CONFIDENTIAL
For information on 3 July 1990
HKB 345/
OJ
INTRODUCT:
POPUCTION
Visa Policy fill pl.
XCCI (90) 35
Copy No...
NOTE FOR THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
REVIEW OF POLICY ON THE ADMISSION
OF EAST EUROPEAN AND
SOVBLOC NATIONALS TO HONG KONG
22
37
Miss Mo
Fury #1957
Pa
41)
Europe has
The
permitted a
situation in Eastern
changing review of policy towards the admission of East European and Sovbloc nationals to Hong Kong.
2
This paper reports on the relaxations to existing policy which are now considered possible.
BACKGROUND
3
Present policy, which is set out in the Annex, was formulated having
having regard to the traditional security threats posed by these countries, and to Chinese sensitivities over their presence in Hong Kong.
4
Eastern
Following recent assessments of the threat posed by European and Sovbloc countries, we propose to maintain existing policy and procedures for Afghanistan, Albania, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Cuba, Laos, Mongolia, Romania, North Korea, the Soviet Union and Vietnam. This restricts entry to genuine businessmen, international entertainers and sportsmen, UN officials on UN business, conference and trade fair delegates, merchant seamen and other minor categories.
5
For the East European countries of Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia we intend to reduce the visa processing time to ten working days from date of receipt to the date of response by our Immigration Department. This reduction in time will be achieved by streamlining
streamlining security checks in respect of the countries mentioned in this paragraph.
6
For East Germany, we intend to follow HMG's lead and abolish separate visa requirements from the end of July. Thereafter, they will be treated like West Germans. The People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen), which has merged with the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) to become the Republic of Yemen, will be deleted from the lists of Eastern European and Sovbloc countries and will be treated for visa purposes in the same manner as was the Yemen Arab Republic.
CONFIDENTIAL