged are more willing to accept such jobs, as they just want to obtain citizenship for the whole family in the shortest time.”

He knew of a 50-year-old, with a master’s degree and holding a senior position in Hong Kong, who accepted a job as a cashier in a fast-food restaurant in Canada, all for the sake of his two children in secondary school.

Immigration consultant Chan Yuet-sum of immi898, a firm specialising in emigration to Canada, said the jobs pathway to PR mainly attracted fresh graduates or young managers willing to work in hospitality and catering for a start.

She said it was not hard for Hongkongers to land jobs in Canada, and many found work with the help of relatives already living there.

According to Statistics Canada, the national statistical office, job vacancies reached an all-time high of 912,600 in the third quarter of last year, with nearly two fifths of vacancies in Ontario.

As for wages, those aged 15 to 24 working in some customer service jobs earned around C$17 (US$13.50) per hour. A person working eight hours a day, 22 days a month, could earn around C$2,992 a month.

Fresh graduates in Hong Kong earned HK$22,100 (US$2,840) a month on average in 2020, according to official data.

A record 38,167 Hongkongers applied to police last year for certificates of no criminal conviction, a requirement for emigration to Canada, the United States and Australia.

Meanwhile, the number of Hongkongers applying to police to prove their clean criminal records last year leapt by 30 per cent from 2020 to 38,167.

The previous peak of such CNCC applications was in 1989, the year of Beijing’s crackdown on protests at Tiananmen Square, when there were 57,339 applications.

A spokesperson for the Security Bureau said the CNCC was used for emigration, studying abroad and also for adopting children.

Emigration consultants, however, said it was used mainly by those who were emigrating, and the number of CNCC applications has long been regarded as an indicator of the city’s brain drain.

Applicants may fill in a survey on their reasons for wanting the CNCC and the Security Bureau uses their responses to estimate emigration figures.

The 2020 survey showed that Australia, the United States and Canada were the top three emigration destinations for Hongkongers who sought the CNCC.

Britain, which does not require the certificate, launched its British National (Overseas) passport visa scheme on January 31 last year in response to the imposition of the national security law on Hong Kong.

It said last November that about 88,900 Hongkongers had applied for the visa scheme between its introduction and the end of September.

Australia has announced new migration policies aimed at Hongkongers, due to kick off in March.

Given political developments in Hong Kong in the wake of the national security law, senior immigration consultant Willis Fu Yiu-wai, of Goldmax Associates, expected interest in emigration to continue, especially among those aged 23 to 40.

“The political climate and the recent closure of Stand News may have affected some Hongkongers, the trend of emigration will continue,” he said.