Immigrationboards.com

Hello all,

I have recently applied for a British Passport for my child.
I had been in UK for over 5 years before the child was born (therefore holding ILR status). According to the law, the child will have a British citizenship if one of the parents is British or had held the ILR status before the child birth.
This has been supported with P60s, payslips, letter from employer and WRC.

The passport application has been refused/British citizenship not confirmed.
This is because when I started working in the UK I had to register with Home Office to receive WRC within 30 of starting a job.
I had applied 31 days after, meaning that I worked one day illegally. Because of that I've been told that the child cannot receive British passport. The office worker said that they have a new policy to deny British citizenship if parents did not meet the 30 days period of applying for WRC.

In my opinion this decision is against the law. On the gov site there is document, what is required to exercise treaty rights.
And there is written that

9.19 When counting the 5 years qualifying period, this should be taken from the date on which the employment started
(rather than the date the card was issued) if the EU8 national applied to register within the 30 days window even if
the card was issued later.
If the EU8 national applied outside of the 30 days window, the qualifying period starts from the date on which the WRS card was issued.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... Policy.pdf

Do you know what I can do in such case?
Shall I ask my local MP to forward the issue?

Any help would be appreciated.

Was the WRS issued at least 5 years prior to child's birth?
Did you work with the same employer for at least one year following the issue of WRS?

Yes, the WRS was issued over 5 years prior to child's birth.
I had worked for 2 employers in my first year year in UK.
I had re-registered with the second employer so I have both WRS certificates.

It's possible that you did attain PR prior to your child's birth, even when you exclude the period before WRS was issued.

For avoidance of doubt, try applying for confirmation of British nationality status for child.

I'm sure I had attained PR prior the child's birth.
The Passport Office even confirmed that documents show that I exercised the Treaty Rights before the child birth.
However, I've been told that they have a new policy to reject children passport application if the parents didn't meet the WRS requirement, which is really odd.

Once I get my documents back I will apply for the confirmation of British nationality status for the child.
However that means that I lost the money for the passport application due to some policy against the UK law!

The office worker said that they have a new policy to deny British citizenship if parents did not meet the 30 days period of applying for WRC

The above policy doesn't make sense.

Applying late for WRS may just mean that the qualifying period for PR started when WRS was issued. It's still possible for a UK-born child to be automatically British, if child was born after a parent had attained PR.

Yes, I know it doesn't make sense.
I was trying to find out what is the name of that policy.
Unfortunately I haven't received the answer.

Thanks a lot for the link references. I will definitely use them in my next conversation with the Passport Office.

Can we have any update please?

jaweb wrote:Can we have any update please?

I'm sorry I should have posted an update long time ago.

After the phone call with HO about the child not being eligible for British Passport, I wrote a formal letter explaining the whole situation and providing the references to the HO documents. Literally I described them how I exercised the Treaty Rights.
Couple days after the letter was received by HO, I got a text message from HO saying that my child's passport is being printed out and I received it the day after that.

I had not received any apologies or any letter explaining why they changed their minds and decided to approve the application.
It is sad that you have to fight for your rights. It looks like there are many incompetent people working for HO.
I my case I have succeeded, but not everyone is able to spent hours trying to understand all of the rules.

Torex wrote:

jaweb wrote:Can we have any update please?

I had not received any apologies or any letter explaining why they changed their minds and decided to approve the application.
It is sad that you have to fight for your rights. It looks like there are many incompetent people working for HO.
I my case I have succeeded, but not everyone is able to spent hours trying to understand all of the rules.

In recent years it's clear the Home Office/HMPO are bending over backwards to try and deny British passports to immigrants and the children of immigrants; through bizarre internal policies, higher security checks and bureaucratic hurdles. Meanwhile indigenous Brits aren't subjected to any of this.

If you combine the above with increasing citizenship stripping of only dual nationals, effectively two tiers of citizenship, thus two tiers of citizens, are formed. No matter how many decades/centuries pass by, the UK cannot shed its dearly beloved/classist/colonial mentality.