The Government published an Immigration White Paper (CP 1326) in May 2025. Among its many proposals is an intention to extend from 5 to 10 years the period of lawful residence required of many people before they may become settled (paragraph 264). PRCBC has significant concerns about this proposal. It would affect children born in the UK to people whose settlement would be delayed. It would mean many more children are born without British citizenship and requiring to be registered as citizens during their childhood. It would also delay the point at which many children who require to be registered are first able to be so.
The White Paper does not reveal if any assessment of the impact of this proposal on children’s best interests. If implemented, it would increase the impact of the failure over many decades to ensure general understanding of children’s rights to British citizenship, including by registration, and their importance. PRCBC will raise concerns about the impact of the proposal to extend routes to settlement.
The White Paper also includes proposals to reduce financial barriers for young adults who have lived in the UK through their childhood “from accessing British nationality” (paragraph 271); and to ensure children, who have lived in the UK for some time who discover they are without status, are “fully supported and able to regularise their status and settle” (paragraph 267). While these proposals have potential to support young people, the lack of detail indicates a risk that rights to British citizenship may again be misunderstood and wrongly overshadowed in the development of immigration policy. PRCBC will seek to ensure that young people’s citizenship rights are neither forgotten nor once more undermined by immigration policy.
Solange Valdez-Symonds, June 2025