NEW rehabilitation period FOR OFFENDERS.

[makkan00]

4. A non-custodial offence
Impact on Nationality applications

Applications should be refused if the conviction
occurred in the last 3 years.

My friend has been convicted of careless driving (changed lane and caused accident), 5 points and £400 fine this year.

His PR is due in 2013 and I do not think that PR will be affected.

However according to bullet 4, he cannot apply for naturalisation till the end of 2015. Is that true?

[VR]

Chaps,

The latest position is the Altered Rehabilitation Periods as per the Laspo Act 2012 have not come into force. For Immigration purposes it does not matter anyway as they have quietly enacted Sec 140 which clearly says ROA 1974 shall not apply for certain immigration decisions.

The news is that Nov-13 is a likely date but looks unlikely due to the work needed on changing systems to match the changes announced. Adding to the confusion is the amendments apply only to England and Wales and not Scotland and the CRB now DB service is located in Scotland.

So while the politicians have lost interest in a minority who make no sense to their votebanks, the public sector administrators are at their efficient best in procrastinating and prolonging the agony of this unfortunate minority. Jobs and livelihoods are at stake..


Tha Border Agency have have clubbed all non-custodial sentences into one bracket and come up with their own guidance.

For some people with cautions (which were immediately spent) they have a right to be aggrieved.

The biggest gainers from this was people with Suspended Sentences. The ROA 1974 was ambiguous and a suspended sentence was treated like an actual sentence of imprisonment for the purpose of rehabilitation.

The Home office has intrepreted suspended sentences correctly and deemed that unless any portion of it got activated , then it should be treated as a non-custodial sentence for the purpose of Naturalisation.

Even then there is Net loss of 6 months for people with suspended sentences of Less than 6 months imprisonment which gets spent in 2 and a half years from the end of the sentence should LASPO Amendment commence and was the basis for decisions.

Overall the situation is not ideal but something is better than nothing.

Using traffic tickets to delay people from getting naturalisation is not right. Simple logic is that will a British citizen's benefits be stopped for the same threshold if he committed a traffic violation?? Or will he be stripped of his citizenship until a clear period was crossed? I think not. All these government agenecies and rules help in raking in the moolah at the expense of migrants and a few underdogs at best. Also helps the proliferation of jobsworths whose livelihoods depend on throwing the book at others. In time a more rational thinking will emerge hopefully.
Cheers

[yankeebrit]

So are you saying that the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 still applies for immigration purposes or not?

As far as I can tell from reading the rules, all immigration decisions will now be based on UKBA defined criminality thresholds based on the LASPO bill. So the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 doesn't really come into it anymore for immigration applications....

Am I not correct?

[greenvilla]

Press release 13/02/2014
Reforms to help reduce re-offending come into force
Organisation:
Ministry of Justice
These reforms, which will come into affect on Monday 10 March 2014, will also change the way some rehabilitation periods are set so that they are fairer and reflect better the seriousness of the sentences imposed.

Cheers

[noajthan]

Note: repeated, scattered padding posts typically to gain PM rights will lead to PM access being withdrawn.