TNAG-2661-FCO40-3857-Future-of-Hong-Kong-British-Consulate-General-1992 — Page 53

CONFIDENTIAL

(a) Nationality/Passport Matters.

Applications for Naturalisation or Registration (and

for renunciation) as British Citizens, BDTCs, BN(0)s,

British Overseas Citizens and British Subjects;

- Applications for passports for these forms of

-

nationality and for British protected persons (BPPs); Rendering consular assistance to BCs, non-Hong Kong

BDTCS, BOCs, BSS and BPPS.

HKID estimate that there will be some 3.4 million BDTCs

by 1997, all of whom will be eligible for BN (0) status. At present there are 1.98 million BDTC and 0.3 million BN (0) passport holders and by 1997 we expect around 200,000 British citizen passport holders.)

(b) Immigration Work

Handling entry applications to the UK and other

commonwealth countries.

6.

Operationally, it would be possible to transfer to the BTC

before 1997 the nationality/consular functions for all groups

apart from Hong Kong BDTCS and BN (0)s (no more than about

10,000 passport and about 40 consular cases per year). This

was already considered in 1988. The conclusion then was that such a move would create ill feeling amongst the Hong Kong

public, fuel arguments that this was a step by the UK to withdraw from her responsibilities over BDTCs and BN (0)s well

before 1997 and in fact make them second class citizens. We

agreed in May 1991 with the Hong Kong Government that these

reasons were still valid. We also agreed that HKID's pivotal

role in the British Nationality (Hong Kong) Act 1990 Selection

Scheme was a further strong reason to delay the transfer until the second tranche of the nationality scheme is completed. We

concluded that HKID should retain, until very close to 1997,

trans.btc.BTC

SLM

CONFIDENTIAL

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