So the real issue here is that U.K./EU marriages do not give a right to British citizenship. Additionally she did not provide her original passport during the application, that is why she was denied. It also sounds like since then they've changed requirements to make it unnecessary to be with out your passport for 4-6 months.

> So the real issue here is that U.K./EU marriages do not give a right to British citizenship

yep, and it's likely this situation will change as a result of the brexit negotiations, at the very least to match that of a British citizen marrying a non EU-citizen

You send in your passport right after that you send a letter asking for it back.

She didn't follow the procedure you also are not required to send a passport any EU ID like a drivers license or a national identity card can be used instead of a passport.

Tl;dr woman fails to complete paperwork correctly and gets form letter in response.

This article is pure clickbait.

No you didn't properly read the article:

".. the application form included a box for reasons for not including a valid passport as long as it was due to circumstances beyond your control."

And:

"Hawkins points out that she included a solicitor-approved photocopy of her passport plus a covering letter to explain why she could not be without her passport for the four to six months it takes to process."

As a general tip, "I want to travel in the meantime" isn't a valid reason to withhold your passport when applying for residency. And having your mother or your lawyer sign a note doesn't carry much weight.

This happens every day in the UK and other countries. I can't help but feel cynical that It's only news worthy this time because the individuals are caucasian. Immigration laws are extremely rigid and usually only the wealthy or socially palatable can navigate them with ease.

  This happens every day in the UK and other countries

I agree that there are countless examples of people deserving of citizenship (through marriage, children, etc) who are denied by bureaucratic rules, and are often separated from their family as a result (or the entire family has to move).

This one's slightly odder though: someone who (being Dutch) already has the right to live and work visa-free in the UK, is being instructed to leave.

Given the information in the article (and assuming it's correct), there's no legal justification for that.

It's a form letter, which makes sense because she's trying to do something that is meaningless for her situation.

Did you read the article? She wants to obtain British citizenship. To do so, she must first obtain a document certifying that she has a right to live in the UK. That is a requirement for any EU citizen who wants to apply for citizenship. How is that meaningless?

As an EU citizen, she has the right to live in the UK, currently. Applying for permanent residency would be approximately like me, as a US citizen, applying for permanent residency in the US.

With Brexit, in the future, that won't be the case. But until the UK government, in negotiations with the EU, determines how that is going to work for current EU residents, there's no point in dealing with an application process that is not meant for her situation.

Shes not being asked to leave, only being asked to make preparations.

You're not British, are you?

what would be the point of making preparations, if not to do it?

As it should be, a state isn't a pro-bono organization.

As a non Briton and non-EUer, I have limited sympathy for this woman.

"Hawkins said the Home Office had overlooked vital information in her submission – she was unable to supply an original of her Dutch passport because her father had recently died and she needed her passport to continue to travel to the Netherlands to support her mother."

British immigration policies have spent the last decades assuming EU residents are to be treated as UK residents. The article admits this by saying, "It is important to realise that in applying for permanent residency I am not gaining a right, I am only getting a document stating a right I already have."

So what she has done is to enter the process that is applied to all of the rest of us, while expecting it to recognize her special status. And no, "because I want to travel back home" is not a valid reason for withholding your passport from a residency application.

Over my career as mostly a contractor, I have frequently worked for companies who took some pains to ensure I knew I wasn't a real person, because back in the 90s some contractors sued IBM to get real employee benefits.

This woman needs to sit quietly and wait for UK immigration policies to catch up to the new situation, which will likely require legislative work to decide which classes of EU residents can transition immediately to UK residency. And that will happen, because there are thousands of people in the same situation.