http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0% ... %2C00.html
The Sunday Times February 19, 2006
Migrants use homosexual marriage loophole
Robert Winnett, Ali Hussain and Claire Newell
LAWYERS are prepared to advise potential immigrants how to gain British citizenship by signing up for “homosexual marriages” even if they are heterosexual.
Undercover reporters were told by six different firms of solicitors how to exploit a loophole in the civil partnership rules to get passports.
Immigrants face less rigorous tests if they seek to gain British citizenship through a civil partnership than through a heterosexual marriage.
Under laws that took effect last December, homosexual people have the same immigration rights as married people — and may secure a full passport after two years in the country.
However, while marriages have to be consummated to qualify there is no such requirement on couples in a civil partnership. It is thus not illegal for two heterosexual friends to form a civil partnership and then to “divorce” after two years once the foreigner has gained British citizenship.
Last week register offices in London, Essex and Leeds recorded 27 foreigners out of a total of 217 people who had declared their intention to form a civil partnership. Six out of 14 recorded at Bristol involve a foreigner who could be eligible for British citizenship.
Several firms of immigration lawyers advertise their services in homosexual publications and some solicitors explain on their websites the immigration benefits of civil partnerships.
A Home Office advisory group will discuss the issue at its next meeting. Mark Rimmer, a member of the group and registrar at Brent council, said: “It is among people with student and work visas who want to settle permanently where we will see the abuse.”
Reporters visited 12 London solicitors’ firms asking for advice on securing a British passport for a foreigner through civil partnership. A male reporter initially claimed to be homosexual but during five consultations in which solicitors agreed to help made it clear he was heterosexual and wanted a civil partnership to obtain British citizenship for a foreign friend or relative. In the sixth case a “homosexual” female reporter told the solicitor she had a boyfriend.
One reporter visited Dr Akbar Malik of Malik Law Chambers in Bethnal Green, east London, posing as a homosexual teacher who wished to bring his male companion from Bangladesh. Minutes into the meeting he said: “I’ll be honest with you, the fact is I’m not actually . . . homosexual. This is just a way we thought of bringing him over. He’s actually my cousin.”
Malik interrupted, saying, “It doesn’t make any difference,” and then went on to explain how the reporter could gain a passport for his cousin. He said: “It is possible if he comes . . . as a student or in any other capacity. If he comes on another visa he can change his status while he is in the UK . . . on the basis of civil partnership.
“The Home Office will . . . let him stay for two years . . . on the basis of this partnership. In two years’ time . . . he can apply for indefinite leave . . . What the Home Office will ask is that you need to prove that . . . you are living together.”
Asked if this meant the couple had to be in a physical relationship, Malik replied: “No, definitely not.” He also said: “People will use it, you know . . . like marriage of convenience . . . Of course people will use it, no doubt.” Malik refused to comment yesterday.
Another lawyer, Dr Ruby Bhattacharya of ARMB Solicitors in Whitechapel, east London, agreed to help the undercover reporter enter a civil partnership to get his Bangladeshi cousin a passport and also to handle the subsequent divorce so he could marry a woman.
“In future . . . there are ways out as well,” she said. “After two, three years, after he [the cousin] has become permanent, then you can think about other things [marrying a woman], which I’m not supposed to tell you . . . After two years then he will be given indefinite leave."
The reporter in the secretly taped meeting asked: “So you’d be willing to help me through the process of bringing him over, divorcing him and marrying someone else?” Bhattacharya replied: “No problem . . . but there will be separate fees.”
Confronted afterwards she said she had done nothing improper. “No solicitor would help any person who would say that I am bringing somebody with whom I do not have any relationship. You said he is your cousin, so having a relationship with your cousin is not a problem,” she said.
A further five firms were visited by an undercover female reporter who claimed that she wished to “marry” her lesbian Ukrainian girlfriend.
In the meetings she admitted she had a boyfriend and that her “lesbian” lover was simply a friend who wanted a British passport. Three solicitors said there was no requirement to prove a sexual relationship.
A fourth solicitor, Irene Anin of Welbeck Anin Solicitors in Camberwell, south London, said, “It shouldn’t be a problem, you just say you’re girlfriends. As for what goes on behind closed doors, [that] has got nothing to do with anybody.”
The reporter was told she would need to provide letters, photographs and other evidence of a “relationship”. Anin added: “They [the Home Office] will be happy with that. I think they’re fairly lenient now.”
Yesterday Anin defended her comments: “I just told her what the rules were, I just told her what to do. “I felt uncomfortable when she mentioned her boyfriend. I did not encourage her to do anything untoward.”
A solicitor at Callistes Solicitors in Brixton said he would be unable to help the undercover female reporter. “You’re not telling the truth. If she’s not your girlfriend she has no right to be here as your girlfriend,” he said.
The Home Office said: “You have to demonstrate a valid and genuine relationship to qualify for citizenship. If we suspected that the relationship was not genuine we would make further inquiries.”
Additional reporting: Laura St Quinton
