Canada's special routes for Hong Kong residents are closed: IRCC, Canada's immigration department, closed its permanent residence pathways for Hong Kong residents on August 31, 2026, and its open work permit for recent Hong Kong graduates expired in February 2025. A move today uses the ordinary routes. For younger residents, IRCC lists Hong Kong under International Experience Canada (IEC), Canada's youth work programme, in its Working Holiday category only, which gives an open work permit usable with most employers; it accepts a Hong Kong SAR or British National (Overseas) passport and allows one participation per person. Skilled work on that permit can later count toward the Canadian Experience Class, a permanent residence programme within Express Entry, the online system that invites the highest-scoring skilled workers to apply.

For Express Entry, a Hong Kong degree earns points only with an educational credential assessment, a report on what it equals in Canada; WES, one of the assessors IRCC designates, asks graduates of universities such as the University of Hong Kong to have the university send their transcript to it electronically. The police certificate comes in an unusual order, because the Hong Kong police need a request letter before they will issue it. With your permanent residence application, upload a note in the police certificate field saying you are applying from a country that requires an official request letter from IRCC. IRCC then sends the letter, you include it in your application to the police, and the police send the certificate straight to IRCC at the Consulate General of Canada.

The mistake to avoid is applying under the United Kingdom's IEC categories with a British National (Overseas) passport. IRCC opens those categories only to British citizens holding a United Kingdom passport that shows British citizenship, and the UK government lists British National (Overseas) as a type of British nationality separate from British citizenship. A Hong Kong resident with that passport applies under Hong Kong's own arrangement, with its own age limit and single category, unless they have since become a British citizen.