The High Court ruled that a child born in Dublin to a Nigerian father was entitled to a certificate of nationality, after finding that the father’s permission to remain in Ireland covered periods the authorities had left out of their residence calculation.
Mr Justice Ryan held that the father had permission from 7 July 2005, even though he did not register until later. The judgment distinguishes the permission itself from the registration document that evidenced it. The court said the Minister’s letters required an administrative step to obtain that documentation; they did not make the permission conditional on registration.
The father arrived in Ireland in 2001. He received permission to remain for two years from 7 July 2005, following an application under the Irish Born Child scheme, and registered on 22 July. He applied to renew his permission in June 2007. While that application was pending, his existing permission expired on 6 July. The renewal was granted until 7 July 2010, and he registered on 14 August 2007. His son was born in Dublin on 24 August 2008.
The Passport Office refused the child’s passport application in October 2008, calculating that the father had 1,092 days of reckonable residence in the four years before the birth—three days short of the three-year requirement. Its calculation excluded 7 to 21 July 2005 and 8 July to 13 August 2007, when the father had not registered.
The Minister later refused the child’s application for a certificate of nationality under section 28 of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956. The applicant challenged the Minister’s renewed refusal of 5 October 2009 by judicial review. The challenge argued that the father should not lose residence time because of administrative delay and that immigration stamps were not the only legally acceptable proof of residence.
The court said the central question was whether the excluded periods were spent in Ireland under permission from the Minister. It found that the father had lived continuously in Ireland since 7 July 2005 and had been there with the Minister’s permission. It rejected the argument that only a permission issued by an immigration officer in a document or passport inscription could count under the Immigration Act 2004.
The court concluded that the father had been in Ireland with the Minister’s permission since 7 July 2005 and that the child was entitled to a certificate of nationality. Mr Justice Ryan said he proposed to order accordingly. The judgment does not state that a passport was issued.