The requirements for those looking for permanent residence or citizenship in Britain include a test of 24 questions aimed at assessing the knowledge of applicants for their adopted home, covering topics, including rugby, the first career house in the country and roses war.
The test is to prove that applicants have “sufficient knowledge of British values, history and society”, according to the home office. But one London woman, the agency said, saw that as an opportunity to make money.
The woman, 61, was arrested on Monday in the British capital for suspicion of fraudulent completion, known as “Life in the UK”, for at least 14 candidates, “allowing them to gain an unfair advantage in their requests stay in the UK,” said the home office.
The woman was wearing various wigs and disguise, the authorities said that they were issued to candidates – male and women – and performed a test for them. Her motive, said the home office, was a financial profit.
The woman she did not consider officials was still in custody on Tuesday, the agency said.
Officers received intelligence that the woman had completed the test several times in several different test centers between June 2022 and August 2023, “the doctors of the documents were disguised and the doctors of the documents were disappointed to avoid the detection of the authorities,” the home office said in a statement.
She was arrested after the officers attacked the address in Enfield, the northern London suburbs, where the officers found false documents and wigs on the land, the home office said. The agency added that it was “one of the most prolific cases” of its kind.
Life in the UK was first introduced as a requirement for citizenship in 2005 by the government of work led by Tony Blair. Two years later it also became a prerequisite for permanent residence.
Over time, the test developed. The government of the conservative Prime Minister David Cameron changed it in 2013 to include other questions about British history. In the same year, an English test was added as a requirement for those who come from non -English -speaking countries.
As a result of the more difficult – and in some cases, the most clear – questions, in combination with the requirement for language, fewer people are going through, said Thom Brooks, Professor of Law and Government at the Faculty of Law, who carried out the test himself.
He said he had never heard of an extended fraud in relation to the test. “I’m surprised that it happened,” he said about the alleged scheme of the cheating woman. “Information about how the test is operated is difficult to come.”
However, Professor Brooks said that testing places were not “too safe”. This experience reminded him that the written part of the British Driving Card test.
Some of the questions in life in the British test are niche, outdated or irrelevant for everyday life in Britain, added Professor Brooks, who called a test and “Bad Quiz” In 2013. His research showed that many British citizens would try to pass the test, he said.
One of the questions he had encountered over the years was about the height of the London eye, the Russian round and the tourist attraction along the River. (Answer: 443 feet.)
“Why?” said. “What makes you the British who know that?”
In July 2020 and A group of historians of Britain and the British Empire sent an open letter to the home office and protested against “ongoing distortion of slavery and empire in the test” Life in the UK “.”
“The official handbook published by Home Office is fundamentally misleading and demonstrably false in places,” the letter said. “The aim of the official guide is to support tolerance and justice and facilitate integration. Historical pages in their current version make the opposite. ”
