CODE 18-77
Mr Morris
NTCD
blu 1/2
MKD 340/1
REL
2 5 NOV 1993
INDE
Reference....................
en faken!
BER.
284
༥
282.
OVERSEAS BN (0) APPLICATIONS
1. I minuted to you on 3 November about Ingrid Ho's request to ask posts to make it clear to applicants for BN (0) passports that they should state their wish to retain their BDTC passports if they wanted to keep them. When we discussed this later you said that you had sent an instruction to our posts about this. Would it be possible for you to let me have a copy?
2.
I now enclose a further letter from Ingrid Ho about returning BDTC passports to applicants as verification has been completed. The problem here seems to be that due to the great number of applications certain posts, eg Washington, are taking longer to issue the new passports and that this is causing a certain amount of inconvenience to people who wish to travel. I do not see any problem in Miss Ho's suggestion to return current BDTC passports to applicants once verification has taken place. Overseas posts are usually willing to return a valid passport while the new one is being processed to people who are in a hurry to travel. However this may be used as a way round having to ask formally to retain a BDTC passport at the same time as the BN (0) passport, but this may not matter as it has already been agreed that both passports can be held concurrently. I should be grateful for your comments.
3.
If you see no problem with Miss Ho's suggestion I should be grateful if you could take the necessary action with our posts. I am sorry if that means yet another circular. But it was inevitable that unforseen problems would appear at the beginning of the BN (0) phased registration programme.
d
Woodrow
J Woodrow
HKD
23 November 1993