Urgent Fundraising Appeal towards our young person’s Home Office registration fees and other direct related expenses

Sam, 18, is a victim of domestic abuse. Sam is without legal status even though he is entitled to British citizenship. He has no choice but to continue living in a violent home. Given Sam’s lack of legal status he is unable to access any help from the authorities.  

The UK is and has always been Sam’s home. Sam was born here; he has always lived here; he  is as British as any of his peers; he has a statutory right to British citizenship. But to register his citizenship right, Sam must pay the £1,206 Home Office registration fee. Devastatingly, the Home Office does not consider Sam eligible for a fee waiver because he is now an adult. £1,206 now stands between Sam the promise of safety. Your donations can bring this promise to reality and are hugely appreciated.  

Sam is one of many young adults, who, without their citizenship, continue to be deprived of the security of full and equal recognition of their membership of the UK, their home country – and, as in Sam’s case, the victim of domestic or other abuse from which they cannot escape. Other harms done to young people such as Sam include profound feelings of alienation, social exclusion (such as been prevented from working or studying) and even Home Office attempts to detain and exile them from their own country.  

Your donations will actively help Sam and other young people like Sam, bringing them to safety. After helping Sam to raise the required fee for the Home Office application your donations will be used by PRCBC to help other young people who are unable to find the money necessary to enable their life changing application to be made to secure their British citizenship rights, and with that hope and safety.   Thank you, you are enormously appreciated.  

DONATE

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Joint Letter to the Minister on current Bill (Citizenship)

We have written with Amnesty International UK to the Minister following the debate on children’s citizenship rights at report stage of the Government’s immigration bill. The letter sets out fatal misunderstandings of British nationality law that underpin the exclusion of rights of registration currently in in the bill.

4 July 2023

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PRCBC note for practitioners on the British Nationality (Regularisation of Past Practice) Act 2023

The British Nationality (Regularisation of Past Practice) Act 2023 became law on 29 June 2023 with retrospective effect. Tens of thousands of British citizens can feel secure that their citizenship is safe against confusing, changing and at times even contradictory positions at the Home Office about the true meaning of British nationality law – particularly as it affected people born in the UK between 1 January 1983 and 1 October 2000 to someone exercising EU free movement rights; and the descendants of these people. The Home Office consultation with PRCBC, Amnesty UK, ILPA and the3Million, and its recent fast action to provide this security to so many British people is welcome, but how the need for this legislation has arisen remains a profound concern. This note for practitioners explains the position established by this new Act.

As the Government’s continues to pursue its latest immigration bill, PRCBC and Amnesty have produced this briefing in support of amendments in the names of Lord Moylan and Baroness Lister of Burtersett to remove this bill’s wholly improper interference with rights to British citizenship and other British nationality.

Practitioners’ note on this Act, July 2023

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Government’s Home Office Bill: PRCBC and Amnesty UK Joint Briefing on Citizenship clauses in this Bill (House of Lords, Report Stage, June-July 2023)

28 June 2023

PRCBC and Amnesty UK has also written jointly to peers who participated in the 12 June 2023 Committee stage debate on provisions of the Government’s latest immigration bill that improperly interfere with British nationality rights. The letter addresses the key points made by the Minister in the debate when attempting to justify this impropriety.

June 2023

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Joint Briefing on Home Office New Nationality Law Bill

(House of Lords, 19 and 21 June 2023 )

The British Nationality (Regularisation of Past Practice) Bill is primarily concerned with the British citizenship rights of children born in the UK between 1 January 1983 and 1 October 2000 (inclusive) to parents exercising EU free movement rights.

Government Immigration Bill, Session 2022-23 (HL Bill 133)

House of Lords Committee (June 2023) British citizenship

Our join briefing with Amnesty UK.

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Joint Briefing on Home Office New Nationality Law Bill

(House of Commons, 6 June 2023 )

This Bill is primarily concerned with the British citizenship rights of children born in the UK between 1 January 1983 and 1 October 2000 (inclusive) to parents exercising EU free movement rights.

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Home Office Introduces New Nationality Law Bill today (24 May 2023)
The Government have today introduced the British Nationality (Regularisation of Past Practice) Bill. This is intended to confirm people’s British citizenship rights following the change in the Home Office’s position concerning how British nationality law applied to people born to EU citizen parents in the UK between 1 January 1983 and 1 October 2000 (inclusive).

For our joint update with Amnesty UK, the3Million and ILPA and lawyer’s update blog from Adrian Berry HERE:

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Government’s latest Home Office Bill: PRCBC and Amnesty UK Joint Briefing on Citizenship clauses in this Bill (House of Lords)

2 May 2023

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Update on confirmation of British citizenship rights following a change in the Home Office position concerning how British nationality law applies to people born to EU citizen parents between 1 January 1983 and 1 October 2000 (inclusive)

This update is provided following a recent meeting with the Home Office organised by the Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens (PRCBC) and attended by Amnesty International UK, ILPA, the3million and HM Passport Office.

Background:

The change in the Home Office position was first announced during a hearing before the High Court in October 2022. It was confirmed by the subsequent judgment of the court. On 23 March 2023, the Home Office withdrew its public-facing policy that had presented its previous position.

The Home Office has confirmed its intention to take steps to protect the British citizenship of people affected by this change. The steps it intends are:

• to immediately introduce protective operational measures (see below); and
• to, as soon as may be possible, legislate to protect people’s citizenship (see below).

Protective operational measures:

The immediate protective operational measures are to:

• continue to respect the right to a British passport of anyone affected by this change to whom it has previously issued either a British passport or some other confirmation of their British citizenship (including processing any application to renew a passport); and
• find ways that may enable a person affected by this change, who has not previously been issued with a British passport or some other confirmation of their British citizenship, to secure British citizenship (or failing that, some other secure status in the UK in the interim).

Legislative intention:

The legislative intention is to amend British nationality law so that what had been understood and applied, up to at least October 2022, by the Home Office concerning the law between 1 January 1983 and 1 October 2000 should be made law by Act of Parliament.

People affected:

The Home Office has confirmed that it understands that its change of position may affect people born in the UK to EU citizen parents between 1 January 1983 and 1 October 2000, and the children born to these people. It has also confirmed that it understands there may be circumstances in which its change of position may affect some EU citizens who naturalised as British citizens between these dates, and the children born to these people. The steps it is taking and intends to take are to apply to all people affected.

Ongoing court case:

The litigation, to which the High Court hearing in October 2022 relates, continues. Nonetheless, it is the intention of the Home Office to take and implement the steps described above, without waiting for the conclusion of that litigation. This is to secure the British citizenship of all the people affected by the Home Office change of position whatever may be the outcome of that litigation or the time it may take to be finally resolved.

For further reading: 

• 21 October 2022: Letter from PRCBC to Mr Armstrong, Head of Passport and Nationality Policy at the Home Office
• 20 January 2023: The High Court judgment Antoine Roehrig v SSHD
• 20 January 2023: PRCBC Practitioner’s note on the judgment
• 8 March 2023: Letter from PRCBC, ILPA and the3million to Mr Armstrong, Head of Passport and Nationality Policy at the Home Office
• PRCBC Booklet: Children and their rights to British Citizenship

Joint Statement in PDF version

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Government’s latest Home Office Bill (Bill 262): Joint Briefing on Citizenship clauses in this Bill including amendment

PRCBC Statement on the citizenship clauses of this Bill

“The Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens (PRCBC) is appalled at the Government’s legislative proposal to exclude some British children, born in the UK, from their statutory rights to be registered as British citizens under the British Nationality Act 1981.

Clause 30(4) and similar provisions concerning British nationality must be removed from this Bill.

The children to be treated in this manner are all children both born and grown up in the UK. The Government seeks to rob them of their citizenship rights for events before their born for which they can bear no responsibility, and of which they may even be entirely unaware.

The children whom the Government seeks to disenfranchise in this way will all be either the child of someone who has become a British citizen or permitted to stay permanently in the UK or a child who has lived continuously from birth for at least their first ten years of their life.

It is shocking to see legislation that so clearly pays no regard whatsoever to these children – neither their rights, their identity nor any real consideration of their wellbeing or safety. It is equally shocking that the Government has proposed something so wholly dismissive of any notion that British citizenship, as created by Parliament by the 1981 Act, should be a unifying status that fully and equally recognises the identity and connection of all British people.”

For information about British citizenship rights, see our booklet HERE

Solange Valdez-Symonds, PRCBC CEO/Solicitor

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Children born in the UK to European Union citizens exercising treaty rights

Joint letter to the Home Office concerning the dreadfully uncertain position in which it has placed thousands of people who are British by reason of their birth in the UK to parents who were exercising EU free movement rights. This follows the High Court judgment in Antoine Roehrig v SSHD

Joint letter to Home Office, 8 March 2023:

PRCBC letter to the Home Office, 21 October 2022

Practitioner’s note on High Court judgment in Antoine Roehrig v SSHD

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Government’s latest Home Office Bill (Bill 262)

“The Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens (PRCBC) is appalled at the Government’s legislative proposal to exclude some British children, born in the UK, from their statutory rights to be registered as British citizens under the British Nationality Act 1981.

Clause 30(4) and similar provisions concerning British nationality must be removed from this Bill.

The children to be treated in this manner are all children both born and grown up in the UK. The Government seeks to rob them of their citizenship rights for events before their born for which they can bear no responsibility, and of which they may even be entirely unaware.

The children whom the Government seeks to disenfranchise in this way will all be either the child of someone who has become a British citizen or permitted to stay permanently in the UK or a child who has lived continuously from birth for at least their first ten years of their life.

It is shocking to see legislation that so clearly pays no regard whatsoever to these children – neither their rights, their identity nor any real consideration of their wellbeing or safety. It is equally shocking that the Government has proposed something so wholly dismissive of any notion that British citizenship, as created by Parliament by the 1981 Act, should be a unifying status that fully and equally recognises the identity and connection of all British people.”

For information about British citizenship rights, see our booklet HERE

Solange Valdez-Symonds, PRCBC CEO/Solicitor, 10 March 2023.

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Shamima Begum judgment, SIAC, 22/2/2023

PRCBC is profoundly disappointed at the latest news that the appeal of Shamima Begum – a young British woman, trafficked to Syria when still a schoolgirl – against the Home Secretary’s decision to strip her of her citizenship has been dismissed. This perpetuates an appalling decision of the Government that is deeply divisive and undermines the shared citizenship rights of all British people, though clearly and wrongly in ways that have serious racially unequal impact.

We remain committed to the citizenship rights of all young British people and to removing the many barriers to their full and equal enjoyment of these rights in the country to which they belong.

Solange Valdez-Symonds

CEO/Solicitor

Judgment HERE

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Joint article published in the Journal of Immigration, Asylum & Nationality Law, December 2022

Reasserting Rights to British Citizenship Through Registration: Judicial Review of the Registration Fee
Steve Valdez-Symonds and Solange Valdez-Symonds

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High Court Judgment: Children born in the UK to European Union nationals and the meaning of ‘settled’ relating to British citizenship law

On Friday 20 January 2023, the High Court handed down its judgment on the meaning of settled in the British Nationality Act 1981. This is important for the citizenship rights of children born in the UK since 1 January 1983 when the Act did away with automatic citizenship merely by birth in the UK. The judgment has particular importance for children of parents who were exercising European Free Movement Rights.

For more information, see our Press Release and Practitioners’ Note below.

children born in the UK to parents exercising European Union free movement right

Practitioner’s note:

High Court judgment Antoine Roehrig v SSHD, 20 Janaury 2023

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PRCBC & Amnesty UK joint written evidence to the Public Accounts Committee on Supporting Vulnerable Adolescents

HERE

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10 Years of PRCBC and Our 10th Anniversary Event

We are grateful to all our young people for their participation during our 10th Anniversary event on 22 November 2022.

Jokotola Adenuga, speaker (Manchester), 22/11/22

And grateful to our other guest speakers

Our newly published Booklet and Short History of our work in the last 10 years

In marking PRCBC’s 10^th anniversary, we are proud to share a timeline of our work and development since November 2012 HERE

We are grateful to all the people and organisations, who have supported and encouraged us and the children and young people for whom we work over these 10 years.

While we are celebrating today and reflecting upon our many achievements to date, there remains so much more to be done to ensure all British children and young people are enabled to secure their citizenship rights.

And remember our booklet on citizenship rights is HERE with foreword from Professor Benjamin Zephaniah and illustrations from Chris Riddell. Please help us to circulate this booklet widely including to social services, schools, libraries, community organisations etc.

Limited hardcopy of booklet available on request to advice@prcbc.net. Priority will be given to small charities.

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PRESS RELEASE

For immediate release: Tuesday 1 November 2022

PRCBC marks decade of fighting for children’s rights to British citizenship

This month, the Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens (PRCBC) will celebrate a milestone anniversary, as it marks ten years of defending children’s citizenship rights. 

Founded in November 2012, by solicitor and CEO Solange Valdez-Symonds, PRCBC is the first and only organisation working solely to support children and young adults in their rights to British citizenship.

Since then, PRCBC has gone on to support thousands of children across the UK through its pro bono casework and campaign work against unjust policy and practice that deny children their citizenship. 

Earlier this year, PRCBC successfully secured a waiver to the £1,012 child citizenship fee the Home Office charges for registration as a British citizen. After PRCBC’s long legal challenge and campaigning for many years, in May the Home Office introduced a waiver for all children who cannot afford the fee to apply for and exempted all children in the care system from the fee.

Solange Valdez-Symonds, CEO, and solicitor at PRCBC, said:

“PRCBC was set up in 2012 to promote and fight for the rights of children unfairly discriminated against by the Home Office’s profound failure to respect British nationality law.

“During this time, through our legal advice and campaigning efforts, we have supported thousands of children and young people to secure their British citizenship.

“As we look forward to the next decade, we remain steadfast in our commitment to children and their families. For as long as British children continue to be excluded and alienated, PRCBC will help them fight for their rights.”

To mark its decade of work, PRCBC is launching a new information booklet for children, parents and carers who need support navigating the complexities of the citizenship system. The booklet features illustrations by children’s illustrator and former laureate, Chris Riddell; and a foreword from the poet and author, Benjamin Zephaniah.

This booklet is available in pdf HERE

Further information from media@prcbc.net

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Practitioner’s note on registration of children by discretion and Home Office revised guidance (section 3(1) British Nationality Act 1981)

The guidance has been revised in light of PRCBC’s last court challenge (Ojeh v SSHD). In April 2021, this court case settled without a final hearing with the Home Office agreeing to review their guidance.

In the last 8 years, PRCBC has had to bring numerous judicial review claims challenging the Home Office policy and practice under section 3(1) BNA 1981 (registration of children by discretion). We are therefore very pleased to see some positive changes in their revised guidance dated 18 July 2022.

You may particularly like to note the section of the new guidance on Children who have lived in the UK for more than 10 years.

Practitioners’ note, 30 July 2022 (revised 29 August 2022), can be downloaded here:

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The High Court hearing of BC v SSHD will be on 12-13 October 2022

The grounds on which permission was granted concern:

1. The circumstances in which a person born in the UK to an EU citizen exercising Treaty rights, during the period of the UK’s membership of the EU, was born a British citizen;

2. The meaning of ‘settled’ for the purposes of the British Nationality Act 1981 in relation to a parent exercising EU Treaty rights in the UK; and

3. The correctness of the decisions of the Immigration Appeal Tribunal in Gal TH/25885/92 (10620) and of the Upper Tribunal (IAC) in Capparrelli (EEA Nationals – British Nationality) [2017] UKUT 00162.

The Claimant is represented by:

• Adrian Berry, senior counsel at Garden Court Chambers,
• Admas Habtelasie, Landmark Chambers,
•  Jessica Simor QC, Matrix Chambers,
• Solange Valdez-Symonds, solicitor at Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens (PRCBC) and consultant solicitor at Cardinal Hume Centre

with assistance of:

• Steve Valdez-Symonds, volunteer legal researcher for Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens (PRCBC)

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Minister’s letter of response to PRCBC and Amnesty UK’s letter of citizenship rights and fee waiver

PRCBC welcomes the recognition in the Minister’s letter of the especial importance of British citizenship to children who are born or spent a substantial part of their lives in the UK. However, as addressed in our letter, PRCBC’s concerns regarding the implementation of the fee waiver continue to include the failure to make regulations by which a request for a fee waiver can be treated as the making of an application for registration as a British citizen.

Our joint letter to the Minister, dated 28 June can be downloaded HERE

The Minister’s letter of response, dated 25 July 2022 can be downloaded here:

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Registration of children by discretion and Home Office revised policy guidance (section 3(1) British Nationality Act 1981)

The policy guidance has been revised in light of PRCBC’s last court challenge (Ojeh v SSHD). In April 2021, this court case settled without a final hearing with the Home Office agreeing to review their policy guidance. The new Home Office policy guidance can be found HERE.

In the last 8 years, PRCBC have had to bring numerous judicial review claims challenging the Home Office policy and practice under section 3(1) BNA 1981 (registration of children by discretion). We are therefore very pleased to see some positive changes in their revised guidance dated 18 July 2022.

You may particularly like to note the section of the new guidance on Children who have lived in the UK for more than 10 years, which can be found at page pp29-31.

As always, we are grateful to individuals and organisations for their support:

1. Our former young consultants/ambassadors for providing witness statements in our last section 3(1) discretion court case (Toni-Anne Murphy, Dajay Brown, Precious Arabambi, Linden Mercurius and Mubarak Tairu);
2. Other solicitors, counsels and paralegal who have in the past supported PRCBC with section 3(1) higher court cases (Declan O’Callaghan (previously at Landmark Chambers), Amanda Weston QC (Garden Court chambers), Alison Harvey (N.o 5 Chambers), Laurie Fransman QC (Garden Court chambers), Ronan Toal (Garden court chambers) and Neelma Iqbal;
3. Our former and current pro bono volunteers who have provided support with our section 3(1) applications (Steve Valdez-Symonds, Mike Poulter, Dirghayu Patel, Amarjit Ahluwalia, Kitty Falls and Naz Mahmoudzadeh);
4. Our legal team in our last court case, Ojeh v SSHD (Adrian Berry (Garden Court Chambers), Admas Habtelasie (Landmark chambers);
5. In Parliament with written questions and debates (Baroness Lister and Stuart McDonald MP).

18 July 2022

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House of Lords, Motion to Regret Immigration and Nationality (Fees) (Amendment) Regulations 2022

6 July 2022, Baroness Lister of Burtersett

We are grateful to our patron, Baroness Lister, for tabling a motion of regret on the recent citizenship fee regulations. This will be debated by the House of Lords on 6 July 2022.

House of Lords debate can be found here

For our joint briefing with Amnesty UK:

4 July 2022

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Our joint letter to the Minister on various children’s citizenship fee matters HERE:

Home Office Citizenship fee waiver Form: Children’s British citizenship registration

The Home Office has today published its fee waiver form for children who cannot afford the £1,012 fee to be registered as British citizens. The form is to give effect to the fee waiver introduced from 16 June 2022.

The regulations that have introduced the fee waiver also provide an exemption from the fee for all children looked after by a local authority. PRCBC strongly encourages local authorities to take prompt action to secure the citizenship rights of all children in their care.

The regulations that introduced the fee waiver and the fee exemption were made on 26 May 2022. This was in response to rulings of the High Court and Court of Appeal in December 2019 and February 2021 respectively that the Home Office had failed to give effect to the best interests of children in setting the £1,012 registration fee.

Rights to registration as a British citizen affect many children born and growing up in the UK (see our leaflet).

For children who do not qualify for or are refused a registration fee waiver or are not looked after by a local authority, the registration fee of £1,012 will continue to apply. PRCBC continues to work with others to bring to an end the Home Office practice of setting fees for the registration of British citizenship rights at above the administrative cost of the registration process.

For more information on fee waiver and exemption, see our FAQs (June 2022) HERE and practitioners note HERE.

We will very shortly provide further updates and deliver seminars for lawyers and non-lawyers.

PRCBC Board of Trustees (Carol Bohmer, Pauline Gooderson, Sue Shutter, Astalli Rasidaki, Rita Chadha and Precious Arabambi) and Solange Valdez-Symonds (CEO/Solicitor) wish to thank those involved in our over 9-year journey:

Our resilient beneficiaries (British children with citizenship rights)

Campaign Teams: i) Amnesty UK and Children’s Human Rights Network (Amnesty) ii) Surrey Square School

Patron: Baroness Lister of Burtersett

Current volunteers/pro bono consultants: Steve Valdez-Symonds (Amnesty UK), Kitty Falls (Kitty Falls Immigration Law), Joanna Hunt (Fieldfisher), Mike Poulter (Turpin Miller solicitors), Naz Mahmoudzadeh (Bindmans), Favour Arabambi, Alice Bennington (Bates Wells) and Lizan Ghafoor (TV Edwards), Cora Bauer.

Former volunteers: Amarjit Ahluwalia (SCOMO), Dirghayu Patel (LawStop) and Anjana Daniel (Fragomen).

Funders current and former: Strategic Litigation Funding (SLF), Therium Access, Trust For London, Paul Hamlyn Foundation (PHF) Access to Justice Foundation, Ministry of Justice and private donors and sponsors.

Organisations and individuals who provided pro bono legal advice, statements, reports, PQs and other support: Steve Valdez-Symonds (Amnesty UK), Baroness Lister, Stuart McDonald MP, Lord Alton of Liverpool, Maria Patsalos (Mishcon de Reya), Declan O’Callaghan (former barrister, Landmark Chambers), Richard Drabble QC (Landmark Chambers), Laurie Fransman QC, Adrian Berry (Garden Court chambers), Amanda Weston QC (Garden Court chambers), Miranda Butler (Landmark Chambers), Ronan Toal (Garden Court), Admas Habteslasie (Landmark Chambers), Colin Yeo (Free Movement),  Prof. Helen Stalford (Liverpool University Law Clinic), Prof. Donald Hirsch (Loughborough University), Henry St Clair Miller (No Recourse to Public Funds Network), Fiona Carrick-Davies (Surrey Square Primary School), Julian Bild (ATLEU), Sian Pearce (former solicitor, Avon & Bristol Law Centre), RAMFEL, Project 17, Akwaaba, Catherine Treharne-Evans (LB of Hounslow), Katie Fennell (KIND), Unity Project, Shane Enright (former Trade Union adviser, Amnesty UK), Alison Jordan (Amnesty UK production executive), Dr Bronwen Manby (London School of Economics), Sue Willman (Deighton Pierce Glynn solicitors), Lara ten Caten (Liberty), Sayed Ahmed AlWadaei (Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy), Ian Hollings (Legal Aid Agency), Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP, Isabel Buchanan (Blackstone Chambers), Trent Miller and David Varney, Tabitha Sprage, Cardinal Hume Centre, Citizens UK, Windrush Lives, Immigration Law Practitioners Association (ILPA), The 3Million, Latin American Women’s Rights Service, Kanlungan, ENS, West London Welcome, Chagossian Voices, BOT Citizenship Campaign, North East Law Centre, Asylum Justice, CCLC, Youth Legal, Kai Akram, May Bulman (The Independent), Samir Jeraj (New Statesman), Sonia Sodha (The Guardian), Paolo Sandro (University of Leeds), Justice Gap, RAMP PROJECT, EIN, WorkLife (for providing us with free office space for our pro bono casework service to children) and many others.

16/6/2022

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Citizenship fee waivers: new Home Office policy on children’s registration and best interests

PRCBC has published some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and a note for practitioners on the new fee exemptions and waiver that are to take effect on 16 June 2022. There is more information below.

Practitioners Note on the new citizenship fee waiver and exemptions:

Our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on the new citizenship fee waiver and exemptions:

Citizenship fee waivers: new Home Office policy on children’s registration and best interests

The Home Office has today published a new policy providing a fee waiver for some children applying to be registered as British citizens. The policy states that the fee should be waived if the child and her, his or their parents “have credibly demonstrated” that they cannot afford the fee after meeting their essential living needs. 

This is in principle an important and welcome first response to PRCBC’s litigation and long-standing challenge to the citizenship registration fee. It will nonetheless be necessary to review the policy more closely and monitor its application in practice to assess how effective it is in enabling children, who cannot afford the fee, to exercise rights to British citizenship.  

Particularly welcome is the express statement that a child who is looked after by a local authority will not have to pay the fee.

PRCBC continues to call on the Government to end its practice of charging above the cost of registration for people to access their statutory entitlement to British citizenship.

The failure of the Home Secretary to consider children’s best interests in setting this fee was found to be unlawful by the High Court in the case of PRCBC, O & A v Secretary of State for the Home Department in December 2019. This was confirmed by the Court of Appeal in dismissing the Home Secretary’s appeal against that finding in February 2021.

PRCBC is really grateful to all those individuals and organisations for their support with our higher court case, policy and campaign work.

The Immigration and Nationality (Fees) (Amendment) Regulations 2022

Extract of explanatory note in these Regulations:

“These fees have been substituted in the light of the judgment of the Court of Appeal in R (Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens and O) v. Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWCA Civ 193. The Secretary of State was found to have breached the duty under section 55 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009 (c. 11) in relation to setting these fees. Having complied with that duty, the Secretary of State has made these Regulations to substitute these fees and make related provision.”

26/5/2022

Press Release

PRCBC Board of Trustees (Carol Bohmer, Pauline Gooderson, Sue Shutter, Astalli Rasidaki, Rita Chadha and Precious Arabambi) and Solange Valdez-Symonds (CEO/Solicitor) wish to thank those involved in our lengthy journey:

1. Our resilient beneficiaries (British children with citizenship rights)
2. Our volunteers: Steve Valdez-Symonds (Amnesty UK), Kitty Falls (Kitty Falls Immigration Law), Joanna Hunt (Fieldfisher), Mike Poulter (Turpin Miller solicitors), Naz Mahmoudzadeh (Bindmans), Favour Arabambi, Alice Bennington (Bates Wells) and Lizan Ghafoor (TV Edwards).

3. Former volunteers: Amarjit Ahluwalia, Dirghayu Patel (LawStop) and Anjana Daniel
4. PRCBC Legal Team (acting pro bono): Maria Patsalos (Mishcon de Reya), Richard Drabble QC, Miranda Butler (Landmark Chambers)
5. Campaign Teams: i) Amnesty UK Children Human Rights Network ii) Surrey Square School iii) Amnesty UK
6. PRCBC pro bono media consultant: Cora Bauer
7. Our Patron: Baroness Lister of Burtersett
8. Funders current and former: Therium Access, Trust For London, Access to Justice Foundation, Ministry of Justice, Paul Hamlyn Foundation (PHF), Strategic Litigation Funding (SLF) and private donors
9. Organisations and individuals who provided pro bono legal advice, statements and other support in PRCBC & O’s court case: Steve Valdez-Symonds (Amnesty UK), Richard Drabble QC (Landmark Chambers), Adrian Berry (Garden Court chambers), Amanda Weston QC (Garden Court chambers), Ronan Toal (Garden Court), Admas Habteslasie (Landmark Chambers), Colin Yeo (Garden Court Chambers), Baroness Lister, Lord Alton of Liverpool, Prof. Helen Stalford (Liverpool University Law Clinic), Prof. Donald Hirsch (Loughborough University), Henry St Clair Miller (No Recourse to Public Funds Network), Fiona Carrick-Davies (Surrey Square Primary School), Julian Bild (ATLEU), Sian Pearce (Avon & Bristol Law Centre), RAMFEL, Project 17, Akwaaba, Catherine Treharne-Evans (LB of Hounslow), Katie Fennell (KIND), PRCBC youth consultants, Unity Project, PRCBC former clients, Shane Enright (Trade Union adviser, Amnesty UK), Alison Jordan (Amnesty UK production executive), Dr Bronwen Manby (London School of Economics), Sue Willman (Deighton Pierce Glynn solicitors), Lara ten Caten (Liberty), Sayed Ahmed AlWadaei (Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy), Ian Hollings (Legal Aid Agency), Stuart McDonald MP, Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP, Cardinal Hume Centre, WorkLife (for providing us with free office space for our pro bono casework service to children), Citizens UK, Windrush Lives, ILPA, The 3Million, LAWRS, Kanlungan, ENS, West London Welcome, Chagossian Voices, BIOT Citizens, North East Law Centre, Asylum Justice.

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Children’s Best Interests and huge citizenship fees

The Home Secretary’s review of children’s best interests and the £1,012 fee it demands for registration of children’s right to British citizenship is due to be published by 10 June 2022.  

The failure of the Home Secretary to consider children’s best interests in setting this fee was found to be unlawful by the High Court in the case of PRCBC, O & A v Secretary of State for the Home Department in December 2019. This was confirmed by the Court of Appeal in dismissing the Home Secretary’s appeal against that finding in February 2021.

The lawfulness of the citizenship registration fee remains before the High Court, in a judicial review claim brought by another child assisted by PRCBC. The Home Secretary has previously invited the court to delay consideration of that claim pending her completion of the review on or before 10 June 2022.

10 May 2022

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Joint Briefing on Citizenship Registration Fees

Nationality and Borders Bill, House of Lords Report Stage (8 March 2022)

Let’s stop charging British people a huge fee of £1,000+ to have their right, given by Parliament under the British Nationality Act 1981, confirmed.

Let’s stop the further alienation and exclusion this fee causes to so many already marginalised people, including children in care. Only £372 of the current £1,000+ registration fee constitutes the actual costs of processing the right of registration.

This is the joint briefing of over twenty community, children’s and legal organisations representing millions of people in support of a vital opportunity to secure citizenship rights against prohibitive and unjust Home Office fees.

Briefing one-pager

For recent academic and media articles on this injustice being done to British people with entitlements to citizenship, see:

Paolo Sandro, University of Leeds.

Donnchadh Greene, Doughty Street Chambers & Gabriel Tan, Wilsons.

Nicholas Reed Langen, Justice Gap.

Timothy Jacob-Owens, Global Citizenship Observatory.

Colin Yeo, Freemovement.

May Bulman, The Independent.

Samir Jeraj, The New Statesman.

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Nationality & Borders Bill (NBB): House of Lords Report Stage, 28 February 2022

Joint Briefing on Citizenship Part 1: Chagossians, Adoption and Deprivation

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Nationality & Borders Bill (NBB): House of Lords Report Stage, 28 February 2022

Joint Briefing (PRCBC, ILPA, Amnesty UK, Coram Children’s Legal Centre (CCLC) and European Children’s Rights Unit (ECRU)): Citizenship Rights of Stateless Children born in the UK

Joint Amnesty UK and PRCBC Briefing for Nationality and Borders Bill (Part 1- British Nationality) Amendment 184: CONSULTATION ON CITIZENSHIP (House of Lords Committee Stage, 10-11 February 2022)

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Supreme Court judgment in PRCBC & O v SSHD, 2 February 2022

The Supreme Court has acknowledged that a large number of children are being excluded from their British citizenship rights by the Home Office fees of £1,012. It is, however, hugely disappointing that the Supreme Court felt compelled not to find it unlawful that rights to British citizenship of children provided under the British Nationality Act 1981 are made ineffective by profit making fees set under the Immigration Act 2014.

It’s been a long journey for PRCBC to reach the Supreme Court. There remains much work to be done on citizenship rights for our young and not so young. We have met many kind individuals and organisations who have given their time, good energy, and effort to support us during our long journey from pre-litigation research, applications, pre-actions to High Court, leapfrog to the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and back to the Supreme Court. Sadly, for our young, this painful citizenship rights journey is not yet over.

1. PRCBC demands the Secretary of State act urgently on the outstanding February 2021 Court of Appeal ruling that the fee has nonetheless been set unlawfully because she has failed to consider children’s best interests.
2. PRCBC also calls on parliamentarians to do these British children justice and end their alienation and exclusion by amendment to the current Nationality and Borders Bill.

PRCBC Board of Trustees (Carol Bohmer, Pauline Gooderson, Sue Shutter, Astalli Rasidaki, Rita Chadha and Precious Arabambi) and Solange Valdez-Symonds (CEO/Solicitor) wish to take a small pause to thank those involved in our lengthy journey:

1. Our resilient beneficiaries (British children with citizenship rights)
2. Our volunteers: Steve Valdez-Symonds (Amnesty UK), Kitty Falls (Kitty Falls Immigration Law), Joanna Hunt (Fieldfisher), Mike Poulter (Turpin Miller solicitors), Naz Mahmoudzadeh (Bindmans), Favour Arabambi and Alice Bennington (Bates Wells).

3. Former volunteers: Amarjit Ahluwalia, Dirghayu Patel (LawStop) and Anjana Daniel
4. “O” Legal Team: Solange Valdez- Symonds (instructing consultant solicitor, Cardinal Hume Centre), Richard Drabble QC & Admas Habteslasie (Landmark Chambers), Jason Pobjoy (Blackstone Chambers)
5. PRCBC Legal Team (acting pro bono): Maria Patsalos, Lucy Grant and Lydia Boateng (Mishcon de Reya), Richard Drabble QC, Miranda Butler (Landmark Chambers) and Isabel Buchanan (Blackstone Chambers)
6. Campaign Teams: i) Amnesty UK Children Human Rights Network ii) Surrey Square School iii) Amnesty UK
7. PRCBC pro bono media consultant: Cora Bauer
8. Amnesty UK Media Team: Kai Akram
9. Our Patrons: Baroness Lister of Burtersett, Claude Moraes and Laurie Fransman QC
10. Funders current and former: Therium Access, Trust For London, Access to Justice Foundation, Ministry of Justice, Paul Hamlyn Foundation (PHF), Strategic Litigation Funding (SLF) and private donors
11. Organisations and individuals who provided pro bono legal advice, statements and other support in this court case: Steve Valdez-Symonds (Amnesty UK), Richard Drabble QC (Landmark Chambers), Adrian Berry (Garden Court chambers), Amanda Weston QC (Garden Court chambers), Ronan Toal, Admas Habteslasie (Landmark Chambers), Colin Yeo (Garden Court Chambers), Baroness Lister, Lord Alton of Liverpool, Prof. Helen Stalford (Liverpool University Law Clinic), Prof. Donald Hirsch (Loughborough University), Henry St Clair Miller (No Recourse to Public Funds Network), Fiona Carrick-Davies (Surrey Square Primary School), Julian Bild (ATLEU), Sian Pearce (Avon & Bristol Law Centre), RAMFEL, Project 17, Akwaaba, Catherine Treharne-Evans (LB of Hounslow), Katie Fennell (KIND), PRCBC youth consultants, Unity Project, PRCBC clients, Shane Enright (Trade Union adviser, Amnesty UK), Alison Jordan (Amnesty UK production executive), Cora Bauer (media at Amnesty UK), Imran Uppal (digital at Amnesty UK), Dr Bronwen Manby (London School of Economics), Sue Willman (Deighton Pierce Glynn solicitors), Lara ten Caten (Liberty), Sayed Ahmed AlWadaei (Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy), Ian Hollings (Legal Aid Agency), Stuart McDonald MP, Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP, Cardinal Hume Centre, WorkLife (for providing us with free office space for our pro bono casework service to children).

Our Press Release:

Our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) (2 February 2022)

Our Casenote for lawyers and academics (2 February 2022):

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Supreme Court Judgment in PRCBC & O v SSHD (Citizenship Fee)

The Supreme Court will be delivering its judgment in PRCBC & O v SSHD on whether the £1,012 fee for a child to be registered as a British citizen is lawful on Wednesday 2 February:

https://www.supremecourt.uk/news/future-judgments.html

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Our two joint Amnesty and PRCBC Briefings for Nationality and Borders Bill (Part 1- British Nationality): House of Lords Committee Stage (to be debated on 27 January 2022)

Briefing on Deprivation in Part 1 of the Nationality and Borders Bill:

Briefing on Good Character, Chagossians, Fees and Stateless Children in Part 1 of the Nationality and Borders Bill:

21/1/2022

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Joint Briefing for Nationality and Borders Bill (Part 1- British Nationality): House of Lords Second Reading (5 January 2022)

16 December 2021

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Briefing for Nationality and Borders Bill (Part 1): House of Commons Report stage

Word version

PDF version

4 December 2021

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We are really glad to announce that on 13 October 2021, the High Court (Deputy High Court Judge Richard Hermer QC) granted the Claimant (BC) permission to apply for judicial review at an oral hearing. 

The grounds on which permission was granted concern:

1. The circumstances in which a person born in the UK to an EU citizen exercising Treaty rights, during the period of the UK’s membership of the EU, was born a British citizen;

2. The meaning of ‘settled’ for the purposes of the British Nationality Act 1981 in relation to a parent exercising EU Treaty rights in the UK; and

3. The correctness of the decisions of the Immigration Appeal Tribunal in Gal TH/25885/92 (10620) and of the Upper Tribunal (IAC) in Capparrelli (EEA Nationals – British Nationality) [2017] UKUT 00162.

The Claimant was represented by:

• Adrian Berry, senior counsel at Garden Court Chambers, and 
• Solange Valdez-Symonds, solicitor at Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens (PRCBC) and consultant solicitor at Cardinal Hume Centre

with assistance of:

• Steve Valdez-Symonds, volunteer legal researcher for Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens (PRCBC)

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Joint Submissions to the Public Bill Committee on Part 1 (Nationality) of the Nationality & Borders Bill

We have the pleasure to share our joint submissions with Amnesty International UK to the Public Bill Committee in connection with Part 1 (Nationality) of this Bill:

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Update on various PRCBC policy and casework on Children’s British Citizenship matters

2 August 2021

We wish to provide the following updates on a number of PRCBC key court challenges and policy work:

1. Section 3(1) BNA 1981 (registration of children by discretion)

Further to our previous update on this page and note circulated to professional individuals and google groups on our section 3(1) High Court challenge which was settled by the High Court in April this year, the SSHD had aimed to review her policy guidance by the end of July this year. We have now been informed by the Home Office that they will be not be completing the review of their policy until after the citizenship fee Supreme Court judgement in PRCBC & O v SSHD is delivered.

PRCBC have written to the Home Office for further information about this and we hope to provide any updates as soon as received.

2. Absent or hostile parent(s) not wishing to provide evidence of their settled/British citizenship status to facilitate confirmation/registration of their children’s citizenship rights

PRCBC court challenges and our various representations to Home Office officials have paid off! For years the nationality section and Passport Agency have refused to look into their own records to satisfy themselves of an absent parent’s settled status or British citizenship and issue a British passport or register our young clients as British. They have now confirmed to PRCBC that they have reviewed their poor practice and their caseworkers will in future look into their own records where it is not possible for an applicant to confirm a parent’s settled status or British citizenship.

3. PRCBC & O v SSHD citizenship fee case Supreme Court judgment

As you will know, on 23 and 24 June, the Supreme Court heard PRCBC & O’s appeals. It’s unclear how soon the court will deliver its judgment other than it’s important to note that the court had treated PRCBC & O as expedited cases. We will provide an update as soon as judgment has been delivered.

4. Citizenship training

PRCBC will shortly be publicising its annual training delivery dates on various British citizenship topic.

If you have any queries on any of the above, please e-mail advice@prcbc.net

Solange Valdez-Symonds

Solicitor and CEO

PRCBC & O v SSHD citizenship fee case heard by the Supreme Court on 23 and 24 June 2021

On 23 and 24 June, the Supreme Court heard PRCBC & O v SSHD citizenship fee case. You can watch the hearing by following this link:

https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2021-0063.html

The Supreme Court will deliver judgment in due course. It’s unclear how soon save to note that the court had treated PRCBC & O as expedited cases. We will provide an update on this page as soon as judgment has been delivered.

In 2013, PRCBC carried out its first intense legal research on the Home Office citizenship fees. We are grateful to the Strategic Fund Legal for funding this legal research in 2013-2014 and Paul Hamlyn Foundation for grants given towards PRCBC’s work in 2014-2015 and 2017-2019. More recently, we are grateful to Therium Access (April 2020 to date), Trust For London (April 2021 to date) and Community Justice Funds (CJF) (2020-2021) for awarding us grants in support of our strategic litigation work and general casework.

We are also grateful to our legal teams, our young people and those organisations who provided supporting statements when PRCBC & Others v SSHD case was prepared for a hearing in the High Court.

See Susan’s Blog: Why is the Government profiteering from my children’s British citizenship rights?

See joint Briefing on citizenship fees published by PRCBC and Amnesty UK, first published in 2016:

For PRCBC background note on this citizenship fee challenge (February 2021):

For our FAQs (updated on 30 May 2021)

27/6/2021

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Amendment to the British Nationality Act 1981 to take effect from 1 July 2021

Draft Regulations have been laid (British Nationality Act 1981 (Immigration Rules Appendix EU) (Amendment) Regulations 2021). These are intended to amend the British Nationality Act 1981 so that a child born to an European Union citizen on or after 1 July 2021, who is not born a British citizen will automatically acquire British citizenship if and when the parent becomes settled provided the parent either had applied for settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme or would have been eligible for settled status under the scheme immediately before 1 July 2021.

We have jointly written to Kevin Foster MP, Immigration Minister, to welcome this proposed amendment. However, we have requested the Home Office takes steps to ensure it is effective for all the children to whom it applies.

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The Home Office have settled PRCBC judicial review test cases on children seeking to register as British citizens by discretion

The Home Office settled five judicial review claims brought by teenagers challenging the policy under which they were refused registration as British citizens under section 3(1) of the British Nationality Act 1981. All five young people have been assisted by PRCBC and were represented by our solicitor, Solange Valdez-Symonds.

Each of these young people was brought to the UK at a young age, has grown up in this country and applied to be registered as a British citizen during their teenage years (generally at age 16 or 17). 

The lead case had been expedited to be heard on 5 May as test case following an Order of Sir Wyn Willliams in the High Court. However, the Home Office has settled that case, and each of the other cases, on the basis that it will register the young person and review its policy with the aim of producing a revised policy within 3 months.

Pending this review, the Home Office has confirmed it will not refuse applications for registration by discretion; and will continue to grant registration in circumstances where it would normally have done so prior to the review. 

This is a significant achievement for PRCBC, which has assisted hundreds of children to register by discretion in the last eight years. In many cases, this has necessitated the issue of a pre-action letter or the issue of a judicial review claim. The evidence collated by PRCBC from the children it has assisted over the last near decade reveals: 

• the importance of citizenship to young people, who have grown up in the UK from a young age and identify as British;  
• the impact upon these young people of being without and being refused British citizenship; and  
• the repeated practice of the Home Office in conceding judicial review claims of these refusals.  

This evidence and the learning gained by PRCBC since 2012 has all be vital in securing the concessions in these five cases and the review of policy. PRCBC will continue to monitor closely Home Office policy and practice on registration of British citizenship, including the outcome of this review. 

PRCBC is grateful to the following individuals and organisations for their support:

Legal team: Solange Valdez-Symonds (PRCBC Solicitor and Director), Adrian Berry (Garden Court Chambers) and Admas Habteslasie (Landmark Chambers)

Youth consultants and other young people: Precious Arabambi, Toni-Ann Murphy, Dajay Brown, Mubarak Tairu and Linden Mercurius.

PRCBC Volunteers: Amarjit Ahluwalia, Mike Poulter, Kitty Falls, Joanna Hunt, Steve Valdez-Symonds, Naz Mahmoudzadeh

Our Funders: Therium Access, Community Justice Fund (CJF) and Trust for London.

Organisations: Amnesty International UK (Steve Valdez-Symonds), 3Million Youth Network (Alexandra Bulat), Wesley Gryk Solicitors (Diana Baxter)

Patron: Laurie Fransman QC (Garden court Chambers and author of Fransman’s British Nationality Law)

Past contributors: Declan O’Callaghan, Amanda Weston QC (Garden Court Chambers), Alison Harvey (N.5 Chambers), Ronan Toal (Garden Court Garden Chambers), Dirghayu Patel (LawStop), Ubah Dirie (Garden Court chambers).

For our legal casenote, please e-mail: advice@prcbc.net

PRCBC Board of Trustees

27/4/2021

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Court of Appeal Judgment on Children’s Citizenship Fee

The Court of Appeal has today upheld the High Court ruling that the £1,012 fee for a child to register as a British citizen is unlawful because it is set without consideration of the best interests of children. Two judges also indicate they see “considerable force” in PRCBC’s argument that the fee is additionally unlawful because it effectively deprives many children of their rights to British citizenship. While the court decides it is bound by its previous decision in R (Williams) to nonetheless reject this additional argument. PRCBC has sought and been granted permission to appeal to the Supreme Court on this point.

For our Frequently Asked Questions

PDF version

For our joint press release

For Court of Appeal Judgement

We are grateful to all for their support in particular:

1. Our beneficiaries (children with citizenship rights)
2.  Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty International UK
3. PRCBC Legal Team:  Our solicitors, Maria Patsalos and Lucy Grant (Mishcon de Reya), Richard Drabble QC (Landmark Chambers), Miranda Butler (Garden Court Chambers) and Isabel Buchanan (Blacktsones)
4. The Legal Team in O: Richard Drabble QC, Admas Habteslasie (Landmark Chambers), Jason Pobjoy (Blackstones Chambers). Solange Valdez- Symonds (Solicitor)
5. Steve Valdez-Symonds’ colleagues, Amnesty International UK
6. Therium Access (our funder)
7. Fiona Carrick-Davies, Surrey Square School
8. Baroness Lister (PRCBC patron)
9. Lord Alton
10. Prof Helen Stalford (Liverpool Law Clinic)
11. Our volunteers: Mike Poulter (Turpin Miller solicitors), Amarjit Ahluwalia (SCOMO), Kitty Falls (Kitty Falls Immigration Law), Joanna Hunt (Lewis Silkin) and Steve Valdez-Symonds (Amnesty UK).
12. Organisations and individuals who provided statements and other support in this court case:  Baroness Lister, Lord Alton,  Prof. Helen Stalford (Liverpool University Law Clinic), Stuart McDonald MP, Prof. Donald Hirsch (Loughborough University), Henry St Clair Miller (No Recourse to Public Funds Network),  Fiona Carrick-Davies (Surrey Square Primary School), Steve Valdez-Symonds (Amnesty UK), Julian Bild (ATLEU), Sian Pearce (Avon & Bristol Law Centre), Clemence Aymon (RAMFEL), Eve Dickson (Project 17) and Akwaaba, Catherine Theharne-Evans (LB of Hounslow), Katie Fennell (KIND), PRCBC ambassadors, Caz Hattam (Unity Project), PRCBC clients, Solange Valdez-Symonds (PRCBC volunteer director), Dr Bronwen Manby (London School of Economics), Sue Willman (Deighton Pierce Glynn solicitors), Lara ten Caten (Liberty),  Children Human Rights Network at Amnesty International UK, Sayed Ahmed AlWadaei (Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy) and Ian Hollings (Legal Aid Agency), May Bulman (The Independent), Ronan Toal (Garden Court Chambers).

PRCBC Board of Trustees

18/2/2021 and updated on 22 February 2021

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Court of Appeal citizenship fee decision

The Court of Appeal will hand down its judgment in R (PRCBC & O v Secretary of State for the Home Department) on the Home Office fee for children to register as British citizens at 10.30 am on Thursday, 18 February 2021. Further information will be posted here on PRCBC’s website when the judgment is available.

PRCBC Board of Trustees

16/2/2021

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Court of Appeal citizenship fee case

Last week the Court of Appeal heard the challenge of PRCBC & O to the Home Office £1,012 fee for children to register their right to British citizenship. The decision from the court is now pending. Further information will be posted here on PRCBC’s website when it is available. For now, we must await the decision of the court.

12 October 2020

*****

On Tuesday and Wednesday 6-7 October 2020, the Court of Appeal will hear PRCBC & O’s challenge to the Home Office’s “huge” children’s citizenship fee

The hearing will be live streamed broadcast and accessible from the judiciary’s website here:

https://www.judiciary.uk/you-and-the-judiciary/going-to-court/court-of-appeal-home/the-court-of-appeal-civil-division-live-streaming-of-court-hearings/.

The video will also be accessible from the court website after the hearing. The video is only shared with YouTube.

For our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) on case:

For our note on the case : note_fees_litigation_sept_2020Download

1 October 2020

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PRCBC and Amnesty UK joint Briefings to the Lords

Our joint Briefings to the Lords on the Immigration and Social Security Coordination (EU Withdrawal) Bill 2019-2021 concerning children, including children in care, can be found here:

28 September 2020 Briefing

Word Version

Lords_Briefing_Joint AIUK PRCBC_EU Withdrawal_ Bill 2019-2021 

PDF version

July 2020 Briefing

PDF version:

lords_briefing_joint-aiuk-prcbc_eu-withdrawal_-bill-2019-2021-2 (2)

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Waiver of Citizenship Ceremony under special circumstances

Our letter to the immigration minister inviting him to urgently consider using existent power under the British Nationality Act 1981 to waive the need for people to attend a citizenship ceremony during the pandemic.

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Court of Appeal citizenship fee challenge has been listed for a full hearing on 6-7 October 2020

For more information, see our FAQs4 (August 2020):

For our note on court case:

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PRCBC and Amnesty UK joint Briefing to the Lords

Our joint Briefing to the Lords on the Immigration and Social Security Coordination (EU Withdrawal) Bill 2019-2021 concerning children, including children in care, can be found here:

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Court of Appeal grants permission to PRCBC & Ors to appeal in children citizenship fee case

On 12 June 2020, Lord Justice Phillips granted permission to PRCBC to appeal against the decision of the High Court that the Secretary of State’s fee-making powers permit her to charge fees for children to register their statutory rights to British citizenship that are unaffordable or set at above administrative cost. Please find our updated FAQ here:

PDF and word versions:

****PRCBC has moved to its new office ****

We are thrilled to announce that we have moved to our new office at 174 Hammersmith Road, London W6 7JP. We are now regulated by OISC at Level 3 and running our children and young persons citizenship casework services independently.  The Board is grateful to the following organisations and individuals who have advised and assisted in making this possible:

1. Therium Access 
2. Bates Wells
3. Deighton, Pierce and Glynn 
4. Doughty Street Chambers
5. Cardinal Hume Centre
6. LawStop
7. Youthlegal
8. AdviceUK
9. Work.Life Hammersmith 
10. OISC
11. London Legal Support Trust 

20/3/2020

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Supreme Court requires PRCBC, O and A to ask the Court of Appeal to consider lawfulness of Home Office children’s citizenship fees 

The Supreme Court has today refused permission for PRCBC, O and A to appeal by leapfrog against the decision of the High Court that the Secretary of State’s fee-making powers permit her to charge fees for children to register their statutory rights to British citizenship that are unaffordable or set at above administrative cost.

The High Court had granted PRCBC, O and A,  a certificate to apply by leapfrog direct to the Supreme Court because it considered an earlier decision of the Court of Appeal (Williams) had effectively determined the issue but without the advantage of the arguments and evidence presented by PRCBC, particularly without the benefit of the Supreme Court ruling in Unison and arguably wrongly.

The Supreme Court has today decided that the Court of Appeal should first have the opportunity to consider the issue, having regard to Unison; and has made clear that its decision is purely for this reason with no implications as to the strength of the argument.

Accordingly, PRCBC, O and A will be making an application to appeal to the Court of Appeal.

Supreme court order refusing permission March 2020

For our updated Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS):

Word version

FAQ PRCBC_ 18 March 2020

PDF version

FAQ PRCBC_ 18 March 2020

18 March 2020

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PRCBC young people featured in Youth Justice Week 2020 Photography Exhibition

Our young Aminat, Maryan and Linden are featured in this year’s Youth Justice week photography exhibition by the one and only photographer Alice Mutasa.

Date:   24 February- 6 March 2020

Venue: Law Society

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PRCBC has been registered as a charity by the Charities Commission 

The Board of Trustees is hugely grateful to Bateswell for their pro bono advice and assistance in PRCBC’s application to register as a charity with the Charities Commission. PRCBC registration number is 1187681. For more information: https://beta.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regid=1187681&subid=0

Carol Bohmer, Chair of PRCBC, 31/1/2020

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PRCBC High Court challenge on children’s citizenship fee

Video film outside high court, Simon Israel, Channel 4 News: https://www.channel4.com/news/childrens-excessively-high-citizenship-fees-criticised

Good to see Parliament immediately pressing Government on its response to our court case on children’s citizenship fee but sad to see nothing of substance in Ministers’ responses in Commons & Lords: Col 317 (our gratitude to Stuart Mc Donald MP):

http://bit.ly/2ZYsE9s

We are grateful to Lord Alton for putting children’s citizenship fee first thing on Lords’ agenda on Parliament’s return this year. High time that kids’ rights to British citizenship were treated as priority by Ministers & others:

https://lnkd.in/eieXE5z

https://lnkd.in/esbYpCC

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For PRCBC’s Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) on the PRCBC judicial review decision on Home Office fee for children to register as British citizens: 

click here for word version with hyperlinks:

FAQ_PRCBC_ 29 December 2019

Click here for PDF without hyperlinks:

FAQ_PRCBC_ 29 December 2019

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On 19 December 2019, the High Court handed down judgment in PRCBC & Ors v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] EWHC 3536 (Admin). The court found that the Secretary of State had failed to assess and give primary consideration to the best interests of children when setting the fee for children to register as British citizens. It, therefore, held that the Immigration and Nationality (Fees) Regulations 2018, SI 2018/330 (and the previous regulations) were unlawful insofar as these set the citizenship registration fee for children.

The judgment requires the Secretary of State to reconsider the fee having full regard to children’s best interests as a primary consideration in setting it. However, the court has granted the Secretary of State permission to appeal.

PRCBC had also argued that there was no power for the Secretary of State to set the fee at above the cost to the Secretary of State of registering a child’s British citizenship or at a level that was unaffordable to many children entitled to that citizenship. The court ruled that it was bound to reject this argument by reason of an earlier decision of the Court of Appeal (R (Williams) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2017] EWCA Civ 98) but granted a certificate under section 12 of the Administration of Justice Act 1969 for the claimants to apply for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Joint Press release here:

High Court rules Home Office 1000 fee for children to register as British citizens unlawful

Judgement here: https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2019/3536.html

Casenote here: Note_Fees_Litigation_ Oct_ 2019

Briefing on Fees, March 2019 here: Fees_Briefing_Revised_March_2019

Commentary on parliamentary debates on British Nationality Act 1981 here: 

Commentary_ Hansard BNA 1981 _registration_Aug 2018-2

PRCBC Board of trustees are grateful to:

1. Our beneficiaries (children with citizenship rights)
2.  PRCBC Legal Team:  Our solicitors, Maria Patsalos, Lucy Grant and Lydia Boateng (Mishcon de Reya), Richard Drabble QC (Landmark Chambers) and Miranda Butler (Garden Court Chambers).
3. The Legal Team in O: Richard Drabble QC  & Admas Habeslasie (Landmark Chambers), Solange Valdez- Symonds, Neelma Iqbal (Consonant) and clerks at Landmark chambers.
4. The Legal Team in A: Richard Drabble QC, Jason Pobjoy and Isabel Buchanan (Blackstone Chambers), Solange Valdez- Symonds and Neelma Iqbal (Consonant)
5. Campaign Team:  i) Amnesty UK Children Human Rights Network ii) Surrey Square School 3) Amnesty UK.
6. Amnesty UK media Team: Cora Bauer
7. Our Patrons: Baroness Lister and Claude Moraes MEP.
8. Our volunteers: Dirghayu Patel (GT Stewart solicitors), Mike Poulter (Turpin Miller solicitors), Amarjit Ahluwalia, Rebecca Hacker) and Steve Valdez-Symonds (Amnesty UK).
9. Funder of our legal research on children’s citizenship fee and other work: Strategic Litigation Funding (SLF)/ILPA (Trust For London) and Paul Hamlyn Foundation (PHF)
10. Organisations and individuals who provided statements and other support in this court case: Amanda Weston QC (Garden Court chambers), Ronan Toal (Garden Court),  Baroness Lister, Lord Alton,  Prof. Helen Stalford (Liverpool University Law Clinic), Prof. Donald Hirsch (Loughborough University), Henry St Clair Miller (No Recourse to Public Funds Network),  Fiona Carrick-Davies (Surrey Square Primary School), Steve Valdez-Symonds (Amnesty UK), Julian Bild (ATLEU), Sian Pearce (Avon & Bristol Law Centre), Clemence Aymon (RAMFEL), Eve Dickson (Project 17) and Akwaaba, Catherine Theharne-Evans (LB of Hounslow), Katie Fennell (KIND), PRCBC ambassadors, Caz Hattam (Unity Project), PRCBC clients, Solange Valdez-Symonds (PRCBC volunteer director), Shane Enright (Trade Union adviser, Amnesty UK), Alison Jordan (Amnesty UK production executive), Cora Bauer (media at Amnesty UK), Imran Uppal (Digital at Amnesty UK), Dr Bronwen Manby (London School of Economics), Barbara Muldoon (Children’s Law Centre, Northern Ireland), Sue Willman (Deighton Pierce Glynn solicitors), Lara ten Caten (Liberty), Sayed Ahmed AlWadaei (Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy) and Ian Hollings (Legal Aid Agency).

If you wish to make a donation to support PRCBC’s pro bono legal casework for destitute children, please follow this link:

https://donate.kindlink.com/prcbc/2666

Two blogs from Alicia

Alicia, born in the UK and in her 20s, tells her story from discovering she does not have the citizenship of the country in which she was born and grew up (first blog) to overcoming the shock and many barriers and registering her entitlement to British citizenship (second blog).

Alicia’s first blog: British Born and Bred (April 2019)

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/blogs/campaigns/british-born-and-bred

Alicia’s second blog: British Born, Bred, and Registered (November 2019)

British Born, Bred, and Registered v2

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PRCBC and Amnesty submissions to British Future citizenship inquiry

Extract of joint submission:

“We have found there to be a widespread misunderstanding of this area of law on the part of many people – including many lawyers, policy advocates, campaigners and parliamentarians. That misunderstanding has done and continues to do considerable harm to people born and growing up in this country. That harm is done in several ways. Many people are poorly advised and assisted, or otherwise misled, into losing their citizenship rights. Moreover, the practice of, particularly, the Home Office in introducing and maintaining significant barriers that obstruct and deny the citizenship rights of many people has frequently gone unchallenged. It is even wrongly given support in much advocacy relating to citizenship rights.[1] Parliament has acceded to Home Office legislation establishing barriers to citizenship rights without proper scrutiny of the flawed analysis presented by Ministers in seeking to explain or justify that legislation.[2]

[1] Government policy – including in setting fees – wrongly treats the right to register as a British citizen as if an aspect of or akin to the discretionary power to naturalise an adult migrant; and this false conflation is repeatedly relied upon in Ministerial statements seeking to justify above-cost fees charged, including to children born in the UK with statutory entitlements to British citizenship. Yet, many advocates and campaigners similarly conflate these distinct provisions giving false credibility to a policy that does considerable harm to many children deprived of their citizenship rights by a fee of £1,012.

[2] For example, it did so in relation to the introduction of the statutory requirement of good character for registration by the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 as briefly described in our joint submissions to the Joint Committee on Human Rights for its consideration of the British Nationality Act 1981 (Remedial) Order 2019, see: http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/human-rights-committee/draft-british-nationality-act-1981-remedial-order-2019/written/102809.pdf

British Future_joint_submissions to inquiry_Octo 2019

EU Settlement Scheme: Looked-after Children and Care Leavers

Amnesty UK  and PRCBC’s joint letter to the Minister following the debate regarding the continued misunderstanding and oversight of children’s rights to British citizenship, and the particular risk to children and young people in the care system arising from the EU settlement scheme.

This is something on which Amnesty and PRCBC have previously written to the Joint Committee on Human Rights and to the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration.

Joint letter to the Minister (Seema Kennedy MP)

September 2019

R (PRCBC & Ors) v Secretary of State for the Home Department

High court case challenging the fee for children’s registration of British citizenship

PRCBC and two other child claimants (O and A) will be in the High Court on 26-28 November 2019 for a full hearing of our challenge to the £1,012 Home Office fee that is charged to children to register as British citizens. The Home Secretary maintains this fee despite himself describing it as “huge”.  It effectively deprives many children of their right to British citizenship because they and their parent or carer cannot afford it. This includes children in care, stateless children and children who were born in this country and have lived all their lives here. Updates about this litigation will appear in this section of PRCBC’s website.

 Do you have experience of the fee’s impact on children – whether because you have been directly affected or you know through your work of its impact on children? If so, please contact Solange Valdez-Symonds at solange.valdez-symonds@consonant.org.uk  if you would be willing to provide a statement in support of this legal challenge.

1. PRCBC is represented  pro bono by Maria Patsalos (solicitor and partner at Mishcon de Reya), Richard Drabble QC and Miranda Butler (Garden Court Chambers)
2. A is represented by Solange Valdez-Symonds (Solicitor for Consonant), Richard Drabble QC (Landmark Chambers), Jason Pobjoy (Blackstone Chambers) and Isabel Buchanan (Blackstone Chambers).
3. O is represented by Solange Valdez-Symonds (Solicitor for Consonant), Richard Drabble QC and Admas Habteslasie
   (Landmark Chambers)

A note on this litigation here:

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Legal Research on Good Character requirement

4 Apr 2019

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CITIZENSHIP ONLINE APPLICATIONS

10am on 22 March, the Home Office announced by e-mail news alert that all citizenship applications are to be made online from that day.  The Home Office has failed to understand that online applications CANNOT be made mandatory in citizenship applications unless the British Nationality (General) Regulations are amended (s41 BNA 1981). PRCBC has sent a joint letter to the Minister requesting her to take urgent steps to comply with the regulations and correct the announcement. Our joint letter to the Minister: 

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UPDATED LEAFLET for Parents, Children and Carers

“Children and their Rights to British Citizenship “

Here:  CHILDREN AND THEIR RIGHTS TO BRITISH CITIZENSHIP (MARCH 2019)

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BRIEFING ON CITIZENSHIP FEES

PRCBC and Amnesty UK Briefing on Home Office children’s citizenship fee is now updated. This unjust fee is a barrier to thousands of children‘s rights to British citizenship.

Fees_Briefing_Revised_March_2019

25 March 2019

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SURVEY on CHILDREN’S CITIZENSHIP FEES

Are you or do know of a child with a right to register as a British citizen who cannot afford the Home Office registration fee of £1,012? If you do, please complete our survey:

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/citizenfee

20 March 2019

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On 27 November 2018, the High Court granted permission at an oral hearing for PRCBC to challenge the children’s citizenship registration fee.

The High Court is asked by PRCBC to review whether the £1,012 fee imposed on children to register as British citizens – described by the current Home Secretary as “a huge amount of money” – is lawful. The fee bars many children born in the UK, children who have lived here nearly all their lives and children with settled status from citizenship. The Home Office accepts that only £372 of the fee represents the cost of administering registration. The fee applies to all children including those in local authority care, including children living in poverty, the disabled, and the stateless.

Mishcon de Reya are acting pro bono as solicitors, and Amanda Weston QC and Richard Reynolds of Garden Court Chambers are acting pro bono as counsel, for PRCBC.

The challenge

When Parliament passed the British Nationality Act 1981, birth in the UK no longer meant automatic acquisition of British citizenship. Instead the Act provided for those with a “close personal connection” with the UK to acquire citizenship. For example, the Act included an entitlement for children born in the UK to register on reaching 10 years independently of their parents’ status. Parliament recognised that a general discretion for the Home Secretary to register any child as British was also necessary, to ensure citizenship for other children connected to the UK.

The consequences for a child of being unable to register as British are many and potentially severe; and mirror what has recently been exposed as appalling treatment of so many people of the Windrush generation. Without citizenship, a child may be subject to immigration powers, including powers to remove them from the country, or blocked from work, education, health and other services and opportunities available to their British citizen peers. They may also be unable to pass on citizenship to their children meaning the exclusionary impact of the fee extends across generations.

PRCBC in its judicial review, claims that in imposing a profit-making element on children’s citizenship the Home Office has acted unlawfully because it is under a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and to act in children’s best interests unless those interests are clearly outweighed by other serious public interest factors. The Home Office has conducted no assessment of the impact of the fee upon children.

PRCBC’s position is that no child should be required to pay more than the administrative cost to register as a British citizen; no child in local authority care should be required to pay any fee to register; and waivers should be available to any child who cannot afford any fee to ensure it is not a barrier to a child registering as British.

An Early Day Motion on this fee attracted support from all parties with seats in the House of Commons: https://www.parliament.uk/edm/2017-19/1262

Amnesty International UK’s children’s human rights network are campaigning in support of PRCBC’s demands and have launched a petition: https://www.amnesty.org.uk/actions/home-office-stop-profiteering-childrens-rights

Media enquiries:

Cora.bauer@amnesty.org.uk

ExternalAffairsTeam@mishcon.com 

Solange Valdez-Symonds

PRCBC Director

Solange.valdez-symonds@migrants.org.uk

November 2018

House of Lords debate on report of  Select Committee on Citizenship and Civic Engagement on 19 November 2018

Joint PRCBC and Amnesty UK Briefing can be found here:

Civic Engagement Briefing HL Nov 2018

***

Westminster Hall Debate on Children’s Citizenship fees on 4 September 2018

Please see Joint PRCBC and Amnesty UK Briefing here:

Briefing_Westminster_Debate_children citizenship fee

Please see also Steve Valdez-Symonds’ very important commentary on 1981 Parliamentary Debates on British Nationality Bill relating to children’s citizenship rights and fees:

Commentary_ Hansard BNA 1981 _registration_Aug 2018

Please sign Amnesty UK and PRCBC petition here:

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/actions/home-office-stop-profiteering-childrens-rights

See video clip: Home Office: Stop profiteering from Children’s rights:

25 August 2018

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Barbara Harrell-Bond (OBE)

We are deeply saddened to hear of the death of our much respected and admirable patron, Barbara Harrell-Bond OBE.

Barbara was a leading figure in the field of refugee studies. She founded the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford University, the world’s first institution for the study of refugees. It now hosts an annual lecture series in her name.

This extraordinary lady will be hugely missed by all of us.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Harrell-Bond

12 July 2018

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PRCBC issues High Court challenge to children’s citizenship registration fee

On 14 June 2018, PRCBC issued judicial review proceedings in the High Court to challenge this fee. Mishcon de Reya are acting pro bono as solicitors, and Amanda Weston QC and Richard Reynolds of Garden Court Chambers are acting pro bono as counsel, for PRCBC.

PRCBC would like to thank the following for their support and other work on this important matter: Akwaaba, Lord Alton of Liverpool, Amanda Weston QC, Amnesty International UK, Bronwen Munby, Citizens UK, Claude Moraes MEP, European Network on Statelessness (ENS), Free Movement, Just for Kids Law (JFKL), Kids in Need of Defense UK, LegalVoice, Baroness Lister of Burtersett, the Mayor of London, Migrants Resource Centre (MRC), Mishcon de Reya, Paul Hamlyn Foundation (PHF), Richard Reynolds, Strategic Legal Fund (SLF), Stuart McDonald MP, Surrey Square Primary School and our Youth Ambassadors, volunteers, trustees and clients.

Solange Valdez-Symonds

PRCBC Director

Solange.valdez-symonds@migrants.org.uk

4 July 2018

announcement_PRCBC

*********

Children’s Citizenship Fees:

Debate in the House of Lords and Early Day Motion in the House of Commons 

House of Lords

Debate on Immigration and Nationality Fees Regulations 2018 and Children’s citizenship fees on 12 June 2018:

Baroness Lister of Burtersett to move that this House regrets that the Immigration and Nationality (Fees) Regulations 2018 include a £39 increase in the fee for registering children entitled to British citizenship, given that only £372 of the proposed £1,012 fee is attributable to administrative costs; and calls on Her Majesty’s Government to withdraw the fee increase until they have (1) published a children’s best interests impact assessment of the fee level, and (2) established an independent review of fees for registering children as British citizens, in the light of the report of the Select Committee on Citizenship and Civic Engagement (HL Paper 118) (SI 2018/330).

http://lordsbusiness.parliament.uk/ItemOfBusiness?itemOfBusinessId=47813&sectionId=38&businessPaperDate=2018-06-12

Please see Briefing for Peers_JUNE 2018 FINAL

House of Commons 

Early Day motion: 

Please ask your MP to sign EDM 1262:

https://www.parliament.uk/edm/2017-19/1262

Please see Briefing on fees_Parliamentarians_26 April_2018

Please see our joint comprehensive Briefing on Fees:

Fees_Briefing_revised_June_2018

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High Court declines to rule on lawfulness of exorbitant fee preventing many children from claiming their right to British citizenship

Yesterday, the High Court declined to rule on the lawfulness of a near £1,000 fee preventing many children registering the British citizenship to which they are legally entitled.

The fee is a barrier to tens of thousands of children from claiming their citizenship.

The court acknowledged, having received substantial evidence, that thousands of children are affected. However, the judge acceded to the Home Office request that the case should not proceed arguing that it had become ‘academic’ for the individual claimant because after being granted permission to bring the case she had been supported by a donation from the public to pay the fee. The Home Office had then registered her as British.

Solange Valdez-Symonds, Director of the Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens (PRCBC), speaking after the hearing, said:

“This is a body blow to the hopes of children and campaigners that the court would bring to an end the Home Office policy of charging an exorbitant fee – far higher than the actual cost of processing the registration of these children’s citizenship – which prevents many children exercising the right Parliament gave them to be British.

“The prospect that children must continue to rely on the generosity of someone donating the cost of the fee or the hope that they can find a lawyer willing to bring an expensive judicial review challenge is dismal.

“For many neither will be an option, and this scandalously high fee will bar them from the citizenship that is theirs by right leaving them at risk – as was the case for the claimant before these proceedings were brought – of the Home Office seeking to remove them from the country that is their home, where they were born, and where they should be recognised as a citizen.

“Meanwhile, many of these children are also left widely excluded, particularly as they approach adulthood, from such vital things as healthcare, higher educational opportunities and employment.

“PRCBC will not be deterred by this set back. The support, including outside the court, has been hugely encouraging; and I am sure the disappointment of today’s judgment will only be a further spur to action to bring to an end the injustice of this fee and ensure all children entitled to British citizenship can claim it.”

Notes to editors:

1. The claimant’s legal team are: Solange Valdez-Symonds, Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens (solicitor) and Amanda Weston, Garden Court Chambers (barrister).
2. The Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens (PRCBC) was founded by Solange Valdez-Symonds and Carol Bohmer in 2012, and is the leading organisation in the UK dedicated to securing the rights of children to British citizenship through litigation, advocacy and campaigning.
3. Solange Valdez-Symonds is the Children’s Rights Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year 2017. She is a solicitor with eleven years post-qualification experience.
4. Yesterday’s case was brought by permission of the High Court, which accepted that an earlier decision of the Court of Appeal in R (Williams) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2017] EWCA Civ 98 concerning previous legislation in respect of fees was distinguishable. The child’s case was funded by the Legal Aid Agency on the basis that it was a matter of public interest, of importance to many children beyond the individual child. She is still considering next steps, including whether to seek permission to appeal against the judgment.
5. The fee for a child to register her right to British citizenship is £973. The Home Office asserts that £386 of this constitutes the administrative cost of registration.
6. Academic research indicates there are tens of thousands of children in the United Kingdom without, but entitled to, British citizenship. The consequences for these children, increasingly as they near or reach adulthood, can include being unable to access higher education, employment, rented accommodation, a bank account or passport; and action by the Home Office to detain and remove them.

Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens (PRCBC)

24 November 2017

For Amnesty International UK blog and press release:

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/blogs/yes-minister-it-human-rights-issue/uk-government-profits-children-citizenship

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Stateless children born in UK and MK judgment 

Although the MK judgment has not changed the law in relation to paragraph 3 of Schedule 2, British Nationality Act 1981, it should lead to better Home Office de­cisions in relation to registration by entitlement under this provision.

This judgment is also a reminder to prac­titioners to properly evidence rights of registration by ent­itlement.

You might wish to see the ILPA note on MK and/or Lexis­Nexis note (membership/subscription requ­ired):

Note for ILPA (ILPA members only) on a recent High Court jud­gment of MK v  SSHD (evidence and meaning of stateless in re­lation to registration of British citizenship by entitlement of sta­teless children born in the UK):

http://www.ilpa.org.­uk/login.php?redirec­t=%2Fresource%2F3335­9%2Fcasenote-on-r-on­-the-application-of-­mk-a-child-by-her-li­tigation-friend-cae-­v-secretary-of-state­-for%3Faction%3Dreso­urce%26id%3D33359%26­action%3Dresource%26­id%3D33359&status=-4

Note for Lexis Nexis (subscription only) on High Court judgme­nt in MK v SSHD:

https://www.lexisnex­is.com/uk/lexispsl/i­mmigration/document/­412012/5NWJ-78G1-DYW­7-W1T7-00000-00/Stat­elessness_and_the_re­gistration_of_Britis­h_citizenship__R__on­_the_application_of_­MK__v_SSHD_

You might also wish to look at article and blog on this prov­ision:

Stateless children born in the UK:

http://www.legalvoic­e.org.uk/no-state-to­-be-in/

Blog for ENS on stat­eless children born in the UK with an en­titlement to registration:

http://www.statelessness.eu/blog/barriers-citizenship-facing-stateless-children-born-uk

PRCBC experience is that Home Office poor decision making may be compounded by cases being poorly eviden­ced by those seeking to register.

The recent Home Office decision to change all nati­onality instructions into nationality guidance has meant that the new nat­ionality guidance in relation to registration of British citizenship by entitlement of stateless children is less informa­tive than what used to be chapter 15 of the nationality inst­ructions, but in ess­ence nothing has cha­nged in terms of con­tents.

August 2017

*** LEGAL AID LAWYER OF THE YEAR IN THE CHILDREN’S RIGHTS CATEGORY ***

We are honoured that our solicitor/director has been awarded the Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year 2017 in the category of Children’s Rights in recognition of the outstanding work she and her team of volunteers have done for PRCBC.

Photo: Credit to Robert Aberman

Carol Bohmer, Chair of PRCBC

July 2017

Youth Workshop

******** Let’s talk Citizenship ********

Anyone under 24 is welcome to come and learn more about citizenship and why it is important – how it can make a difference to future studies and opportunities! You can be part of an action group sharing this knowledge and raising awareness in the community!

While the workshop will not focus on individual legal advice, all discussions will be confidential.

Our Free workshop will take place in central London on Friday 28^th July 2017, from 10.30-2.30pm.

Reasonable travel expenses may be covered, and lunch & refreshments will be provided during the workshop.

There is limited capacity, please register via Eventbrite.

If you can’t make it, please do send your friend our invite.

15 June 2017

**** TAKE ACTION ****

Use this Briefing on Fees to ask your Member of Parliament to call on the Government to act on our recommendations: 

1. The profit element should be removed from children’s registration fee in all cases, including where their right to register continues into adulthood. Children should not be prevented from registering as British simply because they cannot afford it.
2. Children who cannot afford the fee should be granted a waiver of the entire fee.
3. Where a child is ‘looked after’ by a local authority, there should be a fee exemption. This would prevent the shifting of costs from central to local government.

April 2017

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British Registration Fee increase, 6 April 2017

Government continues to profiteer from young persons right to register as British citizens 

The extortionate Home Office application fee to register as a British citizen has increased to £973 for children, £1,163 for young adults and £1,282 for those young persons applying to naturalise.

There is no fee waiver or reduction on a registration application fee for those young persons who cannot afford to pay this very high fee – not even for the many such young persons who have a right to register by entitlement. There is also no fee exemption for those young persons being looked after by the local authority.  Yet, it costs the Home Office £386 to process a child’s British citizenship application, which means the Home Office is making a profit of £587 on each application (see Unit Cost Table).

Most children unable to register as British citizens because they can’t afford this extortionate fee are children born in the UK or children who have lived in the UK from a very young age.

For further information about British registration fees, see Briefing 2017.

See also article: “Children are being priced out of their rights”

Children are being priced out of their rights

6 April 2017

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“The Local Government Ombudsman has criticised a local authority for not ensuring a child in its care received specialist legal advice and assistance to sort out the child’s right to British citizenship. Having British citizenship has a profound impact on a child’s future and identity. Yet failing to secure a child’s citizenship can lead to that right to citizenship being lost altogether”.

Read our our article for social workers and looked after children here:

SocialWorkArticle_April 2017

*****

Government continues to profiteer from young persons right to register as British citizens 

The extortionate Home Office application fee to register as a British citizen is currently at £936 for children, £1,121 for  young adults and £1,236 for those young persons applying to naturalise.

There is no fee waiver or reduction on a registration application fee for those young persons who cannot afford to pay this very high fee – not even for the many such young persons who have a right to register by entitlement. There is also no fee exemption for those young persons being looked after by the local authority. Yet, it costs the Home Office £272 to process a child’s British citizenship application, which means the Home Office is making a profit of £664 on each application (see Government impact assessment).

Missing from the Government impact assessment is any assessment relating to young people’s right to register – a right given by Parliament under the British Nationality Act 1981.

Most children unable to register as British citizens because they can’t afford this extortionate fee are children born in the UK or children who have lived in the UK from a very young age.

We are grateful to Baroness Lister and Lord Alton’s powerful speech on the exorbitant Home Office’s application registration fee during the Immigration Bill 2015 debate.

12 August 2016

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PRCBC’s Legal Research on “good character” requirement for children’s registration as British citizens

A child applying to register as a British citizen who is aged ten must satisfy the Secretary of State that he is of ‘good character’. This is a mandatory application requirement. There is no legal definition of ‘good character’ and therefore no statutory guidance on its interpretation and how it should be applied. The Secretary of State’s good character guidance for adults’ naturalisation applications is used for children’s registration applications. There is, therefore, no distinction at all on the face of the present policy between the way in which children’s character is assessed and the way in which adults’ character is assessed.

PRCBC is interested in hearing from any young person who has been affected by the good character requirement or anyone working with such persons.

For more information, please see our legal research page:

Legal Research on Good Character requirement

This is a six month research funded by the Strategic Legal Fund (SLF).

23 May 2016

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We are grateful for the amendment to the Immigration Bill 2015 tabled by Baroness Lister.

This particular amendment would mean:

i) a Home Office fee exemption on registration of children as British Citizens who are receiving assistance from the local authority

ii) for any child’s registration as British citizen fee to only include the Home Office cost of processing an application

iii) a fee waiver for a child who cannot afford the registration fee

For Baroness Lister’s amendment, please visit the Bill’s pages on the parliament website:

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/lbill/2015-2016/0096/amend/su096-II-a.htm

Thank you to Amnesty International UK for working jointly with us on this tabled amendment.  Please see below for more information on the current registration fee.

15 March 2016

*******

Monthly Saturday advice/casework surgery

Our March and April monthly Saturday slots are now full. Thank you to Deighton Pierce Glynn solicitors for giving us free office space to run our monthly surgeries and to Asylum Aid for hosting PRCBC.

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Immigration Bill 2015

Lord Alton’s tabled amendment

We are grateful for the amendment to the Immigration Bill 2015 tabled by Lord Alton. This  particular amendment is intended to highlight the situation of young persons who have been in care and are without any status.  Some of these young persons were born in the UK and others have lived here for almost all their lives and could have been registered as British and/or their stay regularised by a grant of leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain.

For Lord Alton’s speech on this probing amendment, please visit parliament website:

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201516/ldhansrd/text/160203-0002.htm#16020378000171

See also the letter of response from Lord Bates:

Click to access Lord_Rosser_letter_re_Lords_Committee_for_Immigration_Bill__3_Feb__.pdf

PRCBC and Amnesty International briefing on looked after children with uncertain immigration status

Thank you to Amnesty International UK for working jointly with us on the attached briefing: Citz Regis Amend v.3

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Local Government Ombudsman (LGO)

In a complaint made against the Royal Borough of Greenwich’s failure to assist a former looked after child to regularise her stay in the UK, the LGO made the following recommendations:

A copy of the full LGO report here.

*****‎

Our response on BIS’s consultation on student loans

We are pleased to have submitted our response to the Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) consultation on extending support to students with long residence in the UK who don’t have settled status. For a copy of our response:

PRCBC%20response%20to%20consultation%208.1.16

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/student-support-for-non-uk-nationals-who-have-lived-in-the-uk-for-a-long-time

8 January 2016

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PRCBC is in need of FREE office space once a month on a Saturday 

We are in need of office space to run our monthly children citizenship advice surgery.

Our main requirement is access to 2-3 interviewing rooms, printing, copying and internet facilities.

If you are able to help, please contact Solange Valdez on 07593 103 706 or by e-mail: prcbc2013@aol.com

Thank you

January 2016

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Monthly Saturday advice surgery on matters relating to children and young person’s registration as British

Our monthly Saturday slots are by appointment only. For more information and a referral form, please contact Solange Valdez by e-mail: prcbc2013@aol.com

*** Our February 2016 Saturday advice surgery is now FULL.

20 January 2016

We are running an e-mail  advice service for  professionals supporting young persons. Please e-mail prcbc2013@aol.com 

8 January  2016

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Bristol University: Registering Children as British Citizenship- Current laws require overhaul
Briefing 17_Child Citizenship

November 2015