
Dutch woman with two British children told to leave UK after 24 years - pierre-renaux
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/dec/28/dutch-woman-with-two-british-children-told-to-leave-uk-after-24-years
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rblatz
So the real issue here is that U.K./EU marriages do not give a right to
British citizenship. Additionally she did not provide her original passport
during the application, that is why she was denied. It also sounds like since
then they've changed requirements to make it unnecessary to be with out your
passport for 4-6 months.

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blibble
> So the real issue here is that U.K./EU marriages do not give a right to
> British citizenship

yep, and it's likely this situation will change as a result of the brexit
negotiations, at the very least to match that of a British citizen marrying a
non EU-citizen

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gaius
Tl;dr woman fails to complete paperwork correctly and gets form letter in
response.

This article is pure clickbait.

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misja111
No you didn't properly read the article:

".. the application form included a box for reasons for not including a valid
passport as long as it was due to circumstances beyond your control."

And:

"Hawkins points out that she included a solicitor-approved photocopy of her
passport plus a covering letter to explain why she could not be without her
passport for the four to six months it takes to process."

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mcguire
As a general tip, "I want to travel in the meantime" isn't a valid reason to
withhold your passport when applying for residency. And having your mother or
your lawyer sign a note doesn't carry much weight.

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cup
This happens every day in the UK and other countries. I can't help but feel
cynical that It's only news worthy this time because the individuals are
caucasian. Immigration laws are extremely rigid and usually only the wealthy
or socially palatable can navigate them with ease.

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manarth

      This happens every day in the UK and other countries
    

I agree that there are countless examples of people deserving of citizenship
(through marriage, children, etc) who are denied by bureaucratic rules, and
are often separated from their family as a result (or the entire family has to
move).

This one's slightly odder though: someone who (being Dutch) already has the
right to live and work visa-free in the UK, is being instructed _to leave_.

Given the information in the article (and assuming it's correct), there's no
legal justification for that.

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cup
Shes not being asked to leave, only being asked to make preparations.

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waqf
You're not British, are you?

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mcguire
As a non Briton and non-EUer, I have limited sympathy for this woman.

" _Hawkins said the Home Office had overlooked vital information in her
submission – she was unable to supply an original of her Dutch passport
because her father had recently died and she needed her passport to continue
to travel to the Netherlands to support her mother._ "

British immigration policies have spent the last decades assuming EU residents
are to be treated as UK residents. The article admits this by saying, " _It is
important to realise that in applying for permanent residency I am not gaining
a right, I am only getting a document stating a right I already have._ "

So what she has done is to enter the process that is applied to all of the
rest of us, while expecting it to recognize her special status. And no,
"because I want to travel back home" is not a valid reason for withholding
your passport from a residency application.

Over my career as mostly a contractor, I have frequently worked for companies
who took some pains to ensure I knew I wasn't a real person, because back in
the 90s some contractors sued IBM to get real employee benefits.

This woman needs to sit quietly and wait for UK immigration policies to catch
up to the new situation, which will likely require legislative work to decide
which classes of EU residents can transition immediately to UK residency. And
that will happen, because there are thousands of people in the same situation.

