The Home Office refusal rate for citizenship increased sharply from 3% in 2013 to 9% in 2015, and stood at 6% in 2017. Following the UK’s 2016 referendum on leaving the EU there was a significant rise in the number of applications for naturalisation from EU citizens. Nationals of EU countries made up 26% of citizenship grants in 2017, more than double the corresponding share in 2016 (12%).

With effect from the 12 of November 2015 an EU National applying for naturalisation must provide a Permanent Residence document  (PR Card) issued by the Home Office. Any EU citizens intending to apply for British citizenship must first make a permanent residence application (PR Card) and fulfil the five years residency requirement alongside requirements of good conduct, language skills, efforts toward cultural integration (measured in the form of the Life in the UK test), and 1 year holding the residence document (PR Card) as per British Citizenship Law, before undertaking a highly complex and very expensive application procedure. Information on how to apply for a document certifying permanent residence or a permanent residence card can be found at www.gov.uk/eea-registration-certificate/permanent-residence

The application process for British Naturalisation will cost about £1500. At 85 pages, the permanent residence application form PR is substantial and clearly causing issues for applicants. Unsurprisingly, many incorrectly apply for a registration certificate as a Qualified Person, the QP form for an EU National to confirm the right to live in the UK as a qualified person. Both residence documents cost £65 and if people incorrectly apply for QP instead of PR, they are none the wiser when they receive the similar looking document with the exception of two words which will read either “Registration Certificate” or “Permanent Residence”.

Many EU Nationals that have the right to British Citizenship erroneously applied for British Citizenship providing the Registration Certificate document and were refused Naturalisation. The Home Office retains the non refundable fees which will effectively financially restrain and therefore prevent people's ability to re-apply with the correct document.

We’re calling on the Home Office to partially refund refused British Citizenship applications from EU Nationals that provided the Registration Certificate document issued by the Home Office. The administrative cost of a British Citizenship application form circa £389, refused British Citizenship application forms are thus very profitable for the Home Office.