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flaviomatani Aug. 1st, 2025 11:09 am)
flaviomatani Aug. 1st, 2025 11:09 am)After the little scare when booking the flight back from Miami on the NY, I decided that, expensive and a faff as it now is, I should get British citizenship, after all these years.
Why hadn't I done it before? Well, until 2016 that didn't seem necessary, with me being an EU citizen. But then I learnt that half of this country kind of don't want me here (I know, I'm being a bit melodramatic there). On the night before the flight back the airline wouldn't let me check in online because 'I needed a visa to enter the UK' and I 'needed a return flight' out of the UK. That night, let's say I didn't sleep much. There's been a couple of other things that have made me think I really should look into this.
I tried to fill in the forms online and then I hit what seems a very minor obstacle: they want the _exact_ date of first arrival in the UK. Well, I came here first on a Caribbean Airways (national airline of Barbados) flight in... sometime late June or early July? 1986. You don't keep airline tickets from 38 years ago. Plus the airline went under the year after I came so no-one there to ask. I entered the country as an Italian, EU citizen, therefore no stamps on my passport. I should imagine the Home Office should have the passenger manifest for that flight so I daren't make up a date and then be told that I forfeited the nearly two thousand pound fee because I put false details in -can't afford that!. Later I learnt there is a lot more to that, apparently you should declare even minor parking or traffic fines, etc. So it looks like I need advice but -lawyers are very expensive! I don't think I can afford that and the nearly two thousand pound fee. So I'm at a bit of a quandary, waiting to see whether I can find more information about this. It is clear that at this point in the game I will be spending what's left of my life in this country -unless something really, really major happens. So it looks like I'll be needing advice on this.
Why hadn't I done it before? Well, until 2016 that didn't seem necessary, with me being an EU citizen. But then I learnt that half of this country kind of don't want me here (I know, I'm being a bit melodramatic there). On the night before the flight back the airline wouldn't let me check in online because 'I needed a visa to enter the UK' and I 'needed a return flight' out of the UK. That night, let's say I didn't sleep much. There's been a couple of other things that have made me think I really should look into this.
I tried to fill in the forms online and then I hit what seems a very minor obstacle: they want the _exact_ date of first arrival in the UK. Well, I came here first on a Caribbean Airways (national airline of Barbados) flight in... sometime late June or early July? 1986. You don't keep airline tickets from 38 years ago. Plus the airline went under the year after I came so no-one there to ask. I entered the country as an Italian, EU citizen, therefore no stamps on my passport. I should imagine the Home Office should have the passenger manifest for that flight so I daren't make up a date and then be told that I forfeited the nearly two thousand pound fee because I put false details in -can't afford that!. Later I learnt there is a lot more to that, apparently you should declare even minor parking or traffic fines, etc. So it looks like I need advice but -lawyers are very expensive! I don't think I can afford that and the nearly two thousand pound fee. So I'm at a bit of a quandary, waiting to see whether I can find more information about this. It is clear that at this point in the game I will be spending what's left of my life in this country -unless something really, really major happens. So it looks like I'll be needing advice on this.
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