Woman in Disguise Took U.K. Citizenship Test for Others, Authorities Say

New York Times

28-01-2025

Among the requirements for those seeking permanent residency or citizenship in Britain is a 24-question test designed to assess applicants' knowledge of their adopted home, covering topics including rugby, the country's first curry house and the War of the Roses.
The test is supposed 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 it as a moneymaking opportunity.
The woman, 61, was arrested in the British capital on Monday on suspicion of fraudulently completing the exam, known as the 'Life in the U.K. Test,' for at least 14 applicants, 'allowing them to gain an unfair advantage in their applications to remain in the U.K.,' the Home Office said.
The woman wore different wigs and disguises, the authorities said, to impersonate applicants — both male and female — and take the test for them. Her motive, the Home Office said, was financial gain.
The woman, whom officials did not name, was still in custody on Tuesday, the agency said.
Officers received intelligence that a woman had completed the test multiple times at several different test centers between June 2022 and August 2023, 'disguising herself and doctoring ID documents to evade detection from authorities,' the Home Office said in a statement.
She was arrested after officers raided an address in Enfield, a north London suburb, where officers found false documents and wigs on the property, the Home Office said. The agency added that this was 'one of the most prolific cases' of its kind.
The Life in the U.K. Test was first introduced as a citizenship requirement in 2005 by the Labour government led by Tony Blair. Two years later, it also became a prerequisite for permanent residency.
Over time, the test has evolved. The government of the Conservative prime minister David Cameron changed it in 2013 to include more questions about British history. That same year, an English language exam was added as a requirement for those coming from non-English-speaking countries.
As a result of the more difficult — and in some cases, more obscure — questions, in combination with the language requirement, fewer people are passing, said Thom Brooks, professor of law and government at the Durham Law School who has taken the test himself.
He said that he had never heard of widespread fraud in relation to the test. 'I'm surprised it has happened,' he said of the woman's alleged cheating scheme. 'Information about how the test is run is hard to come by.'
Professor Brooks said, however, that testing locations were not 'overly secure.' The experience reminded him of taking the written portion of a British driver's license test.
Some of the questions in the Life in the U.K. Test are niche, outdated or irrelevant to daily life in Britain, added Professor Brooks, who called the test a 'bad pub quiz' in 2013. His research showed that many British citizens would struggle to pass the test, he said.
One of the questions he had come across over the years was about the height of the London Eye, a Ferris wheel and tourist attraction along the River Thames. (The answer: 443 feet.)
'Why?' he said. 'What makes you British knowing that?'
In July 2020, a group of historians of Britain and the British Empire sent an open letter to the Home Office, protesting 'the ongoing misrepresentation of slavery and Empire in the 'Life in the U.K. Test.''
'The official handbook published by the Home Office is fundamentally misleading and in places demonstrably false,' the letter said. 'The aim of the official handbook is to promote tolerance and fairness and facilitate integration. In its current version, the historical pages do the opposite.'