'Good Character' clarifications – Suspended sentence

Dear Amber,

Many migrants will be indebted to you in the years to come. The journey itself is fraught with uncertainty. To have the final leg of the same mired in ambiguity, doubts and dubious mis-intrepretation is the last thing you want for anyone.

May I request you to kindly Clarify with the Border Agency on the use of Overseas Individuals as referees (British Passport holder, commonwealth professional).

The change to the rules whereby they will run the referees with checks and the chances of local referees having convictions for traffic and similar acts will make it safer to have overseas British Nationals and Common-wealth pros as referees.

Thanks a Million!
cheers
VR

I am pleased to announce that the Home Office took notice of my issues and have reworded the Guidance as requested to:

Guidance at 2.2 wrote:A suspended prison sentence will be treated as a “non-custodial offence or other out of
court disposal that is recorded on a person‟s criminal record” (i.e. line 4 in the table in
section 2.1).
The exception is where that sentence is subsequently „activated‟. This means that the
person re-offended or failed to adhere to/breached the conditions of that sentence.
Where this happens, the sentence length will be the one originally imposed.
Example 1: a person is sentenced to 6 months‟ imprisonment, suspended for two years.
If they „activate‟ this, the sentence should be 6 months and fall into the „up to 12 months‟
imprisonment‟ category above (i.e. line 3 in the table in section 2.1).

Gr8 stuff! Atleast from now on the misinformation being spread widely even by some of the ## established law firms## will be a thing of the past.
cheers
vr

D4109125 wrote:I am pleased to announce that the Home Office took notice of my issues and have reworded the Guidance as requested to:

Guidance at 2.2 wrote:A suspended prison sentence will be treated as a “non-custodial offence or other out of
court disposal that is recorded on a person‟s criminal record” (i.e. line 4 in the table in
section 2.1).
The exception is where that sentence is subsequently „activated‟. This means that the
person re-offended or failed to adhere to/breached the conditions of that sentence.
Where this happens, the sentence length will be the one originally imposed.
Example 1: a person is sentenced to 6 months‟ imprisonment, suspended for two years.
If they „activate‟ this, the sentence should be 6 months and fall into the „up to 12 months‟
imprisonment‟ category above (i.e. line 3 in the table in section 2.1).

Well done Amber good work. What's your thoughts/interpretation on the new guidance around FPN,PCN and PND?

Heisgood,

''Even where a person does not have a “non-custodial offence or other out of court disposal that is recorded on a person‟s criminal record” (i.e. line 4 in the table in section 2.1) within the last three years, the decision maker may still refuse the application if the person has numerous out
of court disposals that calls into question their character.''

''Even where a person does not have a community sentence within the last three years, the decision maker may still conclude that a person is not of good character – and therefore refuse an application – if they have received multiple disposals of this kind that show a pattern of offending.''

''Even where a person does not have a caution, warning or reprimand within the last three years, the decision maker may still refuse an application if the person has received multiple disposals of this kind that show a pattern of offending''

In other words even if a person does not have a ''conviction'' for any of the above in the last 3 years, if before that they had it more than once, they could still be refused.

NOTE FOR ALL WHO APPLY FOR BRITISH CITIZENSHIP (If you want your Citizenship do not commit a crime, but if you want to commit a crime do it once before 3 years of applying for your citizenship, then once you get your citizenship have a go as much as you like LOL)
cheers
vr

VR wrote:Heisgood,

''Even where a person does not have a “non-custodial offence or other out of court disposal that is recorded on a person‟s criminal record” (i.e. line 4 in the table in section 2.1) within the last three years, the decision maker may still refuse the application if the person has numerous out
of court disposals that calls into question their character.''

''Even where a person does not have a community sentence within the last three years, the decision maker may still conclude that a person is not of good character – and therefore refuse an application – if they have received multiple disposals of this kind that show a pattern of offending.''

''Even where a person does not have a caution, warning or reprimand within the last three years, the decision maker may still refuse an application if the person has received multiple disposals of this kind that show a pattern of offending''

In other words even if a person does not have a ''conviction'' for any of the above in the last 3 years, if before that they had it more than once, they could still be refused.

NOTE FOR ALL WHO APPLY FOR BRITISH CITIZENSHIP (If you want your Citizenship do not commit a crime, but if you want to commit a crime do it once before 3 years of applying for your citizenship, then once you get your citizenship have a go as much as you like LOL)
cheers
vr

VR you make me laugh LOL. Be careful you not tracked done by cops on the forum for inciting crime. (LOL) But really the way HO is going by next year if you don't dress sharp enough you will not meet the good character requirement...no jeans and t-shirts on friday.

Joke aside they have put a lot of power in the caseworker hands to deny you for pcn's that never even make court. Also the word numerous normally means many but for HO 2 is numerous. I have 8days to go for NCS appointment it can pass quickly enough....

Heisgood,

No need to fret over minor issues. The journey itself is pretty taxing. I believe at the end of it the only value add is freedom of travel. Locally the economy is a mess, next year comes with challenges which will set back any peanut progress that is achieved. There is no way out of the hole.
Best Wishes
vr

VR wrote:Heisgood,

No need to fret over minor issues. The journey itself is pretty taxing. I believe at the end of it the only value add is freedom of travel. Locally the economy is a mess, next year comes with challenges which will set back any peanut progress that is achieved. There is no way out of the hole.
Best Wishes
vr

VR - Fret? Are you having a laugh? (LOL) My HO fretting ended when I crossed the ILR line. I am just amused by all the HO antics to limit hardworking, highly skilled migrants from becoming citizens. My kids have BC so it makes sense I get BC before leaving for somewhere better. I concur, the journey is almost like climbing Mount Everest so many twists and turns......I often wonder what it will be like in 3 or 4 yrs to become a citizen.

Heisgood,

I am done with this place and will be flying out soon. After a lot of fretting and sleepless nights my Journey here is over. Good luck my friend on your filing. You are right , having seen the number of changes they have brought in, you can hardly predict what the next one will be. The earlier you complete the journey the safer and better.
cheers
vr

Its getting harder and harder for people to apply for citizenship etc. as you have to fulfill so many requirements and vague rules e.g. good character where you are not deemed to be of good character just becuase you have 2 or 3 FPN and even though you were already punished for breaking law in form of heavy fine and points on your licence but regardless of that you should be denied the right to become a citizen which again is not less than a punishment for some body who has left his/her country permanently.

Fixed penalty notices and alike should be excluded from the requirement as its unfair and absolutely doesn't make sense as why you are not deemed to be of good character even if you accepted your fault and have paid your fines unless the only goal is(which it is) to stop more and more people from becoming citizens.

A normal person will have all these penalties etc. if you live here as anybody can make a mistake and obviously no body does it intentionally to be fined and penalised heavily(unless insane or super rich) so there should be flexibilty in the rule and shouldn't be held against you but instead should work in your favour as you paid your fines straight away which is a sign of good character as you abided the law and acted in accordance with the law.

I have a public transport fine from over 10 years back. That's FPN, I got a letter in the post that I had to pay a fine and I paid it straight away. It never went to court or anything. Does that have to be mentioned? Also is there a database somewhere which you can access via the data protection act which lists all your FPN's? If only to remember the exact date.

I was told in this thread the public transport fine doesn't need to be mentioned, but all this talk about driving FPN's (same thing I guess as far as it's a FPN) is getting me paranoid. http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewto ... 487#925487

D4109125 wrote:Your question has already been answered.

Thx, was just making sure that particular 10+ year old public transport FPN needn't be mentioned anywhere. All this "good character" thing is different from the crime declaring section and could potentially trip me up.

Your question has already been answered.