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HO on planned changes to nationality casework process (!)

A section for posts relating to applications for Naturalisation or Registration as a British Citizen. Naturalisation

Moderators: Casa, push, JAJ, ca.funke, Amber, zimba, vinny, Obie, EUsmileWEallsmile, batleykhan, meself2, geriatrix, John, ChetanOjha, archigabe

cs95tdg
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Re: HO on planned changes to nationality casework process (!

Post by cs95tdg » Sun Mar 29, 2015 9:36 pm

@aumar, the following thread has a discussion along similar lines, which you may find useful. I would check with your NCS to be on the safe side, as there is a likelihood that your application may only reach the HO on April 7th (due to Easter holidays) when the new fees & biometrics come into effect.

http://www.immigrationboards.com/britis ... 83416.html

vinny
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Re: HO on planned changes to nationality casework process (!

Post by vinny » Tue Apr 07, 2015 1:29 pm

This is not intended to be legal or professional advice in any jurisdiction. Please click on any given links for further information. Refer to the source of any quotes.
We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.

The.Watcher
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Re: HO on planned changes to nationality casework process (!

Post by The.Watcher » Tue Apr 07, 2015 2:51 pm

Are those recent changes to that annex?

sagareva
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Re: HO on planned changes to nationality casework process (!

Post by sagareva » Tue May 05, 2015 9:15 pm

I am more worried about something else. I have been now contacted by several people all of whom have the following in common --
(1) they have overstayed in the past 10 years, usually a student visa around 2005/2006
(2) they have subsequently got married to a BC, went back to their home countries (with a variation of being or not being served with IS151 airside) and filed for spouse visas in 2010-2011, successfully
(3) on completion of three years as a spouse they applied for naturalisation in the summer/Autumn 2014, all using NCS, where they have all been told their applications were straightforward and there was nothing to worry about.

Subsequently, applications were delayed, all currently past 6 months, and they have all received letters asking to explain how they were maintaining themselves in the country during the periods of illegal stay years ago. The letters are quite provocative and call for "payslips and bank statements" and "original documents only". In other words, BIG FISHING EXPEDITION has begun folks -- clearly, they are trying to push people into incriminating themselves by not only admitting to working illegally, but supplying HO with some sort of documentary proof! To me as someone who comes from American legal system, this is unthinkable. It should be a right of every person to not incriminate themselves, and I would advice anyone to NOT supply HO with any evidence of working illegally, even if you were. Do not lie, but you have an option of refusing to provide information or only providing information for periods of time which you have nothing to worry about.

Additionally people are all asked fro financial documents dating 7-10 years back, which normal people do not have. HMRC only advises keeping records fro 6 years, and most banks would not be able to provide statements older than 6 years without a lengthy written request process. And last but not least, the requests take no account of the economic conditions inwhich many illegal immigrants operate -- eg they do not have bank accounts, operate on cash basis, withdraw money from debits cards based on foreign accounts where it is put by relatives, stay with distant relatives etc etc. Eg letters call quite agressively for evidence which in most cases either doesn't exist, or SHOULDNT exist.

I think what happened, after reading the vine report and promising to declare all past overstayers peopel of not-good-enough character, they realised that refusing all overstayers would mean refusing more than half of all applicants, overwhelming majority those who are now married to BCs. They cant possibly refuse more than half of applicants from whom they all collected 1000 pounds each and who all legitimately relied on an expectation that their applications were straightforward and were told so by advisers licensed by the same home office! This is insane.

I am not talking about residence requirements -- in these cases they are all fine as they have completed 3 years as a spouse. I am talking about good character, and careful reading of para 9 of annex D shows that there is no suggestion there that JUST overstaying is enough to be refused on character grounds! So they are trying to sift through application from all former overstayers, to identify those who were working illegally -- and having no evidence on any of them, they do it by asking people to admit to it and supply the very evidence that will be used to refuse and ban them!!!

Anyone who received such a letter should be very, very careful. This is by far the most disgusting and underhanded HO tactic I can recall.

Clearly geniuses that came up with this think that because naturalisation is at discretion, people cannot sue. This is not true. Discretion has to be reasonable, and everyone is entitled to rely on government acting consistently and in line with legitimate expectations. Published guidance and practice ta the time those applications were made, is legitimate expectation and this is grounds for JR, especially so when applied en masse. Even though maybe these people, should they ever unite in a class, will not be able to force the government to give them citizenship -- I agree this is an open question -- but at least they should be able to get money back, because obviously they are just being scammed.
**Please note, you can no longer contact me by PM because owners of this board accused me of using it to recruit clients, and disabled my ability to read and send PMs.**

fwd079
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Re: HO on planned changes to nationality casework process (!

Post by fwd079 » Fri May 08, 2015 10:52 am

Clearly geniuses that came up with this think that because naturalisation is at discretion, people cannot sue. This is not true.
Probably not, but the strong point of it being a discretion does cover most of human rights violation avenues. Home Office can turn around and say "You have ILR/PR so family life isn't threatened, but aren't deemed fit for Naturalisation due to some checks" etc.
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jojo351
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Re: HO on planned changes to nationality casework process (!

Post by jojo351 » Wed Jun 17, 2015 6:10 pm

sagareva wrote: I am not talking about residence requirements -- in these cases they are all fine as they have completed 3 years as a spouse. I am talking about good character, and careful reading of para 9 of annex D shows that there is no suggestion there that JUST overstaying is enough to be refused on character grounds! So they are trying to sift through application from all former overstayers, to identify those who were working illegally -- and having no evidence on any of them, they do it by asking people to admit to it and supply the very evidence that will be used to refuse and ban them!!!
Quite agree with you on this one sagareva, this was my concern regarding the BC application as well. I have couple of friend who had received such letter asking working status in certain period in the past 10 years, when any breaching of immigration law occurred:

Submitted in time application but rejected with insufficient fund in bank account, appealed after visa expired (as by the time HO contacted them again), successfully granted visa after a few weeks/months, in these cases, case worker reckoned the period as overstay without valid visa.

In all cases, appeals were successful at the end.

Some of them did not get questioned for being overstayer when applied ILR, quite a few did.

Having read through the Good characters, strictly speaking, as long as someone has breached immigration law in the past ten years, will be reckoned as a stain in good character assessment.

So far I have seen good news in the many cases as described above. so keep chin up and focus on other important things in your life while waiting. If any response that you are not certain, do get in touch with legal specialists, they can be costly but definitely worth comparing to the stress and anxiety that you total do not need. :P

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