Writ challenges residency refusal

Immigration authorities went beyond their powers when they refused residency to a girl born out of wedlock in Thailand to a mainland woman and Hong Kong man, according to a writ filed in the High Court yesterday.

Qu Congmei is seeking a judicial review of the Director of Immigration's refusal on October 4, 1999, to grant her daughter, Ho Sin-yee, three, a Hong Kong permanent identity card.

Sin-yee was born on October 4, 1997, in Thailand, where her mother had been staying for three months. On December 3 that year her father, Ho Ying-tim, applied for an SAR identity card and passport for his daughter.

The Director of Immigration refused the application on the grounds that the girl, as a mainland resident, first needed to obtain a certificate of entitlement. Mr Ho appealed to the Registration of Persons Tribunal but lost in August last year.

According to the writ, the rulings of the director and tribunal were based on a factual error because the girl was not a mainland resident at the time. It says she stayed in Thailand with her mother until April 1998 before going to the mainland for a further 11 months. The girl also visited Hong Kong three times between March and June 1999. The writ also claims immigration authorities misled the family about the impact on their case of the landmark abode case in January 1999.