What happens if you mistakenly apply for British citizenship?
freemovement.org.uk
What happens if you mistakenly apply for British citizenship?
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Re: What happens if you mistakenly apply for British citizenship?
#2Can't say I'm surprised by this outcome at all. The British government has long since been screwing over would be immigrants in fees, bureaucracy and rules. The point to note is -- had he not been an American with resources, and instead, say a Somali refugee, the outcome would have been very different and we'd never have heard about it.
For those of you interested in how validated legal extortion can become, go look at the VISA and naturalisation fees the UK government charges.
Re: What happens if you mistakenly apply for British citizenship?
#3I don’t think the government did anything wrong; The rules aren’t meant to be bent, and if Lucas made a mistake in filing the wrong paperwork, it absolutely makes sense for the consequences to follow. In these serious legal matters, you need to seek counsel. This article attempts to paint a picture of the poor child, but the law was clear, and any emotional appeal should be invalid.
Re: What happens if you mistakenly apply for British citizenship?
#4I don’t think the government did anything wrong; The rules aren’t meant to be bent, and if Lucas made a mistake in filing the wrong paperwork, it absolutely makes sense for the consequences to follow. In these serious legal matters, you need to seek counsel. This article attempts to paint a picture of the poor child, but the law was clear, and any emotional appeal should be invalid.
I wouldn’t be surprised if in addition to your “the complex and opaque rules are there for everyone to follow without any leeway for a mistake, period” philosophy you also practice cannibalism.
Re: What happens if you mistakenly apply for British citizenship?
#5I don’t think the government did anything wrong; The rules aren’t meant to be bent, and if Lucas made a mistake in filing the wrong paperwork, it absolutely makes sense for the consequences to follow. In these serious legal matters, you need to seek counsel. This article attempts to paint a picture of the poor child, but the law was clear, and any emotional appeal should be invalid.
I don't know how to communicate this, or even if it is possible. But the question of justice has concerned me greatly of late. And I say to any creature who may be listening, there can be no justice so long as laws are absolute. Even life itself is an exercise in exceptions.
Jean-Luc Picard
Re: What happens if you mistakenly apply for British citizenship?
#6I don’t think the government did anything wrong; The rules aren’t meant to be bent, and if Lucas made a mistake in filing the wrong paperwork, it absolutely makes sense for the consequences to follow. In these serious legal matters, you need to seek counsel. This article attempts to paint a picture of the poor child, but the law was clear, and any emotional appeal should be invalid.
How has putting him through the ordeal benefited society? Laws shouldn't punish honest, harmless mistakes.
Re: What happens if you mistakenly apply for British citizenship?
#7I don’t think the government did anything wrong; The rules aren’t meant to be bent, and if Lucas made a mistake in filing the wrong paperwork, it absolutely makes sense for the consequences to follow. In these serious legal matters, you need to seek counsel. This article attempts to paint a picture of the poor child, but the law was clear, and any emotional appeal should be invalid.
>The rules aren’t meant to be bent
This is not only obviously untrue because they were quite explicitly bent by the judge, but also untrue in the face of the entire history of law. This is why these appeals exist, for exceptional circumstances. And there's a general attitude towards forgiveness for administrative mistakes.
If there was to be no interpretation or exception to law, we wouldn't need judges or allow appeals to settle these matters.
Law is written by man. Law is interpreted by man. Your ridiculous, strict perspective on the absolute power and immutability of law is that shared by the worst of dictators in history. Reflect on that.
Re: What happens if you mistakenly apply for British citizenship?
#8I don’t think the government did anything wrong; The rules aren’t meant to be bent, and if Lucas made a mistake in filing the wrong paperwork, it absolutely makes sense for the consequences to follow. In these serious legal matters, you need to seek counsel. This article attempts to paint a picture of the poor child, but the law was clear, and any emotional appeal should be invalid.
The point isn't that Lucas should break the law; the point is that the laws are stupid and should be changed, as illustrated by the egregious situation one can be found in when making a simple mistake. 'Appeal to emotion' here is just basic compassion for someone who does not deserve what happened to them, and hope that similar situations won't happen again.
Re: What happens if you mistakenly apply for British citizenship?
#9"Indefinite leave to remain" sounds like some almost Orwellian concoction of meaninglessness to me.
How exactly do you get from "permission to stay in the country" (aha, it means one has the permission to stay in the country) to "indefinite leave to remain" (uhm... to remain here, I need to leave indefinitely?)
Re: What happens if you mistakenly apply for British citizenship?
#10I don’t think the government did anything wrong; The rules aren’t meant to be bent, and if Lucas made a mistake in filing the wrong paperwork, it absolutely makes sense for the consequences to follow. In these serious legal matters, you need to seek counsel. This article attempts to paint a picture of the poor child, but the law was clear, and any emotional appeal should be invalid.
> The rules aren’t meant to be bent
British law is full of opportunities for rules to be bent in the pursuit of justice and common sense.
> if Lucas made a mistake in filing the wrong paperwork, it absolutely makes sense for the consequences to follow
Do you pay British tax? I think you’d be hard-pushed to find even the most ardent anti-immigration Britisher saying they thought this was a good use of their tax pounds and the Home Office’s time.
> the law was clear, and any emotional appeal should be invalid
Said no jurisprudence scholar, ever. There’s a reason that strict liability crimes are so limited in number, why judges in the UK have considerable leeway in sentencing, and so on.