BNO to BC / Stateless Person

[xxcityflyerxx]

Hi all,

This has all the hallmarks of grey areas and loopholes I gather...

My mother was born in Sabah, Malaysia. Both her parents had been born in what was then Mainland China in the mid 1930s, but had moved to Hong Kong after the war in 1945; there they stayed till 1962, gaining HKIDs along the way, and proceeded to move to Sabah due to my Grandpa's job, on their Certificate of Identity (CI), issued by the Hong Kong Government as their travel documents; however, Granny wasn't suited to the lifestyle in Malaysia, and within a few months after Mother's birth in Dec 1963 they decided to move back to Hong Kong in 1964, again on the same CI's, but as Mother was only a few months old she was not required to enter Hong Kong on her own travel documents (or perhaps it wasn't strictly enforced back then?), and the family settled and resided in Hong Kong ever since. Mother first applied for a BNO in the 1980s ( I believe in 1986, still trying to dig out the original, if not lost), and has not held any other passports. The BNO was renewed and expired in 2006.

Fast forward to 2014, Mother intended to travel abroad, and somehow attempted to apply for a HKSAR passport due to cost and the number of visa exempt countries compared with BNO. She was informed by the Immigration Department of HKSAR, both verbally and in writing, that this was impossible unless she could prove her Chinese nationality. In the letter, I quote:

"Under Section 3(2) of the HKSAR Passport Ordinance, the Director of Immigration shall not issue a passport to the applicant unless the applicant has satisfied all of the following

(a) he is a Chinese citizen;
(b) he is a permanent resident of the HKSAR; and
(c) he is a holder of a valid HKID card."

The letter then went on to mention that according to Article 5 of the Nationality Law of the People's Republic of China, she might be a Chinese national by descent, and in order to ascertain her nationality the Immigration Dept asked her to provide the following documents:

"-Your birth certificate (both original and photocopy);

-Photocopies of your parents' HK permanent ID cards (if applicable);

-Documents certifying your parents' overseas residential status at the time of your birth (e.g. your parents' passports/travel documents with overseas visa endorsements showing the residential status, resident permits or any other documents showing the date when your parents acquired overseas permanent residence);

-Any document/certificate issued by the overseas government authority regarding your/your parents' nationality and residential status;

-Any documentary proof of your being a Chinese citizen;

-Completed attached supplementary information sheet"

Of all the above, the only relevant document that Mother could provide was her birth certificate issued by Malaysia in 1963, and Granny's current HKID card. the expired CIs of my grandparents were lost, probably destroyed after Grandpa's passing away in 2001. She could do little to help this HKSAR passport application, and later on a second letter was received stating that such would not be progressed any further. She was also informed by the HK Immigration Dept verbally that she was (and still is) without a nationality (i.e. stateless person), but unfortunately this had not been explicitly spelled out in the two letters.

Meanwhile, during my 5-year spell in UK 2011-2016--itself a long enough story which I'll leave for later--that Mother is eligible for a BC due to her special circumstances, and further to my struggle to renew a BNO and obtain a Tier 5 visa for my work placement in UK, I urged her to renew her BNO, which she did successfully in the same year in 2014 through the online portal.

Now that her BNO is renewed and again in her hands, I believe that there is nothing to prevent her to become a BC as she is a stateless person who has held no other nationality, has not given up or renounced any other nationality, and has ordinarily resided in Hong Kong. It does all feel a bit dubious and I have been asking for advice lately to avoid putting in a less than watertight application.

Hoping somebody will be able to shed some light on this. Please let me know if anything else is required.

Much appreciated,

H

[secret.simon]

Your mother may also have to prove that she is not a Malaysian citizen by birth.

Have you checked with the Malaysian Embassy whether they can issue an letter stating that she does not have Malaysian citizenship?

[xxcityflyerxx]

Your mother may also have to prove that she is not a Malaysian citizen by birth.

Have you checked with the Malaysian Embassy whether they can issue an letter stating that she does not have Malaysian citizenship?

Sorry I've skipped this bit:

She actually applied for a Malaysian passport some time during the mid 90s before the "reunification" of Hong Kong with Mainland China, but it was refused as both her parents were not Malaysian; unfortunately, she seemed to have lost the correspondence regarding that application.

I'm unsure as to whether the Malaysian Consulate General in Hong Kong would produce such a letter on a simple request, or that she has to make a new, "dummy" application for a Malaysian passport to yield a response.

There also seems to be some confusion over whether a refusal for the Malaysian passport could be seen as counter-evidence for the Malaysian citizenship.

Many thanks anyway, we'll try to get to the bottom of this...

[JAJ]

It sounds like she's ethnically Chinese- what does her HK Permanent ID card say?. See section 4.8 of the following document from the Home Office Nationality Instructions:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... annexd.pdf

It's unlikely she's a Malaysian citizen if she was born in Malaysia in December 1963 with non-Malaysian parentage:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysian_nationality_law (non-authoritative).

If she can demonstrate that she's neither a Chinese nor Malaysian citizen then since she is a BN(O) she would appear to have a good chance of registration as a British citizen under section 4B of the British Nationality Act 1981.