TNAG-2198-FCO40-3152-Hong-Kong-nationality-spouses-and-widows-of-British-expatria-1990 — Page 33

the

concern to Royal Hong Kong Police because many expatriate police officers have non-British wives.

4.

An amendment to the Bill (supported by Sir Nicholas

Bonsor) which would have allowed the spouses of British expatriates in Hong Kong to obtain British citizenship without having to meet the normal 3 year residence requirement under the BNA (1981) was defeated during the Report Stage and Third Reading in the House of Commons on 13 June. The Home Office did not want to make any provision for spouses in the Bill on the grounds that the it had deliberately been very tightly drawn to make clear that it was an exceptional measure which would only apply to 50,000 key people and that to grant citizenship to the non-British spouses of British expatriates in Hong Kong would be a departure from the normal requirements under the British Nationality Act 1981 which governed these matters for

everyone else.

5. However, the Home Office did acknowledge that, in the

particular circumstances of Hong Kong, British expatriates had understandable worries about the position of their spouses should they die before they could bring their families to the UK. In recognition of this concern, the

Home Secretary gave an assurance during the Second Reading

C debate on 19 April that widowed spouses of British citizens

would be admitted to the UK, provided they had not remarried. In response to pressure during the Committee

D

Stage of the Bill, the Home Secretary subsequently agreed to

extend this assurance to widowed spouses, irrespective of

whether they already had citizenship of a third country.

6.

The Home Office have also accepted that the non-British spouses of expatriates should be able to obtain some

evidence of their status and an assurance that, if they

decided to come to the UK, an application for the necessary

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