DRAFT LETTER FOR SIGNATURE BY LORD FERRERS
The Rt Hon Lord Colnbrook KCMG
Thank you for your letter of 4 July enclosing a paper from Mr
Julian Walsh, the Chairman of the Concerned British Expatriates
Society in Hong Kong, about the immigration and nationality position of the spouses of British citizens resident
in Hong
Kong.
British citizens' spouses already have considerable assurance
that if the family were to wish to leave Hong Kong they would
have no difficulty in entering the United Kingdom. Under the
Immigration Rules the spouse of a British citizen is entitled to
accompany him or her to the United Kingdom for settlement provided that:
i. the primary purpose of the marriage was not to obtain
admission to the United Kingdom;
ii.
the parties to the marriage have met and intend to live
permanently together; and
iii. the parties can maintain and accommodate themselves
adequately without recourse to public funds.
In practice it is most unlikely that the existing spouse of an
expatriate British citizen who has been working overseas and is
returning to the United Kingdom would not meet these
requirements. Last year, out of 269, only four applications for
entry clearance as a spouse or fiance (e) were refused in Hong
Kong; all four
four of
of those cases involved the very different
situation where a person settled in the United Kingdom sought to bring in someone he or she was marrying from abroad. Nor is
there any reason to fear that a spouse might have difficulty in
1