Background Note
PROGRAMME FOR THE PHASED REGISTRATION OF BRITISH DEPENDENT
TERRITORY CITIZENS AS BRITISH NATIONALS (OVERSEAS)
(BDTCS and BN (0)s)
The Hong Kong British Nationality (Amendment) Order 1993 came into effect on 21 July. It prescribed cut-off date (by age group) for the acquisition of BN (0) status which will replace that of BDTC after 30 June 1997. The first cut-off date (for 22-26 year olds) is 30 October 1993. Following Parliamentary approval, the Hong Kong Immigration Department is now launching a publicity campaign. This is an important programme which will enable British Nationals in Hong Kong to acquire a form of British Nationality which will continue beyond 1997. It represents a significant confidence building measure for eligible Hong Kong residents (the bulk of the population).
The Phased Registration Programme represents a solution to an administrative problem. In an exchange of memoranda annexed to the Sino-British Joint Declaration on Hong Kong (ratified on 27 May 1985) Britain and China agreed that Hong Kong people could continue to hold British passports after 1997. The status of BDTC in Hong Kong will end with the transfer of sovereignty on 1 July. But BDTCs may acquire, before that date, the status of BN (0).
The British and Hong Kong authorities need to issue BN(0) passports under a phased programme starting this year to ensure that all eligible applicants can receive their passports in an orderly way before 1 July 1997. Up to 3.5 million Hong Kong people are eligible to register as BN (O) s. Just over 500,000 have applied to date. If millions of applications were made close to the deadline, Hong Kong Immigration Department would not physically be able to register all the applicants before their power to do so ceases on 1 July 1997. It was against this background that the Government decided to introduce a programme to phase the registration by means of prescribed cut-off dates.
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