fle HKD
6 August 1991
RJ Fries Esq
Immigration and Nationality Division
Home Office
Lunar House
CROYDON
Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
London SW1 2AH
Der Richard
BRITISH NATIONALITY ACT (1921): HONG KONG
1. When Lord Caithness was in Hong Kong recently, Legislative Council members and the media pressed him hard on an apparent anomaly affecting certain Hong Kong families which might encourage them, contrary to the spirit of the British Nationality Scheme, to leave Hong Kong and settle in the UK.
2.
When the British Nationality Act (1981) came into force on 1 January 1983, those Hong Kong-based Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies who had acquired the right of abode in the United Kingdom became British Citizens and thus able to transmit the status of British Citizen to children subsequently born to them. However, their children born in Hong Kong or elsewhere before 1 January 1983 enjoy only the status of British Dependent Territories Citizen. Some people argue that this difference of status is itself anomalous, but it is one that applies worldwide and is to the benefit of people born after the Act came into force. Thanks to your colleagues' input, Lord Caithness was well-briefed to answer suggestions that this provision led to divided families: if the parents wanted to come for settlement in the UK, their children would normally be allowed to accompany them. This might be a theoretical problem, but there should be no practical difficulties providing the children were still under 18.
His
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3. However, the main line of argument in Hong Kong during Lord Caithness's visit was rather different. interlocutors argued that this provision was inconsistent with the spirit of the British Nationality Scheme 1990. appear to have a case. Our general objective is to encourage Hong Kong people to stay in Hong Kong. However, if children born before 1 January 1983 to such BC parents are to acquire BC status, it is necessary for the parents to leave Hong Kong
MAXAJU