Foreign-born Chinese face bureaucratic limbo over visas

For the city's non-ethnic Chinese residents, naturalisation is only the first step in a long process towards securing a home return permit - the document issued to Chinese nationals from Hong Kong and Macau for travel to the mainland.

But while the process may be simpler for ethnic Chinese, approval can seem random. Not surprisingly, politically sensitive figures such as opposition legislators have been refused home return permits. But decisions are arbitrary, with businessmen and journalists also being rejected.

Complications under the "One Country, Two Systems" framework can also prevent some residents from obtaining a home return permit or a visa as a foreign national for travel to the mainland.

Vincent Lee, 25, found himself in that predicament when he relocated to Hong Kong for work and had to visit the mainland.

Born in Britain to Hong Kong parents, he holds a British passport and a Hong Kong permanent ID card. He was told he was not eligible for a HKSAR passport because his parents had settled abroad by the time of his birth.

So he applied for a visa as a tourist but was rejected three times in the past year; he found himself trapped in a bureaucratic limbo.