TNAG-0660-FCO40-809-Implications-for-Hong-Kong-of-changes-in-British-nationality-1977 — Page 147

have granted husbands rights similar to those enjoyed by wives to acquire nationality by virtue of marriage (for example, West Germany, Denmark and the USA) have found it necessary to place some restriction on the right to acquire citizenship in this way, eg, by a qualifying period of

residence.

52. Four possible options, with some comments on them, are given below:

(i) To give men married to citizens the same

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entitlement to citizenship which women who are married to citizens now enjoy. This would

"level up" the sexes by enabling a woman citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies

to confer on her foreign husband the same benefit as a man can confer on his foreign

wife, and would more adequately recognise the equal status of women in marriage. But such a provision could, as indicated above, have some undesirable consequences.

Because any Commonwealth citizen or foreign national would be able to acquire citizenship and the right of entry to the United Kingdom simply through marriage to a British citizen, there could be an encouragement to bogus

marriages, particularly where a foreigner was aware of being in danger of deportation (which his acquisition of citizenship would prevent) and, more generally, to securing entry ostensibly for some temporary purpose but really with a view to marriage and permanent settlement. Accordingly a provision of this kind might have to include a reserve power to refuse citizenship in certain

circumstances.