In theory, our spouses can of course return to the UK with us and satisfy the three year residency requirement and thus obtain, as of right, British citizenship. The Home Secretary recently made the following announcement in this regard:
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Spouses will have an absolute right to enter the country, although three years' residence will be required after that for them to obtain British citizenship. They will not need British citizenship to have the assurance that they can come here at any time during the lifetime of their spouses. (Hansard 19/4/90 p1574 )
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With respect, the practice in such situations is entirely inconsistent with the Home Secretary's statement since prior to resettling in Britain the spouse requires a settlement clearance, the denial of which is possible. Whilst it is quite in order that the spouse be required to provide evidence that she/he is in fact lawfully married to a British citizen the settlement clearance procedures go far beyond the verification of identity. Questions asked during the application process include enquiries as to the financial status, employment position and educational background of the applicant. Correspondence from the Home Office has confirmed that, amongst other things, settlement clearance will only be granted if..."the parties...are in a position to maintain and accomodate themselves and their dependants without recourse to public funds." ( letter from Tim Renton to Richard Luce 19/6/89). On top of all this is the fact that such an application can take several months to be processed.
Hence, the true position is that in practice our spouses are far from having an "absolute right" to enter Britain, and that the Home Secretary's statement reflects only a theoretical principal.
Equally important however for those of us whose spouses are holders of BDTC or BNO passports is their ability to leave Hong Kong.
Based on recent events it is not inconceivable that without a full British passport, our spouses may be refused permission to leave Hong Kong after 1997. No amount of promises and assurances by the current British Government will allay our fears on this point.
Whilst the Chinese Government has indicated that it may not recognise the British passorts to be issued under the package we believe that the PRC Government has indicated that it will of course recognise British passports held by people of Hong Kong origin obtained as a result of residence in or family connections, including marriage, with Britain.
3.Our spouses position--in the event of our death
Under current legislation our spouses lose even the "right" to enter Britain for settlement purposes should we die whilst still in Hong Kong. The risk exists therefore that families could be separated as a result of our death since any children would of course be full British citizens. The Home Secretary has however recently made an announcement that he recognises this particular situation and is making "special provision for people in such circumstances" ( Hansard 19/4/90 p 1574).
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