Immigrationboards.com

Good Evening guys.

At the moment I am at bit confused and worried and the same time.
When I moved to Bristol in 2014, I rented a room and because I simply don't like to talk or explain to people how I managed to stay in the country, I have told the landlord that I was Spanish.
When the electoral register form came he filled it up and noted my nationally as Spanish instead of Chile where I am originally from. Recently I have noticed that I am still registered when I accessed my credit report.
I have summited an application for British citizenship in June and was wondering how this could affect my application and what could I do to prevent any adverse consequences.
Please note that I have never voted in any of the public elections.

Thank's guys and I hope that you could provide me with answers or advice to my query

Were you here illegally at any time?

Casa wrote:Were you here illegally at any time?

Hi casa

No, I was on a student visa from 2007 until 2010. In June 2010, I became an EEA family member.

Sounds to me like the landlord made a mistake. If he felt obliged to know your citizenship, he should have asked for a passport and proof of your legal presence.

You may have a problem if the credit checks include data from the Electoral Register as giving a false statement is a criminal offence.

7.2 The Home Office has been developing the capability to conduct checks with other
Government Departments such as HMRC and DWP and also with credit reference
agencies.

If UKVI pick up on this it is likely to become a problem.

You can't blame the landlord because you who told him that you were Spanish, and hence you were permitted on the electoral register.

As a Chilean national you were not eligible and it is virtually impossible to prove that you didn't then go on to cast a vote to which you had no right.

javt444 wrote:I have told the landlord that I was Spanish.
When the electoral register form came he filled it up and noted my nationally as Spanish instead of Chile where I am originally from. Recently I have noticed that I am still registered when I accessed my credit report.

Have you made any attempt to correct this? I.e. by contacting your council? If not I'd certainly suggest that you do.

It'll be unfortunate if this does result in a problem. As far as I'm aware stating your nationality isn't mandatory when putting your name down on the electoral roll. Or am I mistaken? I understand it gives certain nationals the right to vote, but I noticed a few years ago that stating your nationality was optional. From that date onwards I've always left it blank. So while in previous years my nationality was mentioned, it hasn't been for the last few years.

Summary of electoral offences, Page 2;

It is an offence to supply false information on a registration, postal vote or proxy vote application form. False information includes a false signature.

Regardless of whether or not citizenship information is required when registering to vote (and I would assume that it is a mandatory, not optional field), providing false information on the registration form is a criminal offence (Section 13D of the Representation of the People Act 1983).

Even if not convicted, if this comes to the attention of the Home Office, I would imagine that they would impose a 10 year ban on grounds of failing the "good character" requirement.

javt444 wrote:because I simply don't like to talk or explain to people how I managed to stay in the country, I have told the landlord that I was Spanish.

By saving 10 minutes, you may have wasted 10 years.

ouflak1 wrote:Sounds to me like the landlord made a mistake. If he felt obliged to know your citizenship, he should have asked for a passport and proof of your legal presence.

Why?
The guy/girl was filling in an electoral registration form as duty-bound.
S/he is not an immigration official.

In this culture it would be usual to reply to questions from authority figures (eg landlord) and on official forms truthfully.

I have a current electoral registration form in front of me.
It has a nationality question (column). It does not give instructions to call in the Spanish Inquisition.

It takes only as much effort and breath to say "Chile" as it does to say "Spain".
In fact with the hard letter 'p' I feel my tongue working harder when saying "Spain". So why not say "Chile".

Looking at the form I've just received this month, it does appear I am mistaken - I.e. it's not listed as optional anymore - even though it's actually left as blank in my case. In recent years I've just confirmed my details online (not using the paper form), since I've lived at the same address for several years now.

As I had scanned copies of previous forms I now see what has changed. The previous form said - state nationality if NOT British, Irish or Commonwealth. So I can see why I would have left it blank.

Guessing the online system does not force user selection of nationality. Will probably give the council a call to advise them of nationality even though I've always been eligible to vote, before naturalisation.

cs95tdg wrote:Guessing the online system does not force user selection of nationality. Will probably give the council a call to advise them of nationality even though I've always been eligible to vote, before naturalisation.

When you register online you have to select your nationality from a drop-down menu! If you are an EEA citizen and registered to vote as such, you obviously are not able to vote in the UK general election.

If you become naturalised as British, you need to contact your electoral registration office to update your nationality on their records or you will still not be able to vote in general elections.

ohara wrote:

cs95tdg wrote:Guessing the online system does not force user selection of nationality. Will probably give the council a call to advise them of nationality even though I've always been eligible to vote, before naturalisation.

When you register online you have to select your nationality from a drop-down menu! If you are an EEA citizen and registered to vote as such, you obviously are not able to vote in the UK general election.

If you become naturalised as British, you need to contact your electoral registration office to update your nationality on their records or you will still not be able to vote in general elections.

Agree that a drop down would have been there, but selection wasn't enforced by the system, as I have reconfirmed my details several times without doing so. I personally have always been eligible to vote in UK general elections, so technically naturalisation as a BC does not affect my ability to vote. I will however be contacting the council to advise them of dual nationality status to enquire if they require that to be captured.