CASE NOTE R (PROJECT FOR THE REGISTRATION OF CHILDREN AS BRITISH CITIZENS & ORS) v SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT [2022] UKSC 3; [2022] 2 WLR 343 ERIC FRIPP* AND ARANIYA KOGULATHAS** TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction........................................................................................................... 302 Litigation Prior to the Judgment of the Supreme Court ........................................ 303 The Judgment of the Supreme Court .................................................................... 305 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 306 INTRODUCTION The British Nationality Act 1981 (‘BNA 1981’) provides a number of routes by which a minor who is not a British citizen may acquire British citizenship by registration. By BNA 1981 s 1(3), a person born in the United Kingdom who is not otherwise a British citizen shall be entitled to be registered as a British citizen if, while he or she is a minor, his or her parent becomes such a citizen or ‘settled’ by maintaining ordinary residence in the United Kingdom and holding indefinite leave to remain. BNA 1981 s 1(3A) makes an equivalent provision applicable when a parent has joined the British armed forces. By BNA 1981 s 1(4), a person born in the United Kingdom who is not otherwise a British citizen shall be entitled to registration if he or she has reached the age of 10 without being absent for more than 90 days in any of those first 10 years of life. In the background is a broader provision, BNA 1981 s 3(1), allowing discretionary grant of citizenship to a minor if the Secretary of State ‘thinks fit’ to do so and another provision giving rise to entitlement to registration where specified circumstances are met, at BNA 1981 s 3(2). Although there are multiple routes to registration as a British citizen for minors, all require the payment of a fee. That fee has been cumulatively increased over the years and presently stands at £1,012, of which £372 defrays the costs of processing the application, while the remainder cross subsidises other immigration and nationality-related activities of the Secretary of State for the Home Department (‘SSHD’).1 The fee is high compared to its equivalent in many * ** 1 Eric Fripp is a barrister at 36 Public and Human Rights, London WC1R 5EF, and Senior Visiting Fellow in the Refugee Law Initiative, School of Advanced Study, University of London. He is General Editor of The Law and Practice of Expulsion and Exclusion from the United Kingdom (Hart 2014) and author of Nationality and Statelessness in the International Law of Refugee Status (Hart 2016). Araniya Kogulathas is a barrister at Goldsmith Chambers, London EC4Y 7BL, and former Legal Manager, Bail for Immigration Detainees, London, N4 2LA. The equivalent fee for adults is higher, at £1,330.