Fake Gurkhas are causing passport delays in Hong Kong, British director general says

Britain’s passport office will “urgently” review the delays in granting passports to Gurkha descendants in Hong Kong, its director general said, saying the hold-ups were caused by people falsifying connections to the Gurkhas.

Mark Thomson made the announcement in a letter British consulate staff handed to about 100 Gurkha descendants who protested outside its compound on Tuesday.

“Her Majesty’s Passport Office cannot issue a passport until we are satisfied of any person’s eligibility for a passport, which I am sure that this group of proud British nationals fully understand,” he wrote in the letter, dated Monday.

“However, I recognise the frustration and upset for legitimate applicants who have been affected by the delays in processing their application due to impostors attempting to abuse the system.”

Thomson said it was “greatly unsettling” that applicants had falsified connections to the Gurkhas – Nepali soldiers who served in the British Army, and to whom the UK government granted citizenship – to fraudulently obtain British passports.