UK Immigration Requirements for British Citizens
April 12th, 2006After reading/writing posts on Blogdial about the linking of ID card uptake to passport applications as part of the government’s ‘volutary’ introduction of the NIR, http://irdial.com/blogdial/?p=108 and following, the following thoughts sprang immediately to mind:If I refuse an ID card, I will be unable to get a passport.
If I cannot get a passport, I am for all intents and purposes interned in my own country.
My government cannot deny my travel and/or entry and exit to my own country.
Therefore it follows: passports must not be required for a British citizen to transit UK borders.
Could this last part be true? I had no idea.
So I wrote to Charles Clarke (clarkec@parliament.uk). I have yet to receive a response.
I wrote to the Home Office general enquiries address. I have yet to receive a response.
I wrote to my MP, Hugh Bayley, who is one of the least rebellious members of the Labour party and has consistently voted in favour of the introduction of ID cards.
He is a typical, spineless, mindless, gimp of a career politician.
I wrote to him and he failed to answer my questions. I am a constituent of his. He works for me. I remind him of this fact. It is something to remember. They work for you.
I wrote to the UK Passport Service and asked them what exactly are “the legal requirements for a UK citizen entering and leaving the UK of their own free will.”
They replied:
A person who is a British citizen is not subject to immigration control and is free to enter or leave the United Kingdom without restriction. A British citizen who travels on a passport issued by another country will need to apply for a Certificate of Entitlement to the Right of Abode to be endorsed in his passport to confirm he has unrestricted entry to this country.
I was stunned! What did this mean? As a lay reader I immediately thought, there is NO requirement for a passport! I can come and go as I please!
And if I decide to use a second passport, perhaps Irish, or Canadian, or one obtained as outlined at sites such as http://www.escapeartist.com/passports/passports.htm all I need is a stamp showing I have the Certificate of Entitlement to the Right of Abode. Then I’d be free from having to ever enter the NIR. Right?
Well, obviously I can’t be right. There must be some legal requirements stipulated? Some guidelines as to how I prove I am a British citizen? And the CoERA… will application for this stamp be subject to NIR enrolement?
First, on the requirements, all I can find is actually on the CoERA page…
2. THE RIGHT OF ABODE 2.1 If you have the right of abode in the United Kingdom, this means that you are entirely free from United Kingdom immigration control. You do not need to obtain the permission of an immigration officer to enter the United Kingdom, and you may live and work here without restriction. 2.2 However, you must prove your claim by production of either: a) a passport describing you as a British citizen or as a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies having the right of abode in the United Kingdom; or b) a certificate of entitlement to the right of abode in the United Kingdom issued by or on behalf of the Government of the United Kingdom.
So a UK passport may be required, although the expiry date remains in question: why should a passport allow free travel one day, and not the next, due to an arbitrary 10-year limit? Is even an expired passport proof of British citizenship?
Are other documents also valid? A birth certificate, for example, which is required in order to get a passport! It seems that I would have to wade through: “The law covering the right of abode in the United Kingdom is contained in the Immigration Act 1971, the British Nationality Act 1981 and the regulations made under them.” in order to find the details. But I would like it stated in clear, factual, lay terms by the UKPS or the Home Office, if possible. As for the CoERA stamp, the application at present seems to be postal only. No interview, no data-rape.
To summarise the current situation: I remain confused as to the exact requirements outlined in my communication with UKPS and on their webiste. I have therefore asked for clarification on exactly what this (a British citizen is not subject to immigration control and is free to enter or leave the United Kingdom without restriction) means in practical and legal terms.
The answers to these questions must be found. If you can help, get in touch. If you know the current legal status, get in touch. If you want to prevent the government from closing every loophole and interning British citizens for want of a ‘voluntary’ NIR entry, help us to know the facts as they stand, so that we may exploit this loophole and disempower the NIR.
April 12th, 2006 at 12:52 pm
So, let me get this straight.
You do not want to renew your passport in order to avoid being entered into the NIR, or you want to go on holiday for the first time, and need a new passport in order to enter another country, and therefore do not want to apply for a new passport to avoid the NIR.
As a British citizen, you do not need a passport to leave the UK, but you will have to prove that you have the right to live in the UK upon your return. You can do this by getting the certificate mentioned above.
This certificate needs to be stuck into a passport, so you have to get a passport to hold this certificate.
This means you have to get a second passport is you don’t already have one. This is very doable, and you should charge the expense of donig this to HMG in whatever way you see fit, since they are making you do this to protect your identity.
This looks to me to be the first really viable way to get around ‘The Passport Problem’, brought to you by the one, the only A. Kirby!!!
April 12th, 2006 at 4:22 pm
This throws up some questions:
Will the certificate itself be NIRfiD-cated? It being a sticker in a passport is a UK decision, this can be changed unilaterally.
It looks as though the Home Secretary can set a time limit/revoke these certificates, for our purposes this can be undone by border hopping, but how short a period can the Home Secretary grant? How long would it take to renew?
Will you still need an NIR entry/card to access public and financial services?
April 12th, 2006 at 5:08 pm
Will the certificate itself be NIRfiD-cated?
at present it is not; you just pay and get it.
It being a sticker in a passport is a UK decision, this can be changed unilaterally.
All government docs have this property. It is something that has to be fixed in the future.
It looks as though the Home Secretary can set a time limit/revoke these certificates, for our purposes this can be undone by border hopping, but how short a period can the Home Secretary grant? How long would it take to renew?
Good question…
Will you still need an NIR entry/card to access public and financial services?
Thats a separate issue, one for way way down the line, and will only be addressable should the NIR survive.
April 13th, 2006 at 9:13 am
A good night’s sleep has made me think as you aren’t necessarily changing your British citizenship by getting second passport you’d only need one of these certificates to get through immigration, then you’d be able to revert to being a British person without a passport – so the expiry time doesn’t matter, just the time it takes to apply/renew.
The main problem would be if certificates can be revoked and replaced by an NIR’d card.
April 13th, 2006 at 10:27 am
On the IND website, the current processing time for CoERA stamp is given at 3 weeks. However, as we have recently seen changes in the permitted renewal/extension time of passports following the progress of the NIR bill, I strongly suspect that these loopholes will be closed.
In the ID cards bill, I don’t know whether CoERA renewal/application was covered in the NIR registration requirement. But since this government will be able to chgange laws without recourse to Parliament, I imagine it soon will be.
It is up to people to police the rights-stealers and make the public aware of what is being done behind their backs. Actually, in front of their eyes.
April 13th, 2006 at 11:36 am
It needs to be repeated also, that if you already have a british passport, you can leave the country even if it is expired, and then re-enter the uk using your expired passport to prove that you are indeed british. Your nationality does not expire just because your passport does.
This certificate is for people who do not have a previous passport, and who want to prove that they are british when they return to the country. There is no need for you to posess a british passport to leave the uk.
Of interest: I took a look at passportless travel to find places where you can go without having a passport for ingress, and found this entry in Wikipedia on Shengen and Shengen 2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Information_System.
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