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have in mind is a right under their Immigration Law similar
to settled status under our own. The right of residence
would continue to be subject to the immigration rules until
such time as the individual concerned became naturalised as
a British Dependent Territories Citizen of Gibraltar.
understand that there are a number of people currently
resident in Gibraltar from Morroco and other North African
countries who are there under the immigration rules and
subject to eg. loss of that status should they contravene
the rules, or even deportation should they break the local
laws. We are seeking further information about the possibility of Gibraltar being able to offer right of
residence to Hong Kong people without requiring them
actually to reside in Gibraltar.
4. For a Hong Kong person though, acquisition of Gibraltar BDTC status is somewhat complicated. As Mr Bossano put it
in his letter of 29 May to the Governor "whilst I do not
believe that we would have any difficulty in providing
either a entry permit or a permit of residence to a suitable applicant in this category, I can see some difficulty about
travel documents." Hong Kong people who simply carried Certificates of Identity but were not BDTCs would be free on
settlement in Gibraltar to qualify for settled status after
4 years and to achieve British Dependent Territory
Citizenship of Gibraltar after a further year. Hong Kong
BDTCS however could not become Gibraltar BDTCs while they continued to hold their Hong Kong BDTC status. Unless they went through the complication of renouncing their Hong Kong
BDTC status they would need to wait until 1997 (when that
status lapses) before they could qualify to become a BDTC by
virtue of a connection with Gibraltar. This caveat would
also apply to someone who had already become a BN (0) because
he would continue to retain his Hong Kong BDTC status until
1997.
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