PRCBC 10th anniversary, 22 November 2022
Our Founders
 Solange Valdez-Symonds | Solange is PRCBC’s supervising solicitor and CEO. She is 16 years PQE and has over 20 years experience in nationality and immigration law. Solange is a Law Society Level 3 Advanced Accredited Immigration Supervisor. She delivers training for PRCBC and other umbrella and community organisations. Solange specialises in and is heavily committed to nationality law. She does external policy and strategic work for young persons to confirm or register their rights to British Citizenship. In 2014, Solange was shortlisted Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year in the immigration category. Solange is the 2017 Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year in the Children’s Rights category. Solange contributed to “Citizenship in Times of Turmoil?” (Theory, practice and policy). She is also co-author of articles in legal journal: Reasserting Rights to British Citizenship. Higher Court cases where Solange has acted as instructing solicitor include: i) AR v SSHD The High Court will consider as follows: · 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; · The meaning of ‘settled’ for the purposes of the British Nationality Act 1981 in relation to a parent exercising Treaty rights in the UK; and · 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. Our practitioners note HERE ii) PRCBC & O v SSHD Lawfulness of Home Office’s fees to register children as British citizens. High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court judgments. See our Note for practitioners on Children’s Citizenship Fees and judgments (June 2022) HERE iii) Ojeh v SSHD Lawfulness of Home Office practice on registration of children as British citizens by discretion (section 3(1) of the British Nationality Act 1981) and related Home Office guidance. This and four other claims were settled leading to the Secretary of State amending Home Office guidance on registering children as British citizens. See our note for practitioners HERE iv) OGA v SSHD (CO/1734/2017): Challenge to the exclusion from the domestic violence rules in Appendix FM of partners of persons settled in the UK under rules relating to Tier 1 Migrants. v) Carlos Cyrus v SSHD [2016] EWHC 918 (Admin): Restoration of ILR pending human rights appeal against deportation. vi) BE (litigation friend) v SSHD [2015] EWHC 905 (Admin): Unlawful decision to refuse registration of a child as a British citizen. vii) “T” v SSHD [2014] EWHC 2453 (Admin): Destitute Domestic Violence Concession and ILR under the Domestic Violence provisions in relation to post-flight spouses of refugees. viii) Agyeikum v SSHD [2013] EWHC 1828 (Admin): Fresh claims, mental health and unlawful detention. ix) JB (Jamaica) v SSHD [2013] EWCA Civ 666: Unlawful detention under the Detained Fast Track (DFT) and whether treating Jamaica as a safe country under section 94 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 was lawful given risk of persecution of LGBT people in Jamaica. The latter issue was decided by the Supreme Court. x) BN v SSHD [2011] EWHC 2367 (Admin): Securing the return to the UK of a mother separated from her children by her unlawful removal while her fresh claim remained pending. xi) Ali v SSHD [2007] EWHC 1983 (Admin): Concerning the Secretary of State’s discretion to register children as British citizens under section 3(1) of the British Nationality Act 1981. |
 | Carol Bohmer is PRCBC’s co-founder. She has been involved in PRCBC since its inception in late 2012. She is a lawyer and sociologist with many years of academic and practical experience in the field of immigration. She has taught at Cornell, Rutgers, Georgetown and McGill Law Schools, Dartmouth College, University of Lund in Sweden and King’s College, London. She has done pro bono legal and counselling work in the USA and the UK in asylum and immigration. |
