03-JUN-1993 15:30
1
84 IND LIVERPOOL
44 051 206 3086
-.01
129
Immigration and Nationality Department
Nationality Division 3rd Floor India Buildings Water Street Liverpool L2 0QN
Telephone 051-236 4723
NJ Morris Esq
Nationality, Treaty & Claims Dept.
Foreign & Commonwealth Office
HOME OFFICE
ind
of Miss Brooks.
Your reference
Clive House
Petty France
London SW1A_9HD_
Our reference
Date
3 June 1993
Dear Mr Morris
HICD 3401
R
04 J. 1993
18
BN(0) Status/British citizenship
INC
Thank you for copying to me your minute of 20 May to Mr Christie which attached a draft response to Mts Chow.
Mr Giles and I are happy with the first two paragraphs of your draft reply but I wonder about the third. I am not sure that we should leave to the new Consulate-General the question of what to do in the case of an uncollected BN (0) passport. My preference would be to try to answer it now. If we cannot then I would reply as in your first two paragraphs and reply later on this point.
Is the question not akin to the others which Mr Christie raises about registration followed by loss of passport through accident or theft? In such instances it seems to Mr Giles and me that since the person has been issued with the passport he continues to hold it even though he is not physically in possession of it. I continue to hold a driving licence even if I lose it in the street. The position of such a person is clearly distinguishable from that of someone who is entitled to be issued with a passport but who has never registered and therefore has never been issued with such a passport. For the same reason there is no question of a person who loses his BN(0) passport being made stateless. Nor can BN (0) status be transferred to any person who finds or steals the passport. The words "such a British passport" in the UK Memorandum must refer to the individual's own passport and not the passport of anybody else. If we adopt this stance then I would argue that the person who completes the BN (0) application form, is registered and has a passport made up but fails to take it away, is in a similar position. He is strictly the holder of BN(0) passport (the document exists, it belongs to him) although he will not have evidence of it until such time as he collects it. On this basis the registration has to have occurred and passport prepared before July 1997 (or the appropriate cut- off date in the new Order) for BN (0) status to come into effect. On this basis also, it seems to me that we can allow the passport to be collected after the cut off date or after 30 June 1997 if need be. After the transfer of sovereignty the Consulate-General will be renewing and replacing BN (O) passports and issuing them
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