Ref: MS/9
Purpose
220 2018
Leaco Paper No. 2316/92-93
Report for the House Committee Meeting
to be held on 16 April 1993
Replacement of British Dependent Territory Citizen (BDTC) Passports
deliberations
of the LegCo
To report on the Subcommittee on Nationality (the Subcommittee) on the proposed phased programme for replacement of British Dependent Territory Citizen (BDTC) passports by British National (Overseas) [BN (0)] passports.
Background
2.
The Subcommittee first learnt of Government's plan for a phased programme for replacement of BDTC passports at its meeting on 11 March 1993 when the second phase of the British Nationality Scheme was discussed.
Representatives of the Administration were therefore invited to give the Subcommittee a detailed briefing on the proposal at its meeting on
31 March 1993.
The Government's Proposal
3.
could
Under Articles
3 and 4 of the Hong Kong (British Nationality) Order 1986, Hong Kong BDTCs will cease to be such citizens on 1 July 1997, but they are entitled (as originally declared in the United Kingdom Memorandum dated 19 December 1984 attached to the Joint Declaration (JD)) to be registered as BN (O)s and to hold or be included in a BN (0) passport before that date. It is impossible to know how many people will choose this option. But a working estimate is that the number of potential applicants for BN (0) passports before 1 July 1997
་་་་
lion. This number would be quite impossible to deal with at the last moment, or even in, say, the last year.
To remove the risk
risk of a last minute rush for applications for BN (O) passports, a phased programme for registering BDTCs as BN (0)s and for issuing them with BN (0) passports if they want them has been planned. The programme will be in some ways similar to the last New Identity Card Re-issue Exercise, calling people forward by age groups to submit the applications if they wish to. Those who wish to continue to travel on a British passport beyond 1997, and who do not already have a BN (0) passport, should apply for one at the appropriate time.
who do not apply within the designated time will lose their eligibility for registration as BN (O) unless there are good reasons for not applying at the appropriate time.
4.
TO ensure that BDTCS wishing to acquire the BN (0) status will come forward in accordance with the phased programme, legislative back-up to the programme will be required. A request for amendment by Order in Council to the
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