1990-00-23

SECURITY BEANCA

Annex B

Paper for LegCo Subcommittee on Nationality

Replacement of British Dependent Territories citizen (BDTC) passports

With reference to item (a) on the agenda for the meeting on 31 March 1993, the following is the Administration's response to the questions put by members as requested.

Question No. 1 How Government would phase out the applications

(Overseas) [ (BN(O) ]

of BDTC

holders for British

National

passports to avoid a last minute rush of such applications ?

Under the Hong Kong (British Nationality) Order 1986, Hong Kong

BDTCS will cease to be such citizens on 1 July 1997, but they are

originally agreed by the Memoranda attached to the

entitled as

Declaration,

Joint

included

This

to be registered as BN (O)s and to hold or be

in BN (O) passport before that date. It is impossible to

know how many people will choose this option rather than simply

waiting for the HKSAR passport after 1997.

But a working

estimate is that the number of potential applicants for BN (0)

passports before 1 July 1997 could be about 3 million.

number would be quite impossible to deal with at the last moment,

obviously or even in, say, the last year, so we cannot risk

letting people wait before deciding to take up the option. To

remove this risk of a last minute rush for applications for BN(0)

passports, the Administration is therefore planning (as mentioned

in the last LegCo Nationality Sub Committee meeting on March),

a phased programme for registering BDTCS as BN (0)S and for

issuing.

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