On the verge of becoming stateless!!

[Citizen1]

TL;DR

The Belgian embassy is on the verge of making my wife stateless. She is the victim of an extraordinary set of circumstances completely out of our control. I've engaged two immigration lawyers on this and everyone is struggling. So now I'm turning to the wisdom of the boards

Is there anything we can do to prevent this? Looks like we will probably have to apply for British via FLR(S), which looks impossibly hard but feel that is genuinely our case. Is there any other route we could apply through? Full details presented below.

Wife's History:

[*] Born in India 1989 (Father born in India, Mother born in Pakistan)
[*] Family attained Belgian nationality 1999
[*] Family moved to UK in 2005
[*] Married to me in 2011. I'm a British born national

Belgian Preservation Declaration:

[*]If you've been out the country for some time, you need to get a recent full form birth certificate and sign a declaration with the Belgian embassy to retain it within a 6 month deadline.

[*]Wife has never had a Birth Certificate. Lots of admin involved to get India to issue and apostle in line with Belgian guidelines. Her father even went to India to get it. Despite the desperate efforts, it took much longer than 6 months to get the Birth Certificate (which only came through this week), by which time it was too late.

[*]Belgian Embassy will not accept any reason for not signing the declaration on time.

Proof of Non-Acquisition:

[*] Belgian Embassy says you keep your Belgian Nationality if you can prove you hold no other. Proof constitute foreign government issued documentation, their letter headed paper quoting relevant citizenship laws. They argue, that beside Belgian she could hold:

(a) Indian (by birth). We have an email from the Indian High Commission, London basically saying that it's an offence to not surrender your passport if you acquire another nationality. Wife was a child when acquired Belgian so had no idea about this. Not sure this will be sufficient for the Belgian Embassy. We wrote a hardcopy letter to the Indian High Commission quoting Indian Citizenship Act 1955 to confirm wife is not an Indian Citizen ("Any citizen of India ... voluntarily acquires ... the citizenship of another country shall, upon such acquisition or, as the case may be, such commencement, cease to be a citizen of India")

(b) Pakistan (by descent). According to UK Border Agency (see link 1 below) and Government of Pakistan website (see link 2 below) she can not get Pakistani Nationality by descent through her mother. If she was born before 18/04/2000 then it is her father who has to be Pakistani not her mother. Getting this in writing from the Pakistan Embassy has been impossible despite calls, emails, letters and two visits to the Pakistan Embassy in London.

(c) British (by residency). Very easy to get. Simple form and a few hundred pounds fee we had confirmation of non-acquisition of British nationality.

Next Steps

[*] We have just over a week left to submit our proofs to the Belgian authorities. We feel (a) doesn't fit their "official letterhead" requirements but at least it's something, (b) we have no idea what to do and very disheartened, can only provide the relevant quotes especially the UKBA link (c) should be accepted without issue.

[*] We'll be submitting the above proofs shortly to the Belgian Embassy. Despite an extraordinary effort to get the proofs that she holds no other nationality, because they are so unreasonably strict we expect them to reject our submission and revoke her nationality.

[*] At which point we will immediately fill out and send off FLR(S) because she genuinely has no nationality.

Links
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... annexj.pdf (see pararaph 4.1)
[2] http://www.dgip.gov.pk/files/immigration.aspx

Other Info

[*] Unfortunately she has not exercised Treaty rights while in the UK (except one year) through earning above threshold or private health.

[Obie]

The procedure is that, if she was not born in Belgium.

Between the age of 18-28, the person's main residence was not Belgium. If as you said, your wife came to the UK in 2005, that is 12 years ago, therefore she has resided in another country for more than 10 year, and she ought to register her continued intention at the Belgium embassy before she turned 28.

However, as India Law does not allow dual citizenship, she would have therefore lost her nationality upon becoming a Belgian, therefore the rule will not apply.

However you must advise her to register herself at the embassy.

In 2005 when she entered the UK, she would have been 16 years of Age, what was she doing in the UK? was her family employed or self employed. If they were, then she could rely on those period under EU law.

[Citizen1]

Thanks for taking the time to reply Obie.

Registration

Regards to registering herself at the Embassy, the family is unaware of this requirement and did not register themselves. We visited the Embassy and spoke to the gentleman in person. He mentioned registering as a passing comment that she could have been in the UK for an even longer time than we claim. But this appears to be a moot point as we are being honest and saying yes we could have been in the UK long enough to have had nationality through residency here. But this has been disproved through the non-acquisition document issued by UKBA.

"Rule will not apply"
You say "the rule will not apply". However, the gentleman at the embassy has been very adamant and extremely strict. They required proofs from foreign governments on their letterheads and quoting their citizenship laws. It's been an extremely distressing time and only the UKBA has delivered something that I think they will accept.

Activity since 2005
On entering the UK in 2005 she studied GCSE, A-Levels, Degree and went on to become a Pharmacist. Her father started working as self-Employed around 2007 so she would not accrue 5 years before 21. But even if she did, she would not have EU nationality to apply through this route.

[Obie]

I believe the possibility will exist for her to get PR, and also British Citizenship.

When she became Belgian, her parent were required, as a matter of Indian law, to return her Indian passport, as India does not accept dual citizenship.

Did the parent not do this? By becoming Belgian, Indian Nationality automatically becomes void.

[Citizen1]

No. I'm afraid they did not. Otherwise yes we could produce surrender certificate. Note also the requirement to prove non acquisition of Pakistani citizenship by descent?

[Obie]

Even if they did not give it up, her Indian nationality is voided as dual nationality is not permitted .

How is Pakistan part of the equation. I think she will have a good claim under EU law.

[Citizen1]

The Belgian Embassy argues that she may have Pakistan nationality by descent and that this must be disproved to avoid her Belgian nationality being revoked next Friday.

As above, her mother is Pakistan born and her father is Indian born. My limited research reveals Pakistan Government website link and UKBA document (see above for links) which state that if you're born before April 2000 you can only get Pakistan nationality by descent through the father not the mother. Therefore, she cannot possibly have Pakistan nationality.

So that will be my counter-argument but despite two embassy visits, letter, email and calls we cannot get a letter out of the Pakistan Government to confirm this as this is what the Belgian Embassy has asked as proof.

[Obie]

For the reasons you mentioned, thereally can be no credible claim to Pakistani Nationality, as she was born before 18-04-2000.

The Pakistani embassy is usually very helpful, surprised you have not been able to get this from them. In any event the burden is on Belgium to prove she can acquire another nationality.

[Citizen1]

Pakistan

We spoke to the senior office at the Pakistan embassy ... twice. They state that the question of whether they will issue a letter or not does not even arise, it will just not happen.

It is no burden or risk to them, all they need to do is quote their own citizenship law, re-state my wife's history as we have provided it and then say that based on this information that she does not hold Pakistan nationality. But no. They just won't. Such is life, we'll just crack on with the best we have.

Burden of Proof

So this was interesting Obie, "In any event the burden is on Belgium to prove she can acquire another nationality".

I'd like to push that in my concluding paragraph when we respond formally to the Belgian Embassy. Is there anything we can quote? Some sort of international laws or treaties Belgium has signed up to that means they must prove we can acquire another nationality?

When speaking to them in person, they absolutely and categorically do not accept this. The gentleman said he is in "receive mode" and his job is to guide and inform us of the laws and procedures and that he cannot spend anymore time wiht us as there are many other cases to deal with.