Renewing right of abode question
 

Hi

Wondering if anyone has experience with this. I have got a new passport and the British High Commission in Canberra have told me that in order to have my right of abode placed in the new passport I need to start from scratch, getting my mother's birth certificates etc. This seems like a Royal PITA. Is this correct?

It seems odd that I have to prove my RoA everytime I get a new passport.

Thanks

You don't have to get it transferred to your new passport. Just keep your old passport which contains the RoA certificate and present both when entering the UK.

Well, this is what I don't understand. Obviously RoA doesn't depend on the validity of the passport but the actual certificate is only valid while the passport is valid. This is what has led to my confusion about needing to renew the RoA because, as far as I know, the RoA is not a visa it's a "right" so why should I have to continually have to prove it anymore than a passport holder needs to prove their citizenship everytime they renew their passport?

I don't get it.....no surprise there then. :D

If you have a British passport do you not automatically have the right of abode anyway?

Ben, mate, why don't you just apply for UK citizenship already and be done with it? :D

You're eligible, aren't you?

I'm eligible to register as a British citizen but considering I really only use RoA (which is free) to get through immigration at LHR a bit quicker the fee to register is a bit steep!;)

I like curry and, if the weather is right, I'll drink warm beer which, I would have thought, proved my right to abode in the UK, certificate or no certificate.

What even worse is my sister is a UK citizen by birth, if I had been born 14 months later, so would I.

What even worse is my sister is a UK citizen by birth, if I had been born 14 months later, so would I


Then you would have been an Elephant:p

It looks like I was wrong about the right-of-abode certificate being valid in an expired passport. This is different from UK Visas, which remain valid in an expired passport as long as the Visa itself is valid:

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/reques...ghts_in_the_uk

Basically, the border agency line is that although your right of abode itself never expires, the certificate which is evidence of that right of abode does expire, thus you must re-apply :rolleyes:

This is it in a nutshell. The right of abode certificate quite specifically expires with the passport (even though the right of abode itself is life-long). This is in contrast to most long-stay UK visas, such as those conferring indefinite leave to remain, where the traveller can travel with a new passport and the visa in an old passport.

Yes, the right of abode certificate does not confer the right of abode; rather, it confirms the right of abode, which is already held and either exists or doesn't (i.e. there is nothing a person can do to gain the right of abode, separately from British citizenship that is, if he or she does not already possess it).

Anyway, it used to be the case that the right of abode certificate could be transferred to a new passport simply by presentation of both passports and a request for the transfer to be made. The problem with this was that there was no real mechanism to deal with people who had been granted a right of abode certificate in error (which can happen). Now, one must apply afresh each time.

To the OP: given the relative costs and benefits, would it not make more sense for you to apply for British citizenship on the basis of your mother's birth? This would not endanger your Australian citizenship, as you know.

The only disadvantage of that could lie in the fact that you would thereby become a British citizen by descent, and so any children that you might have in the future that are born outside the UK would not be automatically British citizens at birth. If, on the other hand, you were to live the UK and fulfill the ordinary residence requirements for citizenship, you could naturalise in the usual way and would become thereby a British citizen other than by descent. Only you can know if this is important, and of course you have the second option only if you do live the UK for five years (three if married to a British citizen).

Thanks Christopher, I was hoping you'd chime in. :)

I think I'll pretty much head down the citizenship path, there doesn't seem to be much point mucking about with RoA anymore. Now I just need to find the time to be without my passport for the 3 months the Home Office will want it. It won't be anytime soon, at the moment I'm trying to arrange 14 visas that I need by July.:rolleyes:

bensyd, I believe that for "ordinary" naturalisations, those done in the UK at least, it is acceptable to send a certified copy of the passport (i.e. a copy of every page – even the blank ones – certified by a solicitor). It might be worth finding out if this is possible for registrations on the basis of a UK-born mother.

Also, with "ordinary" naturalisations in the UK (unlike purely immigration, non-nationality-related matters), it is possible, as far as I know, to request return of documents from the Home Office without the application being considered to have been withdrawn, so this might be another possibility. Obviously, though, submitting a certified copy of the passport would be simpler (although having it certified could be expensive, I imagine, unless you find a tame lawyer).

I have found a (very small) solicitor's office where they certify for 5 Pounds per photocopy page (i.e. 5 Pounds for 2 passport pages). Seem quite reasonable. I would expect a 'big glass and chrome office' solicitor to charge a multiple of that....

And actually, someone has told me that he got it done inexpensively by (at the suggestion of the solicitor's office, mind you) providing the photocopies, so all the solicitor had to do was stamp and initial each page.

However, as bensyd would presumably be making his application from outside the UK (i.e. in Australia), the situation might be different there.

This is what I did. I did not submit my passport, just the copy.

However, a friend who applied for naturalisation some years later (about 2009-2010-ish) has told me that this has now been discontinued and all photocopies must be done through the local authority's nationality-checking service. I'm too lazy to look up if this is actually true. :)

See:
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/br.../waitingtimes/
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/br...eckingservice/

Many thanks for that, but this doesn't really address the issue of whether one can still use solicitors to photocopy and certify one's passport and then provide this in lieu of the actual document with the naturalisation application. Even though I used this service, I was told by a later applicant that this option was no longer permitted by UKBA. I don't know if this is actually true.

That might be true, and of course that is a good service (in principle, anyway).

For someone applying from outside the UK, though, it would be necessary to make enquiries at the relevant overseas mission, in this case the British High Commission in Canberra.

This page from their website rather suggests that original documents must be supplied, and says that they will be returned within 4 weeks, although the actual approval may take 3–6 months. It also gives contact details for enquiries, which is probably the place to start. In any case, I can't see anywhere on the website to download forms and instructions, so presumably they will be sent in the post on request.

RoA is life-long once you have the Certificate issued into your foreign passport. Even though the Certificate talks about RoA, it relates to your right to work in the UK (the Visa & Immigration Dept told me this yesterday). The RoA Certificate is only valid within a valid passport, so you can't travel on that passport when it expires (obviously) but you also can't work in the UK until you have an in-date passport with a new Certificate for RoA issued into it. Passport renewal and Certificates for RoA are separate processes and you must have your new passport first, then send it to have a Certificate issued into it. You must apply from fresh - gone are the days when you could have the Certificate transferred. The new passport can be fast tracked to happen in 3 days (plus time to post/courier each end) but the RoA Certificate can take up to 6 months to be issued.

As an aside, the fees for most applications are increasing in April so get it done before then: Indicative visa charges for 2015 to 2016

OMG. ILR is going up to ONE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED POUNDS. And that's not even the in-person visa, that's the postal visa.

Wow, wow, wow.

It is astronomical ... I think I paid £400 although that was 10 years ago now.