E.R.
was
Applicants had been invited for interview on that basis. If the
Foreign Office subsequently told the Hong Kong Immigration Department to adopt a different points system those applicants interviewed might no longer be successful under the scheme. It common knowledge that being called to an interview was
tantamount to being recommended under the scheme unless good
character was an issue. I pointed out that the 1990 Act excluded
judicial review of any decision made by the Governor or his
officers and hoped that the Hong Kong Immigration Department would contest vigorously any attempt to invoke the Courts. I would raise the allocation of points to British undertakings with
the FCO on my return to London.
11. I asked whether Mrs Ching had any views on the reasons for
the lack of applicants under the managerial class. She felt that managers had calculated their likely scores on the basis of their
declared income to the Inland Revenue and had decided that the
score was insufficiently high to make an application worthwhile.
Instead many managers had applied in the appropriate professional
categories as solicitors, doctors etc. Hence the numbers
applying in those categories. There were similar problems with
the entrepreneurs class. Some Hong Kong citizens were well known to be wealthy entrepreneurs but for tax reasons had established their money in a trust. Under the terms of the scheme their
personal wealth was practically zero and the Governor could not properly put them forward. I simply noted this.
12. Mrs Ching thought that the numbers of those registered
applying for British passports would now increase sharply as
passports were now issued in the name of the passport agency.
13. Mrs Peggy Dee, Assistant Director (Personal Documentation)
Mrs Dee raised returning residents with me and I explained the
position to her. She also raised children born after 1 January
1983. I outlined Home Office Ministers' views on this issue.
Mrs Dee felt that an immigration concession would be acceptable
to OMELCO. She agreed with Mr Chow's assessment of whether there
were likely to be other groups
groups pressing for some sort of immigration or nationality concession. She believed that the