Post by Dan Dare on Oct 13, 2023 9:55:52 GMT
In a rare outburst of common sense the Court of Appeal has upheld the Home Office decision to revoke the citizenship of a Pakistani immigrant who failed to disclose a material fact on his application for citizenship.
Syed Tahseen Ahmed arrived in the UK on a student visa in 2006 already married to a woman in Pakistan with whom he had three children. That same year he began a relationship with a Polish national and in 2008 prevailed upon his wife to sign a 'Deed of Divorce' which would allow him to remarry after three months.
In 2009 he applied for residence as an extended family member of an EEA national (the Pole) who he later married in an Islamic ceremony. He returned to Pakistan in 2011 and impregnated his 'former' wife who later gave birth to a fourth child.
In 2015 he applied for permanent residence on the basis of his 'enduring relationship' with an EEA national, declaring his Pakistan divorce but not the fourth child. The application was initially denied but granted on appeal in July 2017 despite evidence that the relationship had already ended.
In August 2017 he returned to Pakistan and took up again with his (ex-)wife. On return to the UK he applied for and was granted British citizenship. In 2018 he applied for entry clearance for his ex-wife and four children, without disclosing either the Polish relationship or the so-called divorce.
Finally the Home Office cottoned onto what he was up to and refused the application, in May 2019 launched deprivation proceedings under section 40(3) of the British Nationality Act 1981. This allows for deprivation of citizenship resulting from naturalisation if the Home Secretary is satisfied that it was obtained by fraud, false representation of concealment of a material fact.
His appeal was dismissed by the First-Tier Tribunal but then re-heard by the Upper Tier Tribunal based on a technical error at the FtT. Again it was dismissed but it (somehow) made its way before the Court of Appeal which upheld the Home Secretary's decision.
I wonder who is footing the bill for this amazing farrago, and whether this individual will ever be deported as an illegal alien.
