A NEW rule to allow more 'mainland orphans' and people having to care for elderly parents in the SAR to enter Hong Kong would not delay family unification for others, the head of the Immigration Department said yesterday. Under the rule, effective from today, orphans below the age of 14 with parents in Hong Kong and no one to care for them in the mainland, and people with elderly parents in the SAR without anyone to look after them, would be given higher priority in the queue of mainlanders waiting for permission to live in Hong Kong. But Director of Immigration Ambrose Lee Siu-kwong said the rule would not affect quotas for the majority of other applicants. Children with right of abode would still be allowed entry at a rate of 60 per day, he said. The quota for wives separated from Hong Kong men for more than 10 years would remain at 30 a day, the Immigration Director said. Other wives and children without right of abode could continue to enter at the rate of 48 a day. The only people the orphans and grown children would be competing with for places were those applying for entry because they had inherited property or other assets, an Immigration Department spokesman said. Mr Lee said: 'In the past it was very hard for orphans and grown children needing to take care of parents to come here because of strict restrictions from the mainland. 'This year they have been arriving in Hong Kong at a slow rate of about 40 through to September. 'This scheme meets the prime objective of one-way entry permits, which is family unification.' He said there were a few thousand such people. To prevent abuse, Immigration Department officials in Hong Kong would make sure the grown children were the only offspring of the elderly parents before they were allowed into Hong Kong, Mr Lee said. The new rule came about as a result of a bi-annual meeting between Immigration officials and the mainland's Public Security Bureau. It was also agreed at the meeting that Hong Kong people holding overseas passports and living abroad could apply in Chinese consulates around the world to change their nationality from Chinese to that of their adopted country. Previously, they could only apply in Hong Kong.
