E.R.
an applicant before the residence requirements could be met. The
1981 Act is deliberately specific about the amount of United Kingdom residence required for naturalisation and the expectation is that those requirements will be met.
For the most part, the wives of British citizens in Hong Kong will achieve settlement and, eventually, qualify for citizenship in the normal way if they, in due course, accompany their husbands to the United Kingdom. However special arrangements apply for British
citizens serving abroad in Crown or designated service for which
they were recruited in the UK. The spouse of such a person can be naturalised under section 6(2) of the British Nationality Act 1981 without a period
a period of United Kingdom residence if the employing
organisation can show that this would be in its, and the United
Kingdom's, interests.
The expatriates' concern
The Concerned British Expatriates Society has made it clear that
in their view the assurance for widows and widowers does not go far
enough, and that nothing short of full British citizenship for
their spouses will provide the expatriate community with the confidence to remain in Hong Kong. They have suggested that
citizenship should be granted to all the spouses of
of British
citizens in Hong Kong on the same basis as to those of
of the
beneficiaries under the Bill. An alternative proposal is that residence in Hong Kong should count as residence in the UK for the
purposes of the naturalisation of spouses,
spouses, which would have a similar effect in authorising the registration of most spouses of British citizens but would perhaps be slightly less anomalous. Either would of course require a legislative change but could be achieved in the Hong Kong Bill.
The expatriates claim that without full citizenship they will leave Hong Kong to secure their families' future in the UK; as many are
in senior positions in the police, the professions and the
administration their loss would be serious. We have doubts about this as there is at present no evidence that expatriates are leaving other than through the normal turnover of people on short