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IIIlllIIIlllIIIEH t1_jcvpv70 wrote

Reply to comment by Dadavester in British man deported to Jamaica launches action against Home Office | Richard Wallace wrongly classed as Jamaican and deported after serving murder sentence, despite having been born in London by kwentongskyblue

I have a question, I am just curious.

I was aware there is no national ID in USA, but surely there is one in UK? How can you not know whether you are a citizen or not for more than 20 years and still have any access to government services/ administration/ sign any kind of contract?

Unless you are a nut job that lives off the grid, how can the government not be aware that you exist for so long?

In my country you either have a citizen number or foreigner number, there is no in between. Surely you may be in the process of getting citizenship but you would know that don't have it yet just by the fact that you don't have the number.

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yabushido t1_jcvvin9 wrote

No, there is no national ID in the UK - there are talks about introducing one, but currently most common ID's are passport and driving licence. You must be British nationality (not citizen!) to get the passport.

How is goverment don't know you exist? Reason #1 - they know, they just don't care. Reason #2 - goverment agencies don't like to share information with eachother or with the ministers unless they really have to.

As for 'numbers' - in the UK it is called National Insurance Number. It is tied to pretty much all goverment services - taxes, benefits, NHS, you name it. You have one and you can access these services.

There is no 'special' set of numbers just for citizens, and it will not change if you applied and was granted citizenship.

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