SECRET
PART III
ALTERNATIVE TO CITIZENSHIP SCHEME
3.1 In his statement of 20 December 1989 the Foreign Secretary said (col. 367) that various
that various options not involving primary legislation had been considered. Counsel will wish to know in
outline what these alternatives were and the reasons why
Ministers decided not to pursue them.
scheme was a
3.2 The main alternative to a citizenship
"settlement guarantee" scheme. The settlement guarantee would have been a new concept in immigration law. It would have taken
the form of a stamp in the HK BDTC's passport stating that, on
arrival in the UK, the passport-holder
the passport-holder would immediately be
granted settlement. However, the settlement guarantee would only
have conferred a qualified right to settle in the UK and not an
absolute right because
-
(i) the holder of
a settlement guarantee would have
remained an HK BDTC and would not therefore have
acquired a right of abode (see paragraph 2.6 above);
(ii) provision would have to have been made in the Rules to
exclude an HK BDTC who had obtained his settlement
guarantee by fraud or if, since its
or if, since its grant, he had
committed a serious offence;
(iii) until such an HK BDTC had qualified to register as a
British citizen under section 4 of the BNA 1981 he
would have been liable to deportation on the grounds
set out in section 3(5) and (6) of the 1971 Act.
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SECRET
Redacted under FOI exemption section 27(1)