CSI requirement change?

[Jobsworth91]

Hello,

I have seen a number of tweets in the last couple of days about a recent update to the Home Office's good character policy for naturalisation, which suggests that EU citizens who have been students or self-sufficient in the last ten years must have held comprehensive sickness insurance (CSI) or a European health insurance card in order to qualify for citizenship.

This is obviously very worrying for those of us who have applied/intended to apply on the basis of a 5-year qualifying period but have previously lived in the UK as students/self-sufficient without CSI.

-The following article discusses this update in more detail: It just got even more difficult for EU nationals to get British citizenship - Free Movement

-The updated good character policy can be found here: Link

EEA nationals' compliance with immigration requirements over the previous 10 years is discussed on pages 48 and 49.

Would one of the lawyers perhaps be able to take a look and share some thoughts? Based on the Home Office's past behaviour, do we know if applications that were made prior to this policy change and are currently being considered are likely to be affected?

(Please feel free to disregard this post if you feel it may cause unneccessary alarm; I just thought it might be good for people to know.)

[Site Admin]

Morning

We are fully aware of that and have been discussing it with our lawyers. As it's always the case, every application turns on its own merits, so we'd be looking at it on a case-by-case basis. You will also have seen how many times the word "discretion" is used in the new paragraphs, herein lies the rub.

I'd say applications submitted before this update shouldn't be affected, since they would leave themselves open to legal challenges if they weren't, and this has been exactly what happened with the ones submitted prior to the earlier update on May 15th, we have a number of members who didn't meet the criteria and whose applications were successful, because they were made before the updated guidance, when there was nothing about this neither on the forms nor on the guidance.

[Site Admin]

I note you do have a thread about your application here: Proof of living in the UK documents for AN form - UKCEN Citizenship and Residence for European Nationals and their families

As this is not a general discussion forum, I'm going to close this thread. Should you have any further questions about your application, kindly post them up on the existing thread, where we can see them in context.

[Site Admin]

HAPPY ENDING!



Proof of living in the UK documents for AN form - UKCEN Citizenship and Residence for European Nationals and their families