I WOULD like to draw the immediate attention of the powers-that-be at the Immigration Department to a problem that many Hong Kong parents are facing.
My son was born in 1969 in India while my husband was stationed there. My son was issued a birth certificate by the British Commission in India. He holds a permanent Hong Kong Identity Card and is a holder of a British Dependent Territories Citizen passport.
According to the Hong Kong Immigration Department notification, he is required to apply for a BNO passport before October 31.
He is now studying in the US and cannot find the time to come to Hong Kong for the mere purpose of applying for this change of passport. Therefore he applied for the BNO passport through the British Embassy in Washington.
The BNO-A notes state that the applicant should submit the original certificates of his birth, his father's birth, his parents marriage certificate, his father's British passport and other documents. The notes specify that certified or notarised copies will not be acceptable.
Sending valuable documents such as these through the post has its hazards such as being lost in transit, not to mention the bureaucratic red tape involved in trying obtain copies of these documents from the archives.
