Legal Voice reports a case of Emmy, a 19 year-old woman, who was born in the UK to foreign nationals without an indefinite leave to remain. Under Section 1(4) of the 1981 British Nationality Act, Emmy has had the right to register after having spent 10 first years of her life in the UK.

However, Emmy has not yet been able to register as British because she cannot  afford the Home Office (HO) fee. As Emmy is now an adult, that fee is 1,121 GBP (including the cost of 80 GBP for the citizenship ceremony). If she were still a child, the fee would be 936 GBP. 

Without British citizenship, Emmy is subject to immigration controls upon entry in the UK and her entitlement to stay is dependent on the permission of the HO. 

Read the full text here.

Read Colin Yeo’s analysis at Freemovement.org here.

For details of current and past citizenship legislation in the UK, check out our country profile pages.