The Practicalities of Dual Canadian-Hong Kong Residency

Filling in "China" as your nationality on the Top Talent Pass application is indeed important, but don't forget that renewal comes with employment requirements. If there's a gap in your visa, a job change, or a long absence from Hong Kong in between, the Immigration Department may scrutinize whether you've met the seven-year continuous ordinary residence requirement. Also, once you become a Canadian citizen, your PR card becomes invalid. On the leg from mainland China to Canada via Hong Kong, if you use your Exit-Entry Permit to leave and your Canadian passport to check in, the airline will verify your eligibility to enter your destination, and in practice you're often asked to show your PR card or a valid visa—so you need to think this through carefully.

The key issue isn't the Hong Kong passport, but whether seven years of ordinary residence can be recognized.

It's advisable to activate your status before applying for naturalization—don't put this step off. However, immigration authorities and ports of entry in different regions have somewhat different standards for assessing "ordinary residence," so it's best to write directly to the immigration department or consult a lawyer familiar with nationality law to confirm, rather than relying solely on advice from the internet.

I'm skeptical about the idea that "as long as you haven't changed your nationality, you can definitely get a Hong Kong passport." The 1996 interpretation did leave some room, but when you apply, you're usually required to declare whether you hold a foreign passport, and Immigration will look at your specific situation—especially since you also have a Home Return Permit. I'd suggest first clarifying how your mainland household registration and Home Return Permit will be handled after you naturalize as a Canadian citizen, rather than waiting until you apply for a SAR passport to find out you're stuck.

If the naturalization oath ceremony is moved up and there isn't enough time to activate the Top Talent Pass, are there any other remedies?

Leave yourself plenty of buffer time: the high-talent e-visa has a deadline for activation, and naturalization oath scheduling is hard to control, so the two colliding is very common. Also, over those seven years, trips back and forth to Canada, tax filing, and MPF contributions will all leave records, and the cost and effort involved are not small, so it's best to map out a worst-case timeline first.

The most practical hurdle is the mainland border-crossing step between the red book and the Canadian passport. After you take the oath, the mainland doesn't recognize your Canadian passport, so entering the mainland from Hong Kong can only be done with a travel permit — but the travel permit endorsement and the Home Return Permit are two separate things, and there's a gap period in between. Also, when converting from a Top Talent Pass to permanent residency, the Immigration Department will look at whether you have a habitual residence, job, and family ties in Hong Kong; relying on occasional entries to cement your status probably won't be enough. My advice is to break it down and verify step by step — don't treat the whole chain as a given.