11.
9
An Order in Council will require approval by
each House of Parliament. Therefore the timing will
depend upon the Parliamentary timetable and enactment
may take several months.
Registration/naturalization as BDTCs
15.
We do not propose a phased campaign for
naturalization.
That would be seen by the Chinese as a
plot to encourage people to become British nationals.
But, as explained above, we can only guarantee to
process applications received before mid-1996.
that depends on our being able to streamline
procedures.
Even
If we cannot, the "guarantee" date would
be 12 months earlier(7) To enable us to process
·
applications in time, the Order in Council will need to
impose a cut-off date: either 31 May 1995 or
31 May 1996. Again, UK Ministers have approved the
proposal in principle.
Nole (7) :
Now, about two million people are
eligible to apply for naturalisation/
registration.
In mid-1996 there will be
about 2.2 million, We have no basis for
predicting how many people will wish to
become BDTCs. But we will have a
reasonable basis for doing so once we
have assessed the response to the
initial announcement of the phased
programne.