TNAG-1405-FCO40-1880-Future-of-Hong-Kong-passports-and-visas-1985 — Page 63

FCO40 Hong Kong Department Records 聯邦事務部香港部檔案 All

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HONG KONG: PASSPORT MATTERS

60

1. Would you please refer to your letter of 3 June to Mr Nicholson, Passport Department, HO.

2.

In your para 5 you refer to Hong Kong's proposal that some persons may need to retain BDTC passports even after obtaining BN (O) ones because of unexpired visas in the former. It will be for the Passport Department to decide on this policy matter, but as NTD has indicated previously we would not favour the concurrent holding of two passports with a different national status shown in each. The usual practice over valid visas in former passports is to unite the old passport to the new one, but this would obviously not be acceptable in the case of Hong Kong. In our view the persons affected will either have to delay their application for BN(O) status as late as possible in order to make the fullest use of their visas, or apply to the issuing countries for the visas to be transferred to their new BN(0) passports.

3.

CODE 18-77

AWO Ltd. 7/84

4.

You will have seen from ECD(I)'s submission of 6 June and the Secretary of State's minute to the Home Secretary of 11 June, that there is now some doubt whether the issue of the common format passport will commence in the UK in 1987 as planned. If introduction of the passport were to be delayed beyond that year it would be embarrassing (and probably considered undesirable particularly in Hong Kong) if common format look-alikes were to be issued there to BNOS a long time ahead of the UK introduction. We shall need to consider how best to put this to Hong Kong once the question of the introduction date for the CFP is settled.

THIS IS A COPY

THE ORIGINAL HAS BEEN CLOSED UNDER

FOI EXEMPTION NO. 27(1)

12 June 1985

Weake

Y J Veale (Miss)

Nationality and Treaty Department CL501 213 5159

/distribution overleaf

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