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Immigration: Hong Kong

Question for Department for Work and Pensions

UIN 49032, tabled on 14 September 2021

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average length of time taken by her Department was from an application being received to issuing National Insurance numbers to those people arriving from Hong Kong with British national overseas status.

Answered on

20 September 2021

Demand for the National Insurance Number (NINo) service is currently high with the average time taken to process applications around 13 weeks. This is for all employment inspired applications including people arriving from Hong Kong with British National Overseas status.

The Department is currently recruiting and training additional staff to reduce these waiting times.

The Department expedites NINo applications for those who require one in order to receive Social Security Benefits.

Named day
Named day questions only occur in the House of Commons. The MP tabling the question specifies the date on which they should receive an answer. MPs may not table more than five named day questions on a single day.