TNAG-1602-FCO40-2198-Future-of-Hong-Kong-Basic-Law-1987 — Page 79

Whether the following categories of persons should be granted the right of abode:

1) Spouses of Chinese nationals who have ordinarily resided in Hong Kong before or after the establishment of the SAR for A continuous period of not less than 7 years or more;

2) Spouses of all other persons who have ordinarily resided in Hong Kong before or after the establishment of the HKSAR for а continuous period of 7 years or more and who have taken Hong Kong as their place of permanent residence before after the establishment of the HKSAR:

or

3) Spouses of all other persons who had the right of abode only

in Hong Kong before the establishment of the HKSAR.

Views have been expressed that As long as the marrital

relationship of these people is an authentic one, it is reasonable that they should be entitled to the right of abode in Hong Kong. However, since the conditions of the HKSAR will be different from that of other regions. the SAR government should have the power to apply restrictions and control in order to reduce the pressure on the population, social welfare and other facilities in Hong Kong caused by the persons who immigrate to Hong Kong through marriage.

5.

Conclusion

In summary,

this discussion paper deals with four issues regarding immigration control and the issuing of passports and travel documents. and relevant proposals are listed. It first discusses the applications of overseas persons for temporary stay in the SAR. Views have been expressed that the SAR should on its own have the power to control immigration. It was proposed that visa applications can be handled either by visa offices of the HKSAR overseas, China's overseas foreign affairs offices or Hong Kong trade offices overseas. On the co-ordination between the SAR and the Central People's Government regarding the immigration of overseas persons into the SAR, it was pointed out that as the SAR would have the power to deal with this issue under the Joint Declaration, there should not be any problem of coordination between the SAR and the Central Government. The report also looks into the issue regarding the right of abode of the children who were born in the mainland of parents who have the right of abode in Hong Kong. It was held that this category of persons should be automatically entitled to the right of abode in Hong Kong. whereas other views held that they would not be automatically entitled to the right of abode. hence, the SAR government should have the right to decide the priority of entry of this kind of people and their number; if there are too many mainland

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