TNAG-1385-FCO40-1833-Future-of-Hong-Kong-nationality-and-citizenship-1985 — Page 167

CONFIDENTIAL

settle elsewhere, and are therefore no longer settled in Hong Kong, is

not regarded as having such a connection. If the parent in question is not only settled in Hong Kong but is also a Hong Kong BDTC any children born outside Hong Kong will also be covered by one or more of the other

provisions of Article 2(1).

15.

Article 2(1)(e) refers to BDTCs who are such through a grandparental

connection. This accords with section 23(1)(b) of the British

Nationality Act 1981, which provides that a citizen of the United Kingdom

and Colonies (CUKC) born to a person who was a CUKC by his or one of his

parents birth, naturalisation or registration in a Dependent Territory

became a BDTC on 1 January 1983.

16.

1981.

Article 2(1)(f) refers to women who became BDTCs by marriage in the

circumstances set out in section 23(1)(c) of the British Nationality Act

This provides that a woman who was a CUKC immediately before 1

January 1983 became a BDTC on that date if she was then, or had at any

time been, the wife of a man who became a BDTC on 1 January 1983, or who

would have done so but for his death.

17.

Article 2(2) defines the term registration in paragraph (1). Were

the term "registered" to be left undefined there could be some doubt

whether it included registration as a citizen of the United Kingdom and

Colonies under the British Nationality Act 1948.

18. Article 2(3) provides that children born in Hong Kong on or after 1

January 1983 shall not be regarded as having a connection with Hong Kong

if their parents were only there temporarily, or if neither of them was a

Hong Kong BDTC. It accords with the way in which BDTC citizenship is

acquired at birth under the British Nationality Act 1981. The same

provision cannot be made for persons born before 1983: prior to 1983,

birth in Hong Kong was in itself sufficient to confer citizenship of the

United Kingdom and Colonies, and thus to establish a clear connection

with Hong Kong irrespective of the nationality or immigration status of

the parents.