Soon after announcing his and Meghan’s decision to quit royal duties in 2020, the Duke of Sussex Prince Harry declared at a charity event: ‘The UK is my home and a place that I love. That will never change.’
Four years later, much, it seems, has changed, Daily mail reports.
According to the report by Daily Mail Prince Harry has updated his records in this country to make clear that he no longer lives in Britain.
Filings published by Companies House today for ‘Prince Henry Charles Albert David Duke of Sussex’ record that his ‘New Country/State Usually Resident’ is now the USA. It was previously recorded as the United Kingdom.
The change comes as pressure increases on US President Joe Biden’s government to release Harry’s visa records after campaigners seized on comments made by the American ambassador to London that he would not be deported while the Democrat was president.
The publicly-viewable document that shows Prince Harry is now based in the United States
The conservative Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington DC, which has gone to court to seek the release of the file, has submitted the remarks made by Jane Hartley as part of its case
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The new details, filed at Companies House for Harry’s eco-travel venture Travalyst, also raise serious questions about whether he can remain as a Counsellor of State, one of seven members of the Royal Family who can deputise for the Monarch if he is abroad or unwell.
By law, Counsellors of State are required to have a UK domicile, but Prince Harry has no home here after King Charles asked the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to vacate Frogmore Cottage, a gift from the late Queen Elizabeth.
Dr Craig Prescott, an expert on constitutional law, said last year: ‘We are really in uncharted waters here: the Prince Harry situation is not something the law easily allows for.
‘The idea of the second son of the King choosing a life away from royal duties is not something the law has thought about, and I can imagine that Buckingham Palace would be concerned by that.
The King had the chance to remove him with the counsellor-of-state legislation last year, but chose not to.’
Until 2022, the Counsellors of State were Queen Camilla, Prince William, Harry, Prince Andrew and his elder daughter Princess Beatrice.
However, many considered this situation unsuitable as Harry, the Duke of York and Beatrice are not working royals.
Later that year, the King asked parliament to add his sister, Princess Anne, and youngest brother, Prince Edward, to the list.
It was reported that the King decided not to remove Harry and Andrew because he did not want to escalate family tensions and believed it was unlikely either would ever be required to deputise for him.
However, last year courtiers were keen to ensure that William returned to Britain from a solo trip to New York before the King and Queen departed for their state visit to France on the same day.
The situation has since become even more urgent because of the King’s cancer treatment.
Harry challenged the decision by the Home Office to remove his right to automatic Metropolitan Police protection when he is in Britain, even though he has offered to pay for it himself.
After the decision was made, a legal representative for Harry has said he was ‘unable to return to his home’ with his family because it is too dangerous.
He has since lost the court case and potentially faces a bill of around £1million when his own legal costs are taken into account.
A judge rejected a bid to halve the amount he had to pay by saying the Duke of Sussex had ‘comprehensively lost’ his case.
Separately Sir Peter Lane also threw out the duke’s application to appeal against the ruling, describing one section of it as ‘frankly hopeless’.
The Heritage Foundation has been pushing the Department of Homeland Security to open its dossier on Harry under America’s freedom of information laws.
After he admitted taking cocaine in his memoirs, Spare, he faced questions over how he had been able to move to the USA, where admitting drug use can block a visa application.