Man told he is not British after 42 years in UK

You don’t just become British if you already have another nationality – it has to be a deliberate choice. About half the countries in the world don’t permit dual citizenship so if we automatically granted citizenship we would be stripping people of other citizenship or putting them in a perilous legal position without their consent.

For decades Britain has allowed a studied ambiguity around nationality and this Home Office action seems harsh and unfair to make these demands now, even if bureaucratically or legalistically justifiable. Was nothing learned from the Windrush Scandal? If it really is urgent to sort out these cases, it should be done by someone with an ounce of compassion, rather more common sense, and a rubber stamp.

“no one ever queried”, lmao.

and I have european friends at work that entered post Brexit under skilled worker visa, had their fingerprints taken, had to legalise their study titles, had to proof if crimes were committed, and who have to face deportation risk if they lose their jobs.

and some other people got a “freebie”? lmao.

ah dont worry, ive been told it plenty of times and i was born heere

I think the real concern is how is this a thing. How can this guy live here essentially illegally for 42 years without someone noticing. You need 3 forms of ID to do pretty much anything?

So, another way to look at this is that 1000s of immigrants do fill in the application to become a citizen, study for and sit the life in the UK test and pay the fees. It’s isn’t fair that this guy is trying to skip all that. 

Either all immigrants get a free pass to become a citizen or none do

Why does the media keep running sob stories like this? One from Sky News a few days ago too.

Rather than a sob story this is a story about how a person who shouldn’t be here should have been deported many times over the decades.

After living in the UK for 16 years as an EU citizen, Home Office told me to leave because I work abroad and that makes me not eligible for settled status. And this guy lived in the UK for 42 years and never though to go through the legalization process and now is surprised he isn’t automatically British? WHAT?

I’m in 2 minds. 42 years as a taxpayer? One of us. Part of the ship, part of the crew.

Moving to another country when you are in your 30s, when apparently smart enough to study accountancy and run your own business? I find it hard to believe he wasn’t aware of his immigration status or capable of filing paperwork.

Not leaving the country that you a foreign national have moved to for 42 years? That is a person who knows the exit door is one way for them.

I don’t trust the journalism on this one though. I think the journalist has written this in a way to be highly divisive. Empathy says to cut the old man some slack. Logic says he knowingly overstayed and actively avoided detection for 40 years.

However, logic also says that the government failing to detect his presence demonstrates a lack of competence, and I have to put at least some of the blame squarely on them.

I reckon he earned a passport.

Ok whilst we agree he didn’t do the paperwork, can we also agree he’s more British than Rishi, as he actually contributed to the UK economy.

But he isn’t British, you don’t just become a citizen if you live somewhere you need to get a visa and re-new it, he can’t be that naive that he didn’t see when his student visa was due to expire. Now the tories have made it harder for spouses of British citizens, his wife will need to earn at least 29k per year to sponsor his visa or at least 88,500 pounds in the bank.

I think if he managed to get away with it for so long. Whether an innocent mistake or intentional, a law should be made called “Fair play”. As in fair play you beat the system for so long we are going to let you stay. It’s such a rare occurrence to do this for do long we won’t exactly have a flood of migrants entering because of it.

There has been this really weird trend as seen in this thread of people infantilising immigrants, if someone doesn’t do their part of filling paperwork then it’s their own fault. People should face consequences for their failures.

Let’s hope that the Home Office applies a modicum of common sense in this case, and recognises that the man has built what appears to be a rather successful life.

One of the consequences of constantly changing rules is that there are always going to be people who fall between the cracks. Governments should work with these people – not make them jump through what would be a pointless and demeaning hurdle.

Yes. Living somewhere does not make you from there. Who could have forseen this?

So he’s an illegal immigrant that’s only just been caught after 42 years.. okay?