3T-JUN-12
יי
34 IND LIVEFFOCU
44 061 308
F.13
WIVES AND WIDOWS OF EX-SERVICEMEN
Annex C
Background
1.
Immigration undertaking
During the Second Reading of the British Nationality (Hong
Kong) Act 1990 the Home Secretary gave an immigration assurance that the spouses of any British citizens who had died and who had been resident in
in Hong Kong would be allowed to come to the United Kingdom providing they were still resident in Hong Kong, did not have the citizenship of another country (a condition which was later dropped)
and had not remarried. (They could apply for British citizenship in the normal way ie. after fulfilling the residence requirements.) It was made clear that this same
assurance also extended to the wives and widows of former
servicemen who served in the defence of Hong Kong during the Second World War under the Government of Hong Kong, irrespective of the husband's nationality.
The problem
Pressure is now being exerted for the ex-servicemen's spouses and widows to be granted British citizenship without having to fulfil the residence requirements. There are only four or five dozen
of them and LegCo (and the Hong Kong Government) is pressing HMG to look again at the case for exemption from the requirements. The latest suggestion from HKG is that the ladies concerned should be allowed to fulfil the residence requirements by going
through a notional period of residence here on the basis of the
Home Secretary's discretion to overlook excess absences. The
wives and widows would pay a single visit to the UK, be granted settlement on arrival, remain for a short time, return to Hong
Kong and then submit from there an application for citizenship three or (if not married to a BC) five years later.