Historical debt/Polish Resettlement Army

Problem

Our client was a Polish national born in Germany in 1947. She came to the United Kingdom as suckling infant with her mother and father under the Polish Resettlement Scheme. She never travelled since, and never acquired a passport. She had been retired by several decades by the time that BREXIT obliged her to demonstrate her immigration status. She had never married or had any children. Proving her Immigration Status was rendered more opaque through the use of an alias by her father in Army records at War’s end. In 1960, all Conditions of Stay were removed from her parent’s permission to remain. There was never any formal grant of status to her, nor specific reference to her in any grant of permission to stay to her parents as she was adjudged to young to have her own Residence Booklet. To avoid spurious refusal, we sought to demonstrate that she had never left the United Kingdom for a period of two years or more.

Strategy

The Scheme of the Polish Resettlement Act 1947 was brought to the Secretary of State’s recollection, notwithstanding that the implementing Ministerial Orders could not be located in the National Archives.

Army records and those of the Polish Resettlement Corp from the 1940’s were used to prove that the alias and our client’s father were one and the same, and landing cards and Registration booklets enclosed to show the various extensions granted to the family until requirements were removed. This was combined with extracts from the relevant Regulations in existence at the time that demonstrated that children under 13 did not receive their own Residence Booklets. Reference was made to the Alien’s Order and the transitional terms of the 1971 Immigration Act to demonstrate that those who were without conditions of stay, acquired Indefinite Leave to Remain. Supplementary documents from schools and pensions department corroborated the state’s acceptance of our client’s filiation as asserted. Medical Records / National Insurance Records and Pension Records were provided to show continuous residence.

Solution

Citizenship granted.