Can a citizen from the British Overseas Territories register to vote?
Can a citizen from the British Overseas Territories register to vote?
British Overseas Territories citizens have the same status as Commonwealth citizens and are entitled to register as electors in respect of all elections, provided that they also fulfil the age and residence requirements for such registration and are not subject to any other legal incapacity.
British Overseas Territories
Anguilla
Montserrat
Bermuda
Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands
British Antarctic Territory
St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
British Indian Ocean Territory
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
Cayman Islands
Sovereign Base areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia on Cyprus
Falkland Islands
Turks and Caicos Islands
Gibraltar
Virgin Islands
British Overseas Territories citizens are not eligible to register as overseas electors, unless they also hold British citizenship, in which case they would be eligible providing they also meet the relevant eligibility conditions.
How do you process an application from a citizen from Hong Kong?
Following its transfer to Chinese sovereignty on 1 July 1997, Hong Kong was deleted from the list of British Overseas Territories. As a result, former residents of Hong Kong are not automatically qualifying Commonwealth citizens.
Only those previous residents of Hong Kong who hold a British Overseas Territories, British Nationals (Overseas) or British Overseas passport meet the nationality criterion for all elections in the UK. Any previous resident of Hong Kong who only has a Chinese Special Administrative Region passport is Chinese and may not register as a qualifying Commonwealth citizen. They may, however, be eligible to register as a qualifying foreign national.
If an elector declares their nationality to be Hong Kong Chinese then you should exercise your powers to require evidence of the elector’s actual nationality and confirm the type of passport that they hold.