Getting British citizenship: will community service be required?

A lot of publicity has been given to statements by the British Chancellor Gordon Brown on 27 February 2007 that immigrants should do community work to help them settle before being granted UK citizenship, and that the existing citizenship and language tests do not go far enough. But the requirements have not changed. Mr Brown was talking about a future possibility, not about a change happening now. Mr Brown was reported as saying: "Being a British citizen is about more than a test, more than a ceremony. It's a kind of contract between the citizen and the country involving rights but also involving responsibilities that will protect and enhance the British way of life. "It's also right to consider asking men and women seeking citizenship to undertake community work in our country, or something akin to that, that introduces them to a wider range of institutions and people." Coming from the man many expect to be the next Prime Minister, this may be taken by some to be a statement of future Government policy. At present, however, it is a long way from becoming policy let alone law and the requirements to become British have not changed. What are the current requirements for naturalisation as a British citizen? People over 18 who are settled (have Indefinite Leave to Remain, ILR) in the UK can apply to naturalise as British citizens (there are separate provisions to allow children to register as British). People must be ‘of good character’. In general, this means they must have no criminal convictions, their business and tax affairs must be in order, and they must have a good immigration history. Criminal convictions can be disregarded if they are 'spent': if the person was convicted a sufficiently long time ago for rehabilitation to have taken place. Rehabilitation periods are fixed in UK law and vary depending on the severity of the sentence for each conviction. People must be 'of sound mind' or 'full capacity', which merely means that a would-be British Citizen must be able to understand that they are becoming British. The Home Office instructions to their staff are as follows: 'All we expect from applicants is that they should be able to grasp, however dimly, the purpose of their application. We should not expect a total understanding of nationality or citizenship'. Nor should we necessarily expect a continuing and sustained level of comprehension. 'Even this requirement can be waived if in the Applicant's best interests. The existing tests do not involve community service. Instead they involve knowledge of language and life in the UK. The language people must know is usually English, but can also be Welsh or Scottish Gaelic. Knowledge of the language and life in the UK is demonstrated by passing a 'Life in the UK' test or by doing a course in English as a second language (ESOL) that includes learning about citizenship and leads to a recognised 'skills for life' qualification. There are very limited circumstances in which people are not required to take the test, where it would be unreasonable to require them to do so because of their physical or mental condition. Applicants for British Citizenship must intend to make the UK their main home or to work in the service of the UK Government abroad. There are rules on how long a person must have lived in the UK and on how many days they can have been absent from the UK in the period leading up to their application for naturalisation as a British Citizen. Reactions to Mr Brown’s statement Even the requirements of knowledge of language and life in the UK are very recent innovations, having become part of the tests for naturalisation as a British Citizen in November 2005. It may be that a new Prime Minister would have other priorities to address, particularly given the opposition that might be expected. According to the BBC, the Conservative party and the Liberal Democrats party have accused Mr Brown of "headline grabbing" and say his new suggestion would be unenforceable or even dangerous. Habib Rahman, the Chair of the UK charity, the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) told the BBC that "Compulsory community service is usually imposed as a non-custodial penalty for a criminal offence. We are therefore extremely concerned that it is now being proposed as a condition of citizenship." The Conservative party spokesperson, David Davis, told the BBC that the new tests might mean forcing some professionals who had been in Britain for years to stop working for a time to carry out community service. Certainly there are a large number of highly-skilled immigrants working in the UK, for example on work permits or under the Highly Skilled Migrants Programme (HSMP) etc., who contribute a great deal to the UK economy over the years prior to qualifying for naturalisation. For the moment, the tests are as described above. The UK Home Office has a discretion to waive some, although not all, requirements in exceptional cases. It is important clearly to understand whether you meet the requirements. If you do not, then you may need specialist advice about whether the particular requirement can be waived, and whether it is likely to be waived in your particular circumstances. Georgina Wilson, Gherson and Co.