Re: UK Citizenship (Naturalisation) Refused 8th January 2016

[GabiB]

Hello,

I have applied for naturalisation on 20/02/2016 and I have been rejected. I am EEA national, obtained Assession Worker card in 10/12/2009 as highly skilled and later on a Blue Registration Certificate in 01/2011. I have applied for Document Certifying Permanet Residence in 12/2015 (after 6 years) and once issued I have applied for naturalisation.
On the decision letter is stated that my application has been rejected because I was not issued Permanent Residence until 10/02/2016 and I do not meet the requirements for naturalisation as pe Paragraph 3(d) of the leaflet. The letter also says that any other applications I will make in regards of naturalisation will be refused until 02/2017. I have check the guidelines so many times... On the guidelines is very clear that as a EEA national, I am granted permanent residence status automatically after exercising EEA free movement rights for a period of 5 years and I need to be permanent resident for at least 12 months before applying for naturalisation. Therefore, 5 years of continuous legal employment (free movement rights) date was on 10/12/2014 and according to the guidelines I was eligible to apply for naturalisation on 10/12/2015. The date on the document certifying permanent residence is 02/2016 but from my understanding that is not the date I have been granted the permanent residence status, that is the date the document has been issued.
Also, European Economic Area (EEA) and Swiss nationals- free movement rights v14.0 Published for Home Office staff on 12 November 2015 clearly states that : 'An EEA national is automatically entitled to live permanently in the UK once they have lived here continuously for a period of 5 years in line with the current or previous EEA laws. Although it is not compulsory, those who qualify can apply for a document certifying permanent residence '.
Why was my application rejected?

Another issue is the appeal. As I believe that the case worker has not followed the guidelines, I can make an appeal using the Form NR - Reconsideration of decisions to refuse British citizenship. This means to pay another fee of 272£ and send again all the evidence. If the UK Visa case worker did not follow the guidelines and I assume the law, why should I have to pay this fee?
Not to mention that the fee I have payed already will not be refunded.
At this point I am thinking to get an emigration solicitor and take them to court.

I would realy appreciate some advice.

Thank you very much.

GabiB

[LilyLalilu]

Probably best to open your own thread, you will certainly get more replies.
Anyways, did you check which PR date they had recorded for you in their Caseworker Information Database (CID) by doing a SAR or did the NCS check the date for you if you applied via them?

[GabiB]

Hi,

I did not check CID, I do not know how to check that. However, why would they give me another PR date?
I applied directly, did not go to the council.
I have opened a new thread.
Thank you very much.

[GabiB]

Hello,

I have applied for naturalisation on 20/02/2016 and I have been rejected. I am EEA national, obtained Assession Worker card in 10/12/2009 as highly skilled and later on a Blue Registration Certificate in 01/2011. I have applied for Document Certifying Permanet Residence in 12/2015 (after 6 years) and once issued I have applied for naturalisation.
On the decision letter is stated that my application has been rejected because I was not issued Permanent Residence until 10/02/2016 and I do not meet the requirements for naturalisation as pe Paragraph 3(d) of the leaflet. The letter also says that any other applications I will make in regards of naturalisation will be refused until 02/2017. I have check the guidelines so many times... On the guidelines is very clear that as a EEA national, I am granted permanent residence status automatically after exercising EEA free movement rights for a period of 5 years and I need to be permanent resident for at least 12 months before applying for naturalisation. Therefore, 5 years of continuous legal employment (free movement rights) date was on 10/12/2014 and according to the guidelines I was eligible to apply for naturalisation on 10/12/2015. The date on the document certifying permanent residence is 02/2016 but from my understanding that is not the date I have been granted the permanent residence status, that is the date the document has been issued.
Also, European Economic Area (EEA) and Swiss nationals- free movement rights v14.0 Published for Home Office staff on 12 November 2015 clearly states that : 'An EEA national is automatically entitled to live permanently in the UK once they have lived here continuously for a period of 5 years in line with the current or previous EEA laws. Although it is not compulsory, those who qualify can apply for a document certifying permanent residence '.
Why was my application rejected?

Another issue is the appeal. As I believe that the case worker has not followed the guidelines, I can make an appeal using the Form NR - Reconsideration of decisions to refuse British citizenship. This means to pay another fee of 272£ and send again all the evidence. If the UK Visa case worker did not follow the guidelines and I assume the law, why should I have to pay this fee?
Not to mention that the fee I have payed already will not be refunded.
At this point I am thinking to get an emigration solicitor and take them to court.

I would realy appreciate some advice.

Thank you very much.

GabiB

[ohara]

On the guidelines is very clear that as a EEA national, I am granted permanent residence status automatically after exercising EEA free movement rights for a period of 5 years and I need to be permanent resident for at least 12 months before applying for naturalisation. Therefore, 5 years of continuous legal employment (free movement rights) date was on 10/12/2014 and according to the guidelines I was eligible to apply for naturalisation on 10/12/2015. The date on the document certifying permanent residence is 02/2016 but from my understanding that is not the date I have been granted the permanent residence status, that is the date the document has been issued.

You are correct here. If HO have cocked up and refused your application because the caseworker does not understand that the document issue date is NOT the PR date, someone seriously needs to be kicked.

The issue at hand right now is to find out the date HO have actually recorded for you acquiring PR. This will be recorded in their computer system, but unfortunately it is not easy for you to find out. You could telephone them and ask, giving them the UKF number from the DCPR, but they might not tell you.

Personally I checked this before applying for naturalisation, by doing a Subject Access Request to UKVI. When I eventually got the bundle of paperwork, one of the sheets looked like this:

So you can clearly see my PR date there. The document issue date on my DCPR is 22/01/16, and if they refuse my application because of this same mistake I am going to be very upset.

The downside of doing an SAR is that they have up to 40 working days to respond. Mine took 5 weeks. Personally I believe if they have made this mistake with your application, you should not have to pay the reconsideration fee for them to look at it again. Once you can find out your PR date, and if it is over 12 months ago, you could look at getting your MP involved.

By the way, if you had applied through NCS, they would have checked your PR date at the appointment.

[GabiB]

I did not apply via council as I was not aware you can do that so I have applied directly.

As I received the refusal letter only yesterday, I will contact them tomorrow morning. However, why would they change my PR date, I clearly gave them the letter of approval from Home Office dated 11/2009 base on which I have applied for Accession Worker Card, letter from HO confirming the issue date of the Accession Card, sent the Blue Registration Certificate and the letter attached to it, gave them proof of address since 12/2009, P60 for each year and letter from my employer with dates of employment.
How could I possibly know that they can change the PR date as they please?

Thank you

[LilyLalilu]

They shouldn't give you another date, but knowing the HO, they may have mistakenly entered the wrong date.
I think you should definitely go down the reconsideration route if you have grounds (which you should have if you supplied evidence with your PR application which demonstrated that you acquired PR status in 12/2014).
Send in as much evidence as you have of having acquired PR status in 12/2014, give them the reference no from your PR document and ask them to re-check their files.
Not sure how it works now that the reconsideration fee has been increased, maybe double-check whether you'd get this money back if your reconsideration is successful. Good luck.

[ohara]

I don't know what you're talking about with them changing the date. The problem might be that they have recorded it wrong in the first place.

[GabiB]

That's what I think too. I will call them tomorrow to get advice as I believe this is really wrong.

[ohara]

The caseworker guidance specifically states that the document issue date is not indicative of the date PR was automatically acquired and that caseworker should always check CID (caseworker information database) to find out the actual PR date.

It's extremely worrying if they have in fact made the mistake of interpreting the document issue date as the PR date.

[LilyLalilu]

There was another member of the forum recently who did a SAR and reported that the HO mistakenly recorded their PR date as the issue date of the PR doc in the CID...so that may have happened to you as well, so annoying. Or maybe the nationality caseworker failed to follow the guidance correctly...

[GabiB]

That is exactly what I am saying. I am not sure if they actually made a mistake or he did it on purpose. You would think they have enough experience not to make this sort of mistake. Or they have changed the date of my PR on CID.
I will call tomorrow morning to find out. I am reluctant to fill in NR form to appeal as is 272£ and if they have made a mistake don't know if I get the money back.

[noajthan]

I did not apply via council as I was not aware you can do that so I have applied directly.

As I received the refusal letter only yesterday, I will contact them tomorrow morning. However, why would they change my PR date, I clearly gave them the letter of approval from Home Office dated 11/2009 base on which I have applied for Accession Worker Card, letter from HO confirming the issue date of the Accession Card, sent the Blue Registration Certificate and the letter attached to it, gave them proof of address since 12/2009, P60 for each year and letter from my employer with dates of employment.
How could I possibly know that they can change the PR date as they please?

Thank you

The difficulty is likely to be at least partly due to poorly-paid and over-worked admin clerks struggling with an ill-thought out and poorly introduced rule change.

If you have had no dealings with HO during 2014 how would they even know you had acquired PR sometime in 2014.

If your only contact with HO has been in connection with your PR card and naturalisation applications then its easy to imagine the date of your PR acquisition being keyed in at time of that contact;
I.e. rather than recording the real date you actually acquired PR (back in 2014) someone in the bowels of the HO has goofed up and keyed in the date they processed the paperwork (or maybe their CID system defaults to such a date automatically - who knows).

This is not to excuse the mistake, just a possible scenario to explain it.

Unfortunately HO may be unlikely to waive the rules if you attempt to correct this blatant error (on part of HO) by not going down the reconsideration route.

The guidance is clear - there is a fee to be paid to apply for reconsideration in circumstances where you believe immigration rules or policies weren’t followed correctly when the decision was made.

Best of British luck.

[GabiB]

Thank you very much for your advice.
I will apply for reconsideration and I will send al the evidence all over again. Also, I will make a complaint about this situation once I will know what happened. They should take responsibility for the mistakes they are making, especially on our expense.

[noajthan]

Thank you very much for your advice.
I will apply for reconsideration and I will send al the evidence all over again. Also, I will make a complaint about this situation once I will know what happened. They should take responsibility for the mistakes they are making, especially on our expense.

I'm sure you must be wondering by now what has happened to the famous British sense of fair play. This most unfortunate event seems patently unfair.

If you had applied via NCS and this had been flagged up by their routine checks (as other members have reported NCS now do for PR dates) you would only have risked (or spent) the NCS fee instead of the full application fee.
But no use crying over spilt milk.

Not sure you can address the question of the reconsideration fee; if you don't pay I suspect you won't get a hearing.
It is ofcourse less than the cost of a fresh application; (no consolation I know).

You may be pleasantly surprised and receive the reconsideration fee back due to such an obvious mistake - but I just don't know;
I don't recall such a thing happening for other members reporting in the forum so don't hold your breath.

You could see if your MP can possibly help out in this case.

Good luck.

[GabiB]

I can tell you one thing for sure : I have lost faith...
Thank you very much for your support, I really appreciate your advice.

[LilyLalilu]

HO could make their own lives easier and avoid such detrimental errors in the future by simply recording the date PR status was acquired on the DCPR. They should have changed the design of the document along with the rules, but as said many times before, this rule change was poorly thought through

[noajthan]

HO could make their own lives easier and avoid such detrimental errors in the future by simply recording the date PR status was acquired on the DCPR. They should have changed the design of the document along with the rules, but as said many times before, this rule change was poorly thought through

I suspect the PR card design is mandated by EU.

As UK has unilaterally imposed this somewhat controversial requirement to possess what is merely a confirmatory document in order to shoot for citizenship, they can't actually mess about with the underlying design of the PR card.
Which has led to this other fine mess.

[ohara]

this rule change was poorly thought through

I think that's too generous. It would be more appropriate to say that it wasn't thought through at all.

Understandable that the design may be mandated by the EU however my DCPR arrived with two letters, each of which could have easily contained a single line stating the date they have assessed for my PR.

As seen in this image, HO clearly holds this information and I don't see any reason why that line cannot be copy and pasted into some correspondence with the applicant.

[LilyLalilu]

I don't see any reason why that line cannot be copy and pasted into some correspondence with the applicant.

Exactly!

What is most bothersome is that there is no guidance at all on how to change an incorrectly recorded PR date, as I'm sure with how overworked the caseworkers must be, there will be many errors in the future...oh well, gotta love the HO

[Wise]

This is a straight forward decision. HO doesn't want anyone to apply for Naturalisation without having PR so that application fee will be paid and regardless of how long you have acquired it without comfirmation of it, it will always carry date of issue.

Reconsideration is a waste of money as you will all agree with me Naturalisation is not by right.

Good luck.

[noajthan]

... regardless of how long you have acquired it without comfirmation of it, it will always carry date of issue.

Reconsideration is a waste of money as you will all agree with me Naturalisation is not by right.

Good luck.

The question is not about date of issue of a card; its about date of acquisition of underlying PR status and freedom from immigration time restrictions. That can be proven by OP's evidence.

HO has made a clear procedural error in this case & reconsideration is the appropriate and official (if costly) way to deal with it

[ZaraK]

Hello,

On the guidelines is very clear that as a EEA national, I am granted permanent residence status automatically after exercising EEA free movement rights for a period of 5 years and I need to be permanent resident for at least 12 months before applying for naturalisation.

Unfortunately they are right that they refuse. If you decided to apply for British Citizenship you should read carefully on gov.uk what you must do on a British Citizenship page - do not read anything about your PR just about how to get Citizenship. And there is very clear:

You can apply for British citizenship by naturalisation if:
- you’re 18 or over
- you’re of good character, eg you don’t have a serious or recent criminal record, and you haven’t tried to deceive the Home Office or been involved in immigration offences in the last 10 years
- you’ll continue to live in the UK
- you’ve met the knowledge of English and life in the UK requirements
- you meet the residency requirement

And you must usually have:
- lived in the UK for at least the 5 years before the date of your application
- spent no more than 450 days outside the UK during those 5 years
- spent no more than 90 days outside the UK in the last 12 months
- been granted indefinite leave to stay in the UK (this means there’s no specific date that you have to leave) or permanent residence if you’re an EEA national (and you have a permanent residence card or document that shows you have permanent residence)
- had indefinite leave to stay in the UK for the last 12 months (or permanent residence if you’re an EEA national with a permanent residence card or document that shows you have permanent residence)
- not broken any immigration laws while in the UK


So it really doesn't matter how long 10, 15 years you are here. Before you will apply for Citizenship you MUST apply for PR - and get in your hand blue card - and when you will get card you need to wait 12 months to apply for Citizenship, so you need to be PR blue card holder for 12 month before apply for Citizenship. If you are here so long time like 10 years - sorry but you could apply for PR straight after 5 years. I know that you could get right to PR automatically after 5 yrs but always remember - document in your hand is much much more than some virtual promise and now you can see that.

[noajthan]

@ZaraK, kindly refrain from posting misleading and incorrect 'information'.

Suggest go and read rest of posts in forum on this vital matter.

HO have made a monumental pigs ear of rolling their recent change out, including confusing and contradictory documentation, training and guidance.

What is critical for the privilege of citizenship is to be free from immigration time restrictions.
This can be achieved by acquiring PR.

If it is 'historical PR' (as in this case), there is no need whatsoever to possess a confirmatory PR card for 12 months on top.

That is the kind of basic schoolboy error that poorly-trained caseworkers and badly-briefed advisors can & do make, but well-read members of the forum should have 'got it' by now.

[ZaraK]

@ZaraK, kindly refrain from posting misleading and incorrect 'information'.

Suggest go and read rest of posts in forum on this vital matter.

OK sorry for that, now I know that I was wrong but the British Citizenship statement on gov.uk clearly say that. As you see even UKVI and NCS advised that. This is from ECS website:

Over the last few months, many of our clients were advised by the UKVI’s helpline and some of the Nationality Checking Centres that they would have to wait 12 months from obtaining their PR card before being able to file for naturalisation. The rational being that the PR card would in essence recognise their permanent residence only from the date of the card’s issuance rather than from the date they became permanent resident automatically by operation of EU law.

For instance, a Spanish national working in the UK since 2000 but issued with a PR card in 2015 would have to wait until 2016 to qualify for British Citizenship.

This interpretation of the regulations seemed to be at odds with EU Free movement law and needed to be clarified.

Following a recent FOI request the nationality policy team have now confirmed that permanent residence is acquired following 5 years of residence in accordance with the EEA Regulations and not on the date the residence card is issued. The date an applicant is deemed to have acquired permanent residence is recorded on the UKVI’s database and will be noted by the caseworker processing the naturalisation application. It would appear that this information has yet to filter down to the army of staff dealing with ad-hoc enquiries.

Once again sorry for that.