3 JAN '90 16:85
FROM BE HOME OFFICE
PAGE.005
Patrick B Paul Esq
Chairman
UK Conservatives Abroad (Hong Kong) 12th Floor
11 Duddell Street Hong Kong
Your ref: PBP/CA
Our ref: NTY/88 387/1333/1
January 1990
I am sorry you have had to wait so long for a reply to your letter of 31 August 1989 to Douglas Hurd about the nationality position of the spouses of British citizens resident in Hong Kong. As I am sure you will appreciate, we have been considering this in the context of the special arrangements for Hong Kong which Douglas Hurd announced on
20 December.
The Government's intention is to introduce legislation to provide for the grant of British citizenship to a limited number of key people and their dependants in both the public and private sectors in Hong Kong. However, we have concluded that it would not be right to include as part of this package an amendment to the British Nationality Act 1981 along the lines you proposed to allow time spent in Hong Kong to count towards the 3 year United Kingdom residence requirement for the spouses of British citizens who wish to acquire British citizenship. The policy of treating men and women equally as regards the requirements for obtaining British citizenship following marriage to a British citizen was carefully considered when the British Nationality Act 1981 was being prepared. It was clearly untenable to retain the old position under the British Nationality Act 1948 whereby the wife of a British citizen had a right to British citizenship regardless of whether she had ever been to the UK. The requirement that both men and women should fulfil a period of UK residence was regarded by Parliament as having the merit of treating the sexes equally while ensuring that citizenship was obtained only by those who had some residential link with this country. Special arrangements apply for British citizens serving abroad in Crown Service but, for the most part, we expect that the wives of expatriate British citizens will achieve settlement and, eventually, citizenship in the normal way if they, in due course, accompany their husbands to the UK.
I understand the concern which you and others have expressed about the position of British citizens' spouses in the special circumstances of