Path to Citizenship

But the squabbling is about stream ownership and budgeting, rather than policy.  Strictly quotidian matters... 

"No, I get to push the send button!  No I do...  Well I am paying for it, so I get to press the send button..."  Something like that?

Something like that. 

Same thing for the biometrics crash.

Thank you all for following this for us.  I've been trying to follow it, but end up feeling quite confused by everything.  I'm currently applying for ILR and had hoped to get citizenship next year.  Feel free to hold them off somehow until after next November.

If anyone is suffering from insomnia then the draft Bill might help! Click here to download, but be warned it is a 229 page PDF file! Very detailed of course, it effectively rewrites and replaces much of the existing law on immigration and nationality.

When might that draft Bill be formally introduced to Parliament? Note that the parliament.uk website tells us :-

The State Opening of Parliament for the 2008-09 session will take place on Wednesday 3 December 2008.

-: and it is in the Queen's Speech on that day that we shall learn a lot more about the Government's plans.

In fact the draft Bill has been presented for pre-legislative scrutiny. That process is on-going, so there is no guarantee that every word in the draft Bill will be in the Bill to be presented on Parliament on or after 3rd December.

In the draft Bill clause 34 on page 30 of 229 is particularly "interesting". It will renew your interest in algebra! X! Y! Z!  Anyone still awake?

Even after the Bill is passed into law, and that will take quite a few months, any particular provision does not take effect immediately. As it says in clause 213 on page 119 of 229 :-

The remaining provisions of this Act come into force in accordance with provision made by order of the Secretary of State

In other words, only after a commencement order is laid specifying that a particular part of the Act shall come into force.