Windrush man granted citizenship 52 years after arriving in UK

A Windrush victim represented by Garden Court barrister Grace Brown has been granted British citizenship 52 years after first arriving in the UK.

The claimant was born in 1963 in a Commonwealth country and arrived in the UK in 1973, aged 11. By operation of law in place at the time, he would have had indefinite leave to remain in the UK. The claimant did not, however, have evidence of his status and eventually he became a victim of the hostile environment  as he could not demonstrate his lawful status to his employer. He therefore lost his job. In 2018 however, his indefinite leave to remain in the UK was confirmed through the Windrush Scheme. He subsequently applied for citizenship as he had lived in the UK continuously for over 45 years, at the time.

The Home Office took an inordinately long time to decide his case, taking some 18 months to do so. By that time the claimant had been in the UK for 47 years. The refusal was because the claimant did not meet the Good Character requirement  for citizenship due to a conviction for a drugs offence (resulting in imprisonment) some 25 years prior. The claimant had one other conviction for an offence which resulted in a short sentence of a matter of months which had been 21 years prior to the date of decision. The concern for the Home Office however was the first conviction.

Having arrived in the UK at the time he did, and having settled in the UK, it was unsurprising that virtually the entirety of the claimant’s family are British including his children and their children.

Instructed by Deighton Pierce Glynn in October 2020, Grace provided grounds for a judicial review against the Home Office decision challenging the application of the Good Character policy in the claimant’s case. Unusually and remarkably no decision on permission was ever made and the case was withdrawn from the High Court four years later in November 2024 on terms including that the Home Office would make a fresh decision. Some of the delay was explicable as the claimant’s case had been stayed behind Howard  for some time. Other reasons included the parties re-pleading the case as necessary. However, for long periods the Court took no action despite being chased.

The case was withdrawn because since the date of filing, a number of events had occurred altering the issues in the case that impacted the outcome the claimant might expect to achieve. These were (i) the original decision had been withdrawn and replaced, (ii) there had been material developments in relevant law including in Howard, (iii) the Good Character policy had been amended on no less than three occasions and (iv) the claimant’s personal circumstances were not the same as they had been four years earlier.

Grace and the legal team fully expected citizenship to be refused again. It was a pleasant surprise therefore to receive a decision that citizenship had been granted. All in all, the claimant got his citizenship 52 years after his arrival in the UK. Although it took an exceptionally long time to get citizenship, the claimant is very pleased that he now has it, and all the security of status that comes with it.

Although there is no Court judgment to rely on as a precedent or guide, when it comes to the application of the Good Character policy, this case shows that in particular cases and where the facts allow, having a conviction is no bar to British citizenship.

Grace Brown is a public law practitioner with a particular focus on human rights, immigration and refugee law.

Grace is regularly instructed in Windrush cases and is Joint Head of Garden Court Chambers.