Any ideas on what to do for straightforward u.k born uk citizen (multi generations back, all u.k. born), but effectively denied citizenship by passport office insistence on processing according to new immigrant rules?
They accepted the application is perfectly in order, fee paid, person (interrogated in person as a first passport applicant) correctly matches the one on birth certificate (original copy). The date on birth certificate clearly makes the person well within the date when the only qualification for u.k. citizenship (and passport) was u.k. birth. The interviewing official stated the passport would arrive shortly.
But despite that, another official overrode him, acted outwith his authority and declared that no matter how many times the applicant submits a correctly completed application, photo, fee, they will never be granted a passport. Every application will require attending a personal interrogation, but every one will also require the list of twenty extra items, beyond the birth certificate, demanded for new immigrants.
It is extraordinary, and for an elderly English person, impossible to collect. Included as one item on list is Parents passports and proof of all places they lived throughout their lives. Another is all school reports. Another is photographic proof of applicant , aimed to prove living together in u.k. with parents and siblings (for a person dumped from birth by both parents, who are now long dead ! ) All addresses for a lifetime are to be listed and proved with mortgage details and bills, and so the twenty items go on, according to the power-exceeding official.
But the passport office and home office websites leave no doubt, this list is irrelevant to uncontrovertibly british people born in u.k. over sixty years ago. Citizenship is automatic, therefore passports cannot be denied or witheld, even if the person is a terrorist, let alone for an extremely ordinary, lifelong law abiding, elderly person.
The m.p. was asked to help, but merely handed the matter to a secretary, who in turn declared she always, exclusively, communicates with the Immigration department on all passport matters, which of course compounds the difficulty by giving credence to the peculiar determination to process a u.k.citizen as an immigrant.
Thousands of lawyers specialise in obtaining passports, but not one will assist non immigrants, because in theory citizenship and thus passports are automatic, and there can be no problem other than failing to fill the forms correctly and enclose the fee. . Solicitors have no expertise because the only experts required are the post office clerks who, for a small fee, operate the routine checking scheme for that purpose.
The person was once told by a policeman that someone they never heard of had at some time been listed for some link with their name, on police records. But whoever that person was, and whatever they had been up to, or even if they had somehow been trying an identity fraud, it would all be between the baddie and the police. It wouldn't permit the passport office refusing the genuine person on the birth certificate their own citizenship and passport. Again, even if they were themselves the worst villain known, they still can get a passport, according to the goverment websites, except in a listed few extraordinary situations (such as there is a court order to prevent them fleeing the country for an extremely serious matter they were charged with. Or they are a foreign born person attempting to kidnap a child in a custody battle). Those extraordinary circumstances couldn't possibly apply.
Any advice would be extremely welcome to someone in complete despair and effectively stateless, unable to participate in ordinary life in their own country, now that every transaction, even a night away in a b and b, requires photo i.d. proving a right to be in the country..