Chen v Home Secretary


Chen v Home Secretary was a decision of the European Court of Justice which decided that a minor who is a national of a European Union member state has the right to reside in the European Union with his or her third-country national parents, provided the minor and parents have health insurance and will not become a burden on the public finances of the member state of residence.

Facts

Kunqian Catherine Zhu was born on 16 September 2000 in Belfast to Chinese parents who were living in Wales and working for a Chinese firm there. The child's mother, Man Lavette Chen, had selected Northern Ireland as a birthplace for her daughter so that she could gain Irish nationality. As Catherine's parents were only temporary migrants in the UK, she was not eligible for British citizenship simply by virtue of birth in the United Kingdom, as the United Kingdom abolished automatic jus soli in 1983.
However, by being born in Belfast, Catherine was entitled to Irish citizenship because at that time, anyone born on the island of Ireland had the automatic, unrestricted right to Irish citizenship. Thus, Mrs Chen obtained a passport and hence Irish citizenship for Catherine, with the intention of using Catherine's status as a European Union citizen to move the family permanently to Cardiff, Wales. However, British authorities rejected the family's application for permits to reside permanently in the United Kingdom. On appeal, adjudicator Michael Shrimpton of the Immigration Appellate Authority referred the decision to the European Court of Justice, which ruled that, as a citizen of the European Union, Catherine Chen had a right under Article 18 of the EC Treaty to reside anywhere in the EU, and that denying residency to her parents at a time when she is unable to look after herself would conflict with this basic right.
Advocate General Tizzano stated that it was not an abuse of EU rights to take advantage of the Irish citizenship rules because it is for the Member States and not the EU to decide whether to confer citizenship on a person.

Judgment

The court ruled:

Significance

This case and similar examples led to the Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland, making it constitutionally possible in future for the Republic of Ireland to refuse citizenship to individuals who did not have a parent who is Irish, British or living permanently in Ireland.