Six months after former Hong Kong resident David Wong Kin-jin had a conviction for murder overturned in the United States, supporters believe he may be deported soon.
The Fujian native, who went to the US as an illegal immigrant, has finally received travel documents from the Chinese consulate in New York and could be sent to Hong Kong at any time in the next two weeks.
Since his court victory last December, the 43-year-old has languished behind bars in a detention centre in Buffalo, New York, while supporters mounted a campaign for him to be released and allowed to stay in the US.
But he has now accepted that returning to Hong Kong is his best option, and is said to be looking forward to being reunited with his sister and elderly mother.
'Upon his return to Hong Kong, David wants to lead a quiet life, like a normal person again,' Wayne Lum, spokesman for the David Wong Support Committee, said in New York.
Mr Wong served 18 years of a 33-year murder sentence for the fatal stabbing of a fellow inmate in the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York, in 1987.
After a long campaign supported by members of the Asian-American community, the conviction was overturned by an appeal court when it emerged that a racist guard had coached another prisoner to accuse Mr Wong of the crime.