Clause 39
Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [Lords]
10:00 am
Paul Rowen (Rochdale, Liberal Democrat)
This is probably one of the most important parts of the Bill. Part 2 deals with a new Government policy, and we are generally supportive of the thrust of the measures. We have concerns about the details—how it will work and, more importantly, the transitional arrangements. Given that the Bill has had pre-legislative scrutiny, gone through the House of Lords and had an amendment on transitional arrangements, it is unedifying that the Government and the main Opposition do not have well-thought-out policies on such arrangements. In a sense, that is at the nub of clause 39. It is about dealing with those who have limited, not indefinite, leave to remain. The hon. Member for Ashford, in his amendment, is totally inconsistent with what his noble Friend said in the other place. He is inconsistent even in the category that he is dealing with, in terms of the judgment. His clause would reduce the amount of time that people on the highly skilled migrant programme have to apply for citizenship.
The Government’s position, given that they are the Government, is equally deplorable. I will read the part of the Joint Committee on Human Rights report that the hon. Member for Ashford did not read, because it does not apply just to the highly skilled migrant programme:
“The Bill does not make clear what the effect of the new provisions will be on those whose applications for citizenship are pending on the date at which the Act comes into force, or on others further down the path to citizenship, such as those with limited leave to remain who have not yet qualified for indefinite leave to remain. There are no transitional arrangements.”
That paragraph refers to all those who have come into this country and been granted limited leave to remain, and who expect, under the current policy—the path to citizenship that we now operate is nowhere near as well defined as the Bill seeks to make it—that a few years down the line they will be able to apply for British citizenship.
I will quote from an e-mail of a kind that many of us have received, because it shows how much inconsistency there is, and how clauses 43 and 44 will not work in regard to those who came into this country with a work permit. It says that
“my wife and I are highly skilled individuals who have lawfully been here on a work permit (rather than the HSMP visa) for 4 years and are on the cusp of applying for ILR early next year. When we migrated to the UK in 2005, there was no difference in the time period to qualify for ILR or citizenship irrespective of whether one chose the work-permit route or the HSMP route. Indeed, even today, the UK Border agency aggregates the time one has spent on work-permit and HSMP routes (in the event an individual switched from one route to the other during his stay in the UK)”.