LS Legal Solicitors

Significant Supreme Court change regarding deprivation of British citizenship

Thursday 28th December 2017

The Supreme Court made a decision on 21 December 2017 in the cases of R (Hysaj and others) v Secretary of State for the Home Department and Bakijasi v Secretary of State for the Home Department that is a good news for people who have had their British citizenship taken away because it was obtained under false pretences.

Briefly summarising the facts of Hysaj, the appellants claimed asylum with false identities, were granted indefinite leave to remain - and subsequently naturalisation - using those false identities. In Bakijasi the appellant was granted citizenship after an application where he provided a false name, false date of birth, a false nationality and a false place of birth. When the Home Office found out about the deception they decided that the grants of citizenship were a nullity. The appellants were not and had never been British citizens, although they continued to have indefinite leave to remain.

The previous law provided that where an applicant has made an application on the basis of a false identity, the citizenship should be nullified, that is recognising that a person in question has never had it. In this instance, the children of Mr Hysaj and Mr Bakijasi would have had their British citizenships nullified as well.

However, when the Supreme Court started to consider the case, the Home Office requested the appeal to be allowed by consent. It was the Secretary of State who gave reasons as to why her decisions had been unlawful, which the Supreme Court just agreed with. The decision rejected the initial approach in the instance where the false identity is a fake identity, rather than a stolen identity. If the identity was stolen, the actual applicant never made the application and the nationality should be nullified. Thus, the person had never held British nationality.

However, if the identity used was a fake, the applicant had made false representation and they should be deprived from their British nationality. They would have therefore held their nationality up to the moment they were deprived from it.

Why is this good news?

First of all, deprivation gives people stripped of citizenship a full right of appeal, which his not the case with nullity. Secondly, this has less of a knock-on effect on people's families if carried through. If children are born after their parent is naturalised as British, then they are British. However, if the parent was never British, then they would never have been British either. In contrast, if the parent is deprived of their citizenship, but were British at the time of their birth, the children will keep their British citizenship.

LS Legal Solicitors is well versed in British citizenship applications and can advise you on any aspect of nationality application. Please contact our firm on 020 81 44 55 88, via email on info@LSLegaLUK.com or use the contact box to discuss your matter or make an appointment.