CONFIDENTIAL
Dr Widom Tor Galsworthy
ps/4 Reaton
If looks as if some concession track
Dependent Terminy Celizens might just kepoube
bur it wred need new legistatim.
Mr Barrington
FROM:
D W PARTRIDGE, NTD
DATE:
15 JANUARY 1986
109
157,
Copies to:
Mr Galsworthy, HKD
Mr Grainger, Legal Advisers
HONG KONG: SERVICE IN THE ARMED FORCES AS A QUALIFICATION FOR BRITISH CITIZENSHIP
1. Mr Renton has asked for a more detailed note than that given A 71A in my minute of 9 January on the mechanics and implications of acceding to the request that Hong Kong BDTCs who served in the last war should be eligible for British citizenship.
Thy must
have some
iten of
питва
1
2. The basic provision in the British Nationality Act 1981 to enable adults who do not already have that status to acquire British citizenship is naturalisation under Section 6 (1). Schedule 1 to the Act, which lists the requirements for naturalisation, accepts as an alternative to the residence requirement the qualification that on the day of the application he is serving outside the United Kingdom in Crown Service under the Government of the United Kingdom'. Members of the Armed Forces may apply (although the grant is entirely at the discretion of the Home Secretary) and the Home Office have confirmed that they receive applications from Commonwealth citizens and Irish. They do not keep statistics to provide a more detailed break-down. The Act does not prescribe a minimum period of service but the application must be made whilst the applicant is still in such service. This provision could not, therefore, be used to give naturalisation on grounds of past service in the Armed Forces.
3.
Section 4 (5) of the BNA allows the Home Secretary to register as a British citizen an applicant who is a British Dependent Territories citizen, a British Overseas citizen, a British Subject, a British Protected Person or, under an amendment to be made by the Order in Council, a British National (Overseas) who has 'at any time' been in Crown Service under the Government of a Dependent Territory.
This provision, however, could not apply to members of the UK Armed Forces because of the stipulation that the Crown Service must be 'under the Government of a Dependent Territory'.
HAM 04014
RECEIVED
EGISTRY
29 JAN 1936
REGISTRY
INCE
РА
Action
THIS IS A COPY
THE ORIGINAL HAS BEEN
CLOSED UNDER
FOI EXEMPTION NO... 27(1)
CONFIDENTIAL
aken
/4.