Macau and Hong Kong Immigrant Visa Chargeability Update
Posted Mar 03, 2001

Macau, formerly a Portuguese colony and Hong Kong, formerly a British colony, reverted to Chinese control in December 1999. Both are now Special Administrative Regions under the sovereignty of the People's Republic of China. For nationals of Macau and Hong Kong processing their U.S. Green Cards, a consequence of the above development was that they now came within the "China Mainland Born" quota for immigrant visas (IVs). Since China has the largest backlog, the result is a longer wait for the Green Card process to be completed from Macau and Hong Kong as well.

On December 27, 2000, a law was enacted to enable Macau nationals to again be charged to Portugal instead of China. In a cable dated January 27, 2001, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) referred to this change as inappropriate. What the DOS proposes instead, is that Macau and Hong Kong be considered together as a country for IV chargeability purposes. The reason for combining the two areas is that the number of IVs for Macau would be quite small.

The DOS would like this change to be made as part of a technical corrections bill that would need to be passed by Congress. In the meantime, Macau will be treated as part of Portugal, while Hong Kong nationals are charged to China.