Irish Citizenship Ruling Petition Updates

Petition Updates: Remove 1 Year Detention Needed to Qualify to Apply for Irish Citizenship.

Hi Everyone, thank you for your support on the petition and standing for our rights. Coming together as a group

Here is the petition link for anyone who haven’t signed up yet – http://chng.it/HkCsDswzpZ (When Change.org asks to donate, Please DON’T DONATE MONEY, your signature is enough).

Purpose of this Page

Updates will be posted continuously on this Page, Change.org only allows 1 update to be sent per day this helps limit the amount of email updates sent via the petition.

So, anyone looking for updates can find them organised in one place on this page and we don’t have a limit on update frequency on this page, so updates can be frequent if need to be.

Update: 14th November – Some Good News has Finally Hits – Un-broken Residence Court Ruling Overturned

All 3 judges from Court of Appeal have unanimously overturned the High court ruling saying – “High Court made an error in how it interpreted the law on un-broken residence and its construction is “unworkable”, “overly literal”, “unduly rigid” and gives rise to an “absurdity”.

There is still not a 100% clarity on the number of days one can be outside the country but it seems 6 weeks discretion period will be respected. Will keep you posted, when there is more clarity on this.

Have a good day.

Source: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/court-of-appeal-overturns-irish-citizenship-ruling-1.4082941

Update: 11th September – Updated Statement from the Minister for Justice and Equality

Summary: Minister have a draft bill ready and is to introduce the Bill in the Oireachtas soon, and hopefully the new bill become a law, no specifics provided yet on what’s in the new bill.

Full details below –

“I want to assure people that we are doing everything possible to put in place a solution on an urgent basis. I have taken expert legal advice and I intend to introduce legislation to address the issue that has arisen in the recent High Court citizenship judgment on the law governing applications for citizenship.

At the end of July, I obtained Cabinet approval for a proposed Bill and intensive work is taking place in my Department where officials are working with the Office of Parliamentary Counsel in the Attorney General’s Office to finalise a draft Bill.

I intend to introduce the Bill in the Oireachtas as soon as the Houses of the Oireachtas return to session. I know that colleagues of all parties are concerned with the difficulty that has arisen and I am hopeful that the Oireachtas will give the Bill early and positive consideration.

As soon as the Bill becomes law, my officials will make all necessary arrangements for the next Citizenship Ceremony. Invitations will issue at least four weeks in advance of the ceremony to ensure everyone has adequate notice.” Source: http://www.inis.gov.ie/

Update: 9th September – Our Stats and New Law Prospects

No official update on issue from INIS at the moment.

Irish Times have published an article on this issue seems its the spin off of the 29th July statement on INIS site but still a good read. Below I have provided a summary of the article for anyone who may have missed it and a link to the article.

Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan to introduce new law to grant applicants for Irish citizenship the right to be absent from the country for a set period of time.

“What I propose doing is to allow for a period of time for an applicant to be out of the jurisdiction. I think that’s necessary for a number of reasons,” he minister said.

Source: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/new-law-to-allow-citizenship-applicants-to-leave-country-1.4010171

Update: 8th August – Our Stats

Hope everyone is doing well. We are now a group of 18 thousand people coming together for a cause.

Thanks to everyone who reached out to me personally to connect and appreciate the effort.

Below are current stats of the petition.

Summary: New signups have slowly slowed down but that’s expected as most effected people have already signed up and some are still signing up. So do share the petition more.

Their hasn’t been any updates from Department of Justice since their last update on 29th July.

Update: 30th July – Our Stats

Update: 29th July – Update on INIS Statement

Hope everyone, is doing well. We have an updated statement from INIS.

Statement Summary

Department continues to work to find solutions. Minister, Charlie Flanagan has been able to obtain a Cabinet approval for a proposed Bill, which seeks to resolve this issue.

Minister aims to have a bill drafted on an urgent basis and present before the Houses of the Oireachtas for consideration in mid-September as soon as the recess ends.

It is intended that the Citizenship Ceremony scheduled to take place at the end of September will still go ahead and planning is taking place on that basis.

What if I am planning to apply for Citizenship ?

Anyone planning to apply for citizenship should continue to collect all the necessary proofs that support your application and aim to submit a comprehensive application. If any additional information is required, you will be contacted by INIS as part of the processing of your application.

Full Statement

Source: http://www.inis.gov.ie/en/INIS/Pages/updates-announcements

Update: 23rd July – Our Stats

Please DO NOT Donate Money on the Petition when Change.org ask you to.

Update: Change.org came back saying this is their revenue modal and if a person wants to get a refund they will need to contact change.org directly.

Hi Everyone, I strictly advice anyone to not donate any sum of money on the petition when Change.org asks you to donate. As Change.org sneakingly asks for donations on behalf of the petitioner, without their consent and keeps the money to themselves without giving petitioner any visibility on what was donated ? This is spammy, and a fight for an another time, which need to be addressed, for now since the petition has been started on Change.org we will keep it that way.

But make sure not to donate, and tell your friends not to donate when sharing the petition.

I have got in touch with Change.org – below is the email, will update soon what they come back with, but overall their revenue model is misleading.

Change.org Revenue Model = Open a free petition with us (in the background asking people money on your behalf, but intern accepting it as advertising fee).

Here is the email I have sent to their Billing Support team –

Subject: Why I have no visibility of Donations when Change.org asks for money donations on my behalf

Hi, change.org Support Team

This is Navjot, I have a running petition on change.org at the moment – https://www.change.org/p/irish-high-court-remove-1-year-detention-needed-to-qualify-to-apply-for-irish-citizenship/dashboard

Friends have brought to my attention they have donated sums of money on the petition-

1- First of I didn’t setup anything to receive donations/money because this is a petition to support a cause not for profit.

2- Why do change.org hide the donations statistics from the petitioner, given you are asking for money on behalf of the petition & petitioner and sneakingly keeping the money for yourself. Can you please justify ?

And also provide me a detailed list of all donations made by people signing the petition and hopefully refund this money back to these people.

regards

Nav

Update: 21st July – Petition Stats

Below are stats so far –

Update: 19th July – Our Journey so far and Statement from INIS

This show how big of impact this ruling can have on our lives. Hope to see a positive change soon.

Update: 18th July

Tweet from Department of Justice and Equality indicates some Positive Hope

Below is statement from Minister Charlie Flanagan, who said – 

I know that the ruling from the Hight Court has caused concern and may have been unsettling
for people in the Citizenship process. I want to reassure people that my officials are carefully studying the ruling in consultation with
the Attorney General’s Office. This issue is being dealt with an urgent priority and will take any necessary
action to resolve it.

Statement made by – Minister Charlie Flanagan and shared by Department of Justice and Equality

Tweet can be found here – https://mobile.twitter.com/deptjusticeirl/status/1151824277714407424

Petition Details – started on 17th July 2019

Purpose of the petition: Let’s come together to help oppose the new absurd ruling by the Irish High Court judge Max Barret. Which states that nobody can be granted Irish citizenship if they have spent a single day outside the country in the past year. 

This decision has come out of the blue, in the past department of Justice and Equality had been allowing citizenship applicants to be out of the country for up to six weeks in that final year, and “possibly more in exceptional or unavoidable circumstances”.

But Justice Max Barrett ruled this six-week rule has to go “beyond what is legally permissible in this regard, because… the Act of 1956 does not confer any discretionary power on the Minister”.

Pointing to the dictionary definition of “continuous”, the judge held that “an applicant must show a one-year period of residence in Ireland that is ‘unbroken, uninterrupted, connected throughout in space or time

What this means for you ?

If you have already applied for the citizenship and stepped outside the country for even a single day your application can be rejected until this is resolved.

And if you were thinking to apply for citizenship, you may have to wait for a year, don’t travel (basically 1 Year Jail Time). Then apply.

This means for 1 complete year a person is not allowed to go and meet their parents and family, go on a holiday for couple days to relax.

This can be detrimental to people’s mental health and well being.

Support the Petition

Support this petition to fight this absurdity.

More information: https://www.thejournal.ie/citizenship-high-court-residency-continuous-4728401-Jul2019/#respond

Case link: http://courts.ie/Judgments.nsf/09859e7a3f34669680256ef3004a27de/0e91c61cc288576780258439003bc2b4?OpenDocument&fbclid=IwAR3VrOCEOlEK1ZLZXfUBsONhe0hu5jFEu8Wlbg6I1M6L4iHfZ8HrHbcewDs

Contact/Collaborate

Feel free to reach-out to share ideas or collaborate via:

Leaving a comment below (preferred) and if you like more privacy please use the, Contact form: https://mrvirk.com/contact-us