TNAG-2189-FCO40-3126-Hong-Kong-nationality-package-1990 — Page 181

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PART III

ALTERNATIVE TO CITIZENSHIP SCHEME

3.1 In his statement of 20 December 1989 the Foreign Secretary said (col. 367) that various

that various options not involving primary legislation had been considered. Counsel will wish to know in

outline what these alternatives were and the reasons why

Ministers decided not to pursue them.

scheme was a

3.2 The main alternative to a citizenship

"settlement guarantee" scheme. The settlement guarantee would have been a new concept in immigration law. It would have taken

the form of a stamp in the HK BDTC's passport stating that, on

arrival in the UK, the passport-holder

the passport-holder would immediately be

granted settlement. However, the settlement guarantee would only

have conferred a qualified right to settle in the UK and not an

absolute right because

-

(i) the holder of

a settlement guarantee would have

remained an HK BDTC and would not therefore have

acquired a right of abode (see paragraph 2.6 above);

(ii) provision would have to have been made in the Rules to

exclude an HK BDTC who had obtained his settlement

guarantee by fraud or if, since its

or if, since its grant, he had

committed a serious offence;

(iii) until such an HK BDTC had qualified to register as a

British citizen under section 4 of the BNA 1981 he

would have been liable to deportation on the grounds

set out in section 3(5) and (6) of the 1971 Act.

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Redacted under FOI exemption section 27(1)