British Citizen Test - Bastards

[girasol]

£300 for citizenship seems reasonable, and at least you can get the council to check your application so you don't have to send off your passport.

It's non refundable, if your application fails you don't get a penny back!

yes, you can get the council to check it for £40. I went there and they told me to come back in 5 months because of yet another new legislation meaning European citizens applying for citizenship have first to be given a 'permanent resident' stamp for at least a year, they introduce new legislation with alarming frequency and change the rules of the game more often than they should, which I think is quite sneaky.

so, I have been in England for 17 years, but it doesn't matter, because I hadn't had this stamp for 12 months, something that wasn't clearly explained on the website (otherwise I would have waited before applying. ).

I got the stamp off my own back, not because it said I should on the Home Office site, that information was nowhere to be found at the time. Like I said, passing the test is the easy bit.

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

...so, I have been in England for 17 years, but it doesn't matter, because I hadn't had this stamp for 12 months, something that wasn't clearly explained on the website (otherwise I would have waited before applying. ) ...

One of my classmates was half Nigerian and half Lebanese and came here all legally and above board, with her mother, and she said it will take her years and years to get a British passport compared with people who enter the country illegal.

Where's the incentive to do things legitimately?

 

[baldrick]

One of my classmates was half Nigerian and half Lebanese and came here all legally and above board, with her mother, and she said it will take her years and years to get a British passport compared with people who enter the country illegal.

i really don't think that's true of illegal immigrants at all. they'd be more likely to be deported than rewarded with a passport. what a bizarre thing to say.

is she referring to asylum seekers?

 

[girasol]

One of my classmates was half Nigerian and half Lebanese and came here all legally and above board, with her mother, and she said it will take her years and years to get a British passport compared with people who enter the country illegal.

Where's the incentive to do things legitimately?

As far as I know you're not allowed to apply for a passport if you enter the country illegally.

You can only apply for citizenship if you have a right to remain in the country.

The guy at the council, who turned down my application, said that if I was married I would have been able to apply there and then rather than have to wait for another 5 months. I thought that was a bit out of order.