TNAG-1849-FCO40-2624-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1989 — Page 55

24 MAY 199 23:32 FROM COI TECH RADIO

TRANSCRIPT J: SELECT COMMITTEE RE HONG KONG 24 MAY 1989

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PAGE.013/056

MR. TIK RENTON (CONTD):

or to remain for a period of time

years

one, two or three

and that is always known as you still have

conditions attached to your right to be here and it is

only normally after three years or four years, depending

on the category in which you came, that those conditions

are removed and you are given indefinite leave to remain,

and in fact that is the penultimate step before applying

for citizenship and so the conditions are

a normal feature

of the first years of living more or less permanently in

this country. Those conditions are removed and you then

normally have one year of indefinite leave to remain,

which you can only lose if you leave the country for wore

than two years and after the expiry of that period, you

can apply for citizenship.

So the advantage of the in-residence terms of the

BDTC situation is that they are entitled to registration

after five years of residence as ✡ means of becoming a

British citizen and that is an entitlement where

naturalisation, which is what applies to other people who

have been here for five years, is at the Home Secretary's

discretion.

Your settlement question: Hong Kong BDTCs granted

total acceptance for settlement on arrival Or

settlement:

On removal of time limit, which I have already explained

806 in 1986;

920 in 1987; 1150 in 1988.