Kids born to EU nationals turned down for passports

MORE than 1,000 children born in the UK to parents from eight EU countries have been refused British passport renewals after a Home Office ‘error’.

Families were not asked for full documentation when they initially applied for and received passports, according to the BBC.

Now when they apply for a renewal, the applications are being rejected as the families are unable to provide the old paperwork.

The Home Office said the error in guidance made in 2008 was corrected in 2014 and it ‘regrets any inconvenience or delay that this has caused’. 

It added it would assist the ones who are affected to get citizenship.

Those involved are the children of nationals from the eight countries that joined the EU in 2004, including Poland and the Czech Republic. 

They are automatically born a British citizen if one or both parents have the status of a resident at the time of their birth. The Home Office said that in some cases officials failed to check the required residency paperwork, most commonly the Workers Scheme Registration (WRS) certificate.

As such they refuse to renew the passports unless documents are provided. The WRS was scrapped in 2011.

Piotr Lugowski, who has been working in the UK for 13 years, said the Home Office rejected an application to renew his eight-year-old son’s passport. ‘I feel they want to make us not welcome here anymore.