TNAG-1406-FCO40-1881-Future-of-Hong-Kong-passports-and-visas-1985 — Page 173

Tel 3-7328 205

205

In reply please quote this ref

(96) in IMM/CR 1113

Your Ref. GVV FRAN/349/1

Mr R J Miller

Migration & Visa Department

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

London SW1A 2AH

United Kingdom

Dear Mr Miller,

ANNEX A

ம

Immigration Department

59.

人民入境事務處 16 July 1985

Entry into France by Hong Kong BDTCS

Thank you for your letter of 27 June.

59

Mr Chow Kwok-chuen had not sear the actual correspondence enclosed in my previous letter, but he was aware that the French Consulate in Hong Kong does not issue visit visas to holders of Hong Kong British passports.

When he was told by Thomas Cook in London that he needed a visa for France, he wrote to his wife, who was then still in Hong Kong, but about to join him to check with the French Consulate. in Hong Kong. She went to the French Consulate and was given the standardized stencilled note that Hong Kong passport holders did not require visas for visits lasting less than three months. When he received this note from his wife, he went to the French Consulate in London and was categorically told at the counter that a visa would be required. He told me that Thomas Cook in the United Kingdom have their own publication on visa requirements and therefore it seems likely that the two manuals to which you referred were not consulted.

It is clear that Mr Chow only spoke to the local staff of the Consulate but the double entry transit visa which he was issued must have been signed by a Vice-consul.

cc D M Mitchell, Paris

bc S for s

DPA

}

(with copy from MVD)

Yours sincerely,

Kuo Ketchen

KUO Ket-chen

for Director of Immigration

SAFE CARE

REG TRY