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My adopted daughter is Chinese, and would like to retain her Chinese nationality. Since I (British) adopted her before her eighteenth birthday, she is also a UK national and in fact holds a British passport as well as her Chinese passport.

The problem is that China does not permit dual nationality, and would strip her of her citizenship if she were found to have acquired British nationality. So she needs a valid UK visa stamped into her Chinese passport to display whenever she visits China.

She has been in the UK for the last five years on a student dependant visa, but that is about to expire. Is there any way that she can get ILR stamped into her Chinese passport, or failing that any other kind of long-stay British visa?

If she holds a British passport that means she is a British citizen. UKBA (Home Office) wouldn't issue her with an ILR as she has no need for this.

I'm afraid she will have to give up her Chinese citizenship. Or if she is adamant she wants to keep her Chinese citizenship then she will have to find some way to give up her British citizenship and then apply for ILR. But I'm sure the UKBA will have some serious questioning as to why she would want to do that.

Why does she have a student visa when she holds British nationality? It doesn't make sense unless she had that before she gained citizenship.

Since your daughter holds British citizenship (and passport) she has already given up her Chinese citizenship (that you haven't reported it to Chinese authorities doesn't mean she still holds Chinese citizenship) and therefore claiming Chinese nationality or using Chinese passport is *illegal*.

Nationality Law of the People's Republic of China wrote:[Article 9] Any Chinese national who has settled abroad and who has been naturalized as a foreign national or has acquired foreign nationality of his own free will shall automatically lose Chinese nationality.

Other queries, therefore, become irrelevant - unless she wants to apply for restoration of Chinese citizenship (and give up British citizenship).

Article 13
Foreign nationals who once held Chinese nationality may apply for restoration of Chinese nationality if they have legitimate reasons; those whose applications for restoration of Chinese nationality have been approved shall not retain foreign nationality.

regards

Thank you for the swift replies.

To answer the question posed, she arrived in the UK as a dependant of a student (her mother, my wife) and it was only later that I adopted her.

How she came is now irrelevant.