Post
by secret.simon » Tue Jun 01, 2021 10:24 pm
From my cursory reading of the legislation, a really bad idea.
A general rule of British nationality law is that there is a paper trail to prove citizenship (eg, birth certificate and proof of parents Settled Status or ILR BRP, registration or naturalisation certificate, etc).
These beneficiary children of EU citizens will have no paper trail proving their British citizenship. And, as I understand it, EU citizens don't have BRCs issued either, with their status being purely digital.
That is all perfectly fine in the here-and-now. But what would be the state of a digital database of statuses in 30-50 years time, when those children may have to prove their British citizenship when their own children are born (either in the UK or abroad)? Digital databases can be corrupted or hacked and the underlying software will almost certainly change. What then?
I once supported a digital archivist on an IT project and we discussed her work. According to her, the best and safest medium for long term storage of data is good old-fashioned paper. She pointed out just how much digital storage mediums had changed in the past few decades, from magnetic tapes to floppy drives to optical drives to hard drives to flash storage, etc.
Paper, on the other hand, lasts on its own provided it is taken care of. In the UK, we have got written records for events occuring in the 12th and 13th century.
In my assessment, this legislation risks a repeat of the Windrush disaster in the next few decades.
I would suggest writing to your local MPs requesting them to block this Statutory Instrument (they can't amend it, they can only either approve or reject it) and send it back to the Home Office with instructions to issue physical/paper registration certificates to the beneficiary children.
I am not a lawyer or immigration advisor. My statements/comments do not constitute legal advice. E&OE. Please do not PM me for advice.