My sister she's half chinese

[uncle-nice]

Hi guys

I am not sure if this is correct place to send this thread.

I really need your help please my sister she's half chinese born and lives in kenya her father is chinese citizen who left them 8yrs no one knows where he is my mum and sister in africa the kenya authority they refused my sister kenya passport am thinking to move her to UK where i live.

My sister now she's 18yrs old study in Uganda what chance for my sister to claim chinese citizenship so atleast i can move her from africa to UK or USA where her grandma lives.

any advise will appriciated.

[BrandeX]

I would guess none, if she has no birth id at all there. It's supposedly a bit difficult even for full overseas chinese to get citizenship from what I hear.

[uncle-nice]

She have kenya birth certificate but just kenya authority refuses her passport she is really desperate to leave africa she can't do so without any travel document.

[roddy]

Zero chance of getting a Chinese passport.

[yonglin]

If I've understood this correctly (found the OP's post slightly confusing), I see this as a catch-22 under present immigraiton.

As other people have mentioned above, she has no chance of PRC citizenship.

Does your mum hold a Kenyan citizenship? If she does, then why does your sister not? Or is it the fact that your sister actually holds a Kenyan citizenship, but that the government just wants to restrict her travel abroad? If your mum holds citizenship in another country, your sister could apply for a passport from there.

Now for the ironic: your sister most likely would not be granted an asylum for, say, the EU if she applied for one at an embassy/consulate in Kenya. However, if she manages to get illegally (not recommended) from Kenya to the EU, and the Kenyan embassy in the particular EU country still refuses to issue her a Kenyan passport, she cannot be deported to Kenya, and would get to stay in the EU anyway. I would think British immigration law works in a similar fashion.

It would be a lot easier if she was under 18 and did not have a guardian in Kenya. Such individuals are granted asylums very easily. Since she is over 18 and has family in Kenya, I would say chances are kind of slim. You could always try to get her over on some family-based immigration scheme, although processing times for people other than spouses and children tend to be very long. I doubt the lack of a passport would be a binding constraint in that case, as long as she can show some proof of identity.

[imron]

Or is it the fact that your sister actually holds a Kenyan citizenship, but that the government just wants to restrict her travel abroad?

This was how I understood it. She holds a birth certificate, it's just that the government doesn't want to give her a passport and so she can't travel outside of the country. Not all countries issue passports on request to their citizens.

[uncle-nice]

Thanks guys for your input mean alot to me i will take all your input onboard have good day everyone some good night if am not wrong.

cheers m8's

[yonglin]

This was how I understood it. She holds a birth certificate, it's just that the government doesn't want to give her a passport and so she can't travel outside of the country. Not all countries issue passports on request to their citizens.

Yeah, I was actually reading up a little bit on obtaining a Kenyan passport. Seems like what they demand is a lot of money to cover potential costs of repatriation, and the "Must demonstrate a genuine reason for travel." sounds like they require even more money in the form of bribes... they say money can't buy you everything, but some things it surely can...

Edit: Actually, I have now read up a bit on citizenship for the Republic of China (i.e., Taiwan). Since they have a jus sanguinis citizenship law, they will technically grant citizenship to everyone "whose father or mother is, at the time of his (her) birth, a citizen of the Republic of China". Since they still consider all of greater China to be part of the ROC, this essentially includes all Chinese and many overseas Chinese. So this might actually solve your problem if you have some evidence that your sister's father is indeed Chinese. I guess she could get into trouble with the Kenyan government if she revokes her Kenyan citizenship, and since ROC doesn't imply the right to abode in Taiwan, she might end up with no legal residence, at least temporarily.

[cdn_in_bj]

Edit: Actually, I have now read up a bit on citizenship for the Republic of China (i.e., Taiwan). Since they have a jus sanguinis citizenship law, they will technically grant citizenship to everyone "whose father or mother is, at the time of his (her) birth, a citizen of the Republic of China". Since they still consider all of greater China to be part of the ROC, this essentially includes all Chinese and many overseas Chinese.

I think you're reading too much into this - my interpretation is that those born on the mainland after the establishment of the PRC would not be considered ROC citizens.

Anyways, if the OP wishes to investigate this avenue the nationality act for Taiwan is here:

http://www.immigration.gov.tw/immig_eng/aspcode/showactsregu.asp?id=3

[Lu]

Now for the ironic: your sister most likely would not be granted an asylum for, say, the EU if she applied for one at an embassy/consulate in Kenya. However, if she manages to get illegally (not recommended) from Kenya to the EU, and the Kenyan embassy in the particular EU country still refuses to issue her a Kenyan passport, she cannot be deported to Kenya, and would get to stay in the EU anyway. I would think British immigration law works in a similar fashion.

If Holland is any standard, this is not a very good idea. If you manage to make it to NL without a passport, apply for asylum, are refused, but cannot go back, you are then either stuck in a camp for asylum seekers indefinitely, or you are just dumped on the street after a while, under the motto 'you made it here, now make your way back'. Either way you end up in limbo, as an illegal alien without any rights, and no passport so no way out. Not recommended.

Taiwan would be difficult, not sure about the exact provisions for the OP's sister's case, but mainlanders don't get a passport here just like that (mainland spouses of Taiwanese citizens have to wait longer than any other foreign spouses for their residency or passport). On top of that, Taiwan is still quite racist, so you probably won't get the benefit of the doubt either.

I wish the OP's sister luck, I hope she finds a way.

[yonglin]

...you are then either stuck in a camp for asylum seekers indefinitely, or you are just dumped on the street after a while, under the motto 'you made it here, now make your way back'. Either way you end up in limbo, as an illegal alien without any rights, and no passport so no way out. Not recommended.

No one is forced to stay in a camp for asylum seekers, so this wouldn't be an issue in this case. Some people are held detained in detention centres for asylum seekers, because the government think they will disappear. (I was doing volunteer work for an NGO in such a place and I've just heard too many stories). Nonetheless, since this is quite costly for the government, such people are usually let out on the street after a while anyway (when it's clear they can't be sent back). If you have some connections and people that you can live, this needn't be all that bad. In fact, you would be very surprised how many people prefer living in this fashion compared to returning to their home countries. The world is cruel.

[renzhe]

Are you sure?

Germany deports asylum seekers who get their applications turned down. Additionally, as an asylum seeker, you're not allowed to work (subject to deportation) and have to live off a few hundred Euro per month, but only as vouchers exchangeable for only certain kinds of goods. And even if you aren't forced to live in a detention centre and report regularly, you are not allowed to leave the city where you applied for asylum. I hear about the conditions in these centres all the time: not enough soap, not enough shampoo, shortage of clothes, etc.

In short, being an asylum seeker in Europe sucks big time, and I'm afraid that being an African asylum seeker in Europe sucks double

[yonglin]

For clarification, I was referring to a special case where the country from which the individual in question originates refuses to recognize him/her as "their" citizen abroad. For instance, some people spend all of their lives in countries in which they're not citizens but just some sort of semi-illegal residents/guestworkers. Since they're not citizens of that country, they cannot obtain travel documents to return to "where they came from". In this case, the EU country would try to obtain documents from the country where they should have had a citizenship, but depending on the citizenship laws of that country (which might differ from the country of earlier residence), the asylum seeker may or may not be eligible for such a travel document. Even if they are, it is sometimes deemed inhumanitarian to send someone back to a country if the person has never lived there, doesn't speak the language, doesn't know anyone there, etc. In these cases, the EU country is in a kind of catch-22 situation and will most probably let the asylum seeker "out on the street". This is not the same as being granted EU residence, since the individual wouldn't be entitled to social security and probably wouldn't be allowed to work legally. However, since one needs to survive, most people end up working illegally anyway (you'd be surprised), usually for a below-minimum wage pay and in shitty jobs no one else wants to do. I never said that being an asylum seeker in the EU doesn't suck. It does, big time.

However, for some individuals, this state of lacking soap, clothes, the legal right to work and social security isn't necessarily worse than returning to his/her country of origin. For instance, some deported asylum seekers are imprisoned on the return to their home country, not necessarily because they committed crimes before (although this is true in some cases, of course), but because the act of going abroad to seek asylum might be illegal in itself. Some are executed. Thus, the choices for these individuals face might be 100 times misery vs. 1,000 times misery, if you get what I mean.

Not that this is in any way relevant for the OP. If the Kenyan government indeed recognizes the girl's citizenship and just refuses to issue her with an international passport because they want to restrict her travel, they would most certainly issue her with travel documents (not necessarily a proper passport) sufficient to return to Kenya if she were to be stranded abroad. Overall, I'm still convinced that the easiest way for the OP would be using large amounts of $+guanxi to obtain a Kenyan passport.

[Lu]

Not entirely relevant anecdote:

Recently over 700 Chinese asylum seekers suddenly showed up in Holland. They had apparently been in the country for quite some time already, and only reported now because there had been a rumor that the crownprince was going to be king, and was going to pardon all asylum seekers for the occasion.

The rumor proved to be, well, a rumor. By now about 300 of those Chinese have disappeared again, no doubt back to the same illegal circuit that they were in previously. The Dutch government said it was doing its best to prevent them returning into illegality, and was going to send them back to China. Which is a joke: China doesn't take anyone back once they're stranded that way.

Fingerprints have been taken, and the relevant officials said that they will detain anyone who might run and hide when they should be deported, and the remaining Chinese have to report at the center twice a day, and aren't allowed to leave the town.

I suppose that in a few more months most of the 700+ will have disappeared again. Don't know what future they see for themselves, but I wish them all the best.

[Rincewind]

Don't fool yourself into thinking the United Kingdom is soft and won't deport you. They will, and they will do so ruthlessly and callously.

Red the story of Ama Sumani - an African who while in hospital suffering form caner, was found to have overstayed his visa. The UK immigration officials came and removed him form his hospital bed and sent him on a plane back to African. Two months later he was dead.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article3593923.ece