On 31 July 2024, the Supreme Court refused permission to appeal against the decision of the Court of Appeal in R (Roehrig) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWCA Civ. 240.
By way of background information, Mr Antoine Roehrig was born in the UK on 20October 2000. At the time, his French mother was exercising her right to free movement in the UK as a worker. He has argued that as his mother was exercising her right to free movement in the UK, she was deemed settled, and thus any children born to her were automatically British citizens under s.1(1)(b) of the British Nationality Act 1981 (which states that those born in the UK to British or settled persons automatically acquire British citizenship). As Antoine Roehrig was born after 2 October 2000, which is the date the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2000 took effect, the Home Office has refused his application by concluding that he was not a British citizen by birth.
The Court of Appeal has concluded that a person exercising their EU free movement right in the UK was not settled if they did not hold a confirmation of permanent residence or Indefinite Leave to Remain. The reasoning was that such persons were subject to restrictions on the period for which they could remain in the UK, hence they were not considered settled. Children born to them in the UK were therefore not born British citizens.
Despite this latest development, the Roehrig litigation has already led to positive changes, i.e. the last year’s removal of the uncertainty surrounding the automatic acquisition of British nationality by children born in the UK before 2 October 2000 to EU parents exercising the free movement rights. After years of inconsistent policy approaches and erratic decision-making by the Home Office in respect of such applications, the British Nationality (Regularisation of Past Practice) Act 2023 was passed in direct response to the Roehrig case, to confirm that such persons were indeed deemed settled and that their children were therefore born British.
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