This series and post is fiction and is for illustrative and educational purposes only to discuss British nationality laws. Names, characters, storyline, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents is the product of the editor’s imagination . Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Thank you for joining us again with the British Citizenship for Children series. We ended last week’s post meeting Lamai, a sixth form college tutor who gets an email from one of the student’s father distressed as his 18 year-old daughter’s British citizenship application was refused.
Lamai is a Science teacher and has known Angélica since she was in year 7 when she first taught Angélica. Angélica was born in the UK on 02 February 2002 to Colombian parents. At the time of Angélica’s birth, neither of her parents were settled or British therefore Angélica is not British by birth under BNA 1981, s1(1). Angélica is the eldest child for her parents and was very protective of her younger sisters. When Angélica was 9, Angélica’s maternal grandmother was extremely ill back in Columbia therefore her mother went back to Columbia to take care of her.
Angélica’s father worked long hours and depended on Angélica to help look after her younger sisters. At first, Angélica did not mind because she loved her sisters and saw how her father was struggling. Also, Angélica expected her grandmother to get better soon and that her mother would return to the UK. Angélica’s grandmother did not get better and she died two years later when Angélica was 11. Angélica’s mother decided to stay in Columbia to look after her younger brother (Angélica maternal uncle) who was two years older than Angélica as there was no one else who could look after him.
By this time, Angélica had started secondary school. Her father constantly reminded her to keep her head in the books and make sure she behaved at school. One of reasons he repeated this to Angélica was because he did not have time to pick her up from school in the middle of the day if she was misbehaving.
Angélica was in the gifted and talented group at school and was in the top sets for the Maths, English, and Science. Angélica was excellent at Science, especially Physics. However, Angélica soon found out that being intelligent and in the gifted and talent group was not was going to win her much popularity points with her classmates. Angélica was tired of being good and responsible at home and at school. She wanted to be free, popular, and admired and she was not getting that at home or at school.
Angélica stopped attending the weekly gifted and talented sessions after school and instead went to with some of her classmates either to the local park or the local shopping centre. Her father begged Angélica to help with her younger sisters and pick them up from their primary school, which was next door to her secondary school, but she refused. By year 9, she was absent from most of her classes except Science with Mrs Cruz (Lamai). Angélica secretly still loved Science and did not miss a lesson. Angélica maintained averages grades in other subjects but excelled in Science. Angélica started dating a boy who was in year 11 which her father did not like. Angélica’s boyfriend distracted her from focusing on her schoolwork as she began returning home after 11pm on school nights. No-one could get through to Angélica and when she broke up with her boyfriend, things got worst.
One Wednesday night when Angelica was 15 in January 2018, Angélica returned home at 1am. The door was locked from the inside. Angélica’s father was fed up with Angélica’s disrespect toward him and her behaviour so he locked the front door from inside. Angélica banged the door for 10 minutes straight waking up the neighbours. Eventually, Angélica’s father opened the door and said ‘Dejanos en paz, estamos cansados!’ meaning leave us alone, we tired. Angélica’s father and younger sister were tired, tired of being ignore and tired of trying to force Angélica to be a part of the family. However, Angélica’s father was hoping that Angélica would beg for forgiveness and see her ways. But Angélica felt hurt and thought her father really wanted her to leave so she said ‘Bien!’. As Angélica and her father were both proud people so neither of them was ready to express to each how they really felt.
With no where to go, Angélica wandered the streets. A police car slowed down and questioned her as it was late, and she was young. Angélica went to the police station and was met by a social worker who arranged temporary accommodation for Angélica. Angélica’s schoolteachers were informed about about Angélica’s family breakdown and Mrs Cruz (Lamai) knew she had to intervene somehow as Angélica’s was now in year 11. Angélica turned 16 the following month and instead of celebrating with her family, she was alone in her room at her foster home. Angélica’s social worker tried to mediate between Angélica and her father but it just ended up in arguments. Angélica’s mother tried calling Angélica many times but she just ignored her mother’s calls. Angélica’s father did not understand why so many people were now involved in his family’s life- he blamed Angélica. Angélica decided she was running away from her foster home to go somewhere else. She did not know where, but all knew it would far from where she was now. Angélica had no money so she walked to the local coach station on 22 February 2018. Desperate to leave, she asked a few people for money to raise some money for a coach ticket. After two hours, she managed to make £2.37- that was not enough to buy Angélica a happy meal at McDonalds.
Angélica sat at the coach station, staring at her trainers while a couple was running for a coach which was about to drive away. The woman drops her purse but she was running fast with a suitcase in each hand with a handbag on her shoulder. Angélica saw the purse and hesitated to pick it up- she wanted to give it back to the woman, but she also saw the purse knowing there would be enough money to leave town. Desperate to leave town, Angélica quickly picks up the purse and shoves it in her shoulder bag as she saw the couple had missed their coach. Walking out the coach station as quickly as possible without running, Angélica planned to go to the McDonald to search the purse. Before the automatic doors opened for Angélica, she heard ‘Miss’ and stopped. Behind Angélica were two coach station workers. Trying to play it cool, Angélica turned around and said ‘Están bien?’ hoping to scare them off by speaking Spanish. One of the coach workers replied, Habla usted español? Shocked that he spoke Spanish, Angélica confesses she speak English.
The police were called to question Angélica about the purse as the two coach station workers saw Angélica take the woman’s purse. The camera caught Angélica taking the purse and trying to the leave the station. Angélica bursted into tears and admitted to stealing the purse. The purse was returned to the woman however the woman who owned the purse who was more interested in getting another coach as soon possible than what will happen to Angélica. Angélica was taken to the local police station. Angélica’s social worker was called to the police station and had a conversation with the constable. The constable decided due to Angélica’s confession and talking to the Angélica’s social worker, it would be appropriate to give Angélica a youth caution. Angélica left the station with her social worker with tears in her eyes. Angélica did not like where she was at in life but feeling so alone and misunderstood, she felt lost and did not know how to change it.
Knowing Angélica’s brilliant scientific mind, Mrs Cruz wanted to know what was going on with Angélica and requested to see Angélica after class. Angélica explained since her mother left the UK, she has felt lost and although her father is here, he does not seem to understand her. Mrs Cruz explained to Angélica that she is gifted and has got what it takes to have a great career in STEM (Science, Technoloy Enginenering Mathemics) if she wanted. Angélica’s eyes lit up a little as she heard the encouraging words from Mrs Cruz. ‘But you need to work on your Math grades, as they are not good enough for a STEM career’. Although, Angélica still felt a little lost, she had hope and was happy to have the support of Mrs Cruz. Mrs Cruz contacted Angélica’s father and explained that he needs to talk to Angélica before it was too late. Two months, after counselling, Angélica moved back into the family home and focused on revising for her GCSEs exams. Angélica did well in her exams and went on to do A Level Maths, Chemistry and Physics (she is better than me-cause those subjects are no joke!).
Finally, Angélica’s father was granted ILR in 2019 after many years living in the UK. Without legal advice, Angélica’s father decided to register Angélica and her sisters as British citizens under BNA 1981, s1(3) as Angélica and her sister were born in the UK and now Angélica’s father is settled in the UK, there are eligible to register as British citizens while they are under 18. Time was of the essence as Angélica was 17 years old when her father applied on her behalf. He submitted the application on 25 January 2020.
So, when they received the outcome of Angélica’s application that it was unsuccessful on 17 July 2020, Angélica’s father was confused. Angélica was born in the UK and the UK is her home. Angélica’s sisters’ applications was successful. Lamai (Mrs Cruz) knew how important this application meant to Angélica’s and her father. Angélica had planned to apply for an undergraduate engineering course and needed this British citizenship application to be successful.
If Angélica’s father had sought professional immigration advice, he would have been advised about the risk of refusal for applying to register Angelica as a British citizen due to the good character requirement. We briefly looked at the Good character requirement in Week 4.
According to the Home Office Guidance for Children Citizenship applications ‘To be of good character a person should show respect for the rights and freedoms of the United Kingdom, observe its laws and fulfil their rights and duties as a resident of the United Kingdom. Checks will be made on children aged 10 years and over to ensure that this requirement is met’.[1]
Angélica and her friends received a community resolution when she was 15 for anti-social behaviour and Angélica was given a youth caution at 16 for the above offence of theft.
“Youth Cautions are a formal out-of-court disposal that can be used as an alternative to prosecution for young offenders (aged 10 to 17) in certain circumstances. A Youth Caution may be given for any offence where the young offender admits an offence, there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction, but it is not in the public interest to prosecute.”[2]
Youth cautions and community resolution are considered as “out of court disposal[s]’ however community resolutions are not recorded on a person’s criminal record. Although Angélica has changed and is on new path, according the Home Office’s Guidance for Children Citizenship applications and Good Character requirement, “a [British citizenship] application will normally be refused if a non-custodial offence or other out of court disposal that is recorded on a person’s criminal record occurred in the last 3 years of the date of the British citizenship application was received by the Home Office“.[3] Angélica’s youth caution was given on 22 February 2018, which which occurred in the last three years of the date of her application. So, when 3 years passes from 22 February 2018, she will be 19 years old and she will not be eligible to register as a British citizen under BNA 1981, s1(3) however if Angélica has spent the first ten years of her life in the UK, she could explore registering as a British citizen under BNA 1981 s1(4) in which she would be strongly advised to seek professional immigration advice. “Even where a person does not have a caution, warning or reprimand within the last 3 years, an application may still be refused if the person has received multiple disposals of this kind that show a pattern of offending”, therefore fingers cross that Angélica continues on the good path.[4]
Angélica is in the library with her new sixth form college friend, Cherelle trying to distract herself from the bad news of her British citizenship application. Although Cherelle is upset for her friend, she is relieved she was born British but Cherelle was not born in the UK…
Joins us, next week Thursday where we learn more about Cherelle. This concludes British citizenship for children born in the UK.
If you are concern about your immigration matter or your child’s immigration matter, please contact a reputable solicitors’ law firm that specialises in immigration law to find out your options.
Further reading Home Office, Nationality : Good Character requirement version 1.0 (published 14 January 2019)<https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/770960/good-character-guidance.pdf
[1] Home Office, MN1 Registration as a British citizen- A guide about the registration of children under 18 (July 2019)<https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/817215/Guide_MN1-Jul19.pdf>page 16.
[2] Ministry of Justice and Youth Justice Board, Youth Cautions -Guidance for Police and Youth Offending Teams (effective from April 2013)<https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/354050/yjb-youth-cautions-police-YOTs.pdf>page 5.
[3] Home Office, Nationality : Good Character requirement version 1.0 (published 14 January 2019)<https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/770960/good-character-guidance.pdf>page 19
Home Office, MN1 Registration as a British citizen- A guide about the registration of children under 18 (July 2019)<https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/817215/Guide_MN1-Jul19.pdf>page Page17.
[4] Home Office, Nationality : Good Character requirement version 1.0 (published 14 January 2019)<https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/770960/good-character-guidance.pdf>page 19
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