Home Office
faces criticism
once again

15 December 2014

The Home Office is failing to properly examine applications for British citizenship, according to a recent report from the Independent Chief Inspector for Borders and Immigration

Following some good press concerning the increased identification and deportation of Foreign National Offenders, another report entitled ‘An Inspection of Nationality Casework’ by the same author has criticised the Home Office for failing to properly scrutinise applications by those wishing to be granted British citizenship.

The report examines how UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) manages its responsibilities when making the decision to grant British citizenship and focusses on UKVI nationality casework between April and May 2014.

In his report, Chief Inspector John Vine has called some decisions to grant British citizenship unsound after finding that British nationality had been granted to some whose histories are at odds with the ‘good character’ requirement. The report did, however, recognise a commitment by the Home Office to provide a good level of customer service and emphasised that all decisions to refuse applications were evidence based and reasonable.

Criticism of the way nationality casework is being managed includes:

• Apart from automated police and immigration checks, practically no other checks were conducted to establish the good character of applicants.
• Unless an applicant declared financial problems or tax avoidance themselves, no other checks were carried out to verify this.
• Despite all applications being well sifted for potential war crimes or previous security services interest, no attempts were made to check an applicant’s criminal record in the country of nationality.
• Case workers were not sufficiently looking for, or taking account of, evidence of character when considering applications. This has resulted in the granting of citizenship to applicants with poor immigration histories, including having no leave to enter or to remain in the UK for long periods of time, working illegally in the UK and absconding from the UK.
• There was no evidence of any consideration being given to the prosecution of applicants who had used deceptive means to gain British citizenship.
• A lack of detail on the casework database was highlighted concerning previous applications. When combined with the practise of not referring to paper files, case workers were often unaware of information which was relevant to the applicant’s character.

The Home Office accepts the Chief Inspector’s recommendations

The Home Office has recognised the ongoing need to improve its management of nationality casework and has accepted the Chief Inspector’s twelve different recommendations. Some of these include the need for good character checks to be undertaken in cases involving any evasion of immigration control, along with allowing caseworkers to demand a face-to-face interview with an applicant should there be any serious doubts over the credibility of an application. The introduction of random checking procedures with other government departments and credit reference agencies to ensure decision-making is not solely reliant on applicant self-declaration is also a recommendation which the Home Office intends to action.

It is yet to be seen

…how these recommendations will affect the way UKVI manage their nationality casework and whether this will also lead to additional checks on Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) applications being introduced.

Please contact Smith Stone Walters if you wish to apply for British citizenship or have any concerns about a current application. Your visa application process should be as stress-free as possible. Our experienced team brings clarity, peace of mind and a personal touch to an often complex and stressful journey.

Source: Report: An Inspection of Nationality Casework

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