TNAG-2282-FCO40-3282-Hong-Kong-visa-policy-1991 — Page 33

09-JUL-1991

17:26

HONT CUKO

+852 824 0860

P.00

Mr J S Page HONT (HK)

British Citizen Passport Applications from Taiwan

Thank you for your note of 1 July with copy

of FCO's telno 1177.

2.

Previously, under the Bag Scheme, all postal applications for passport replacement/renewal received from British citizens residing in Taiwan were, in turn, sent to the London

the London Passport Office in the usual manner. If the applicant chose to come here in person to apply for replacement, it usually meant that he was in a hurry for business or other reasons and did not mind being issued with a British Hong Kong passport endorsed to show his British citizenship (as you correctly surmised). Although my travel Documents (Passport) Section (TDPS) required (and still do) 20 working days to issue a British Hong Kong passport, if this applicant could convince TDPS

of his urgency, the time taken would be appropriately speeded up My TDPS had handled 4 such urgent casesg 12 months prior to cessation of the Bag Scheme on

1-6-1991.

3.

A

the

My Comments to para 2 of FCO's telno 1177

are as follows

(a)

(b)

(c)

The majority of applications from British citizens in Taiwan did indeed come by post 22 were received between June 1990 and May 1991 when the Scheme was still used.

Bag

The turn-around time under the Bag Scheme for normal cases received from Taiwan was anything between 6 and 12 weeks, dependent

upon

workload

fluctuations at London's end.

After cessation of the Bag Scheme, the normal turn-around time, based on one actual postal application from Taiwan dealt with recently, is about 5 weeks, including postal time both directions.