TNAG-0660-FCO40-809-Implications-for-Hong-Kong-of-changes-in-British-nationality-1977 — Page 71

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26.

The origins of the status of British Subjects without Citizenship are described above in paragraphs 4 and 7. The numbers who would be eligible for citizenship through their residence in the United Kingdom must be very small since British Subjects without Citizenship who have made their home in the United Kingdom have been eligible for reg- istration as citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies since 1949 (for most of the time as of right).

THE IMPACT OF THESE CHANGES ON THE RIGHT TO LIVE IN

THE UNITED KINGDOM

(a)

27.

Those who would acquire the right of entry for the first time

British Citizenship would carry with it the right of entry to this country. So everyone who becomes a British Citizen under the transitional arrangements would have such a right of entry. But most of these people are already exempt from immigration control, and conferring British Citizenship on them would not affect immigration to this country.

28.

There are, however, three groups who are not free from immigration control at present; they would therefore acquire the right of entry for the first time. There are those citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies from overseas who have been resident here for less than 5 years, and their wives. But they have in most cases already been accepted for permanent residence. To grant them citizenship would not commit the United Kingdom to accepting any new group of permanent residents. Then there are the British Protected Persons and the British Subjects without Citizenship who have made their homes here; a few of the British Subjects without Citizenship are exempt from immigration control but for the most part they and the British Protected Persons are not exempt. But they, like the citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies mentioned above, have for the most part already been accepted for permanent residence. They are here to stay; and to grant them British Citizenship with the right of entry to the United Kingdom would not involve any new immigration commitment.

(b)

29.

Possible arrangements for those who have the right of entry but would not become British Citizens.

Some people who now have the right of entry to this country under the Immigration Act 1971 would not become British Citizens if the law were amended as suggested above. These are:-

(i)

citizens of a Commonwealth country with a parent (in practice almost invariably the mother) who was a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies by birth in the United Kingdom;

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