The quarterly immigration and asylum statistics covering the period April to June 2025 have been published by the Home Office. A couple of notable points on the asylum front is the increase in Palestinians arriving in the UK across the Channel and some fairly suspicious silence from the Home Office...
The First-tier Tribunal will re-hear the appeal of a man who received a letter from the Home Office refusing his asylum, and then a few days later a biometric resident permit reflecting a grant of refugee leave. The Upper Tribunal said that the biometric residence permit is not a grant...
Epping Council has succeeded in obtaining an interim injunction to prevent the use of the Bell Hotel as asylum accommodation pending the final outcome of the proceedings. The case is Epping Forest District Council v Somani Hotels Ltd [2025] EWHC 2183 (KB). This is a planning law case so don’t...
Anybody over the age of ten who applies for registration or naturalisation as a British citizen needs to meet the so-called “good character requirement”. This is a mandatory requirement set out in the British Nationality Act 1981. Where a person is deemed by the Home Office not to be “of...
Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! Shortly after the immigration white paper was published, two petitions against the doubling of the settlement period from five to ten years in two specific routes hit the 100,000 threshold required for the government to consider holding a debate on the issue. Keeping...
First-tier Tribunal judges can consider applications for permission to appeal their own decisions under processes introduced in January this year but seemingly not communicated to practitioners until much later. The decision says that “the change in practice was communicated to stakeholders at the Immigration and Asylum Chamber Improvement Group on...
In a decision made in April 2024 but only made public now, the High Court quashed decisions made by the Secretary of State of Defence that the claimants were not eligible under the Afghan Response Route because, as a judge and a journalist, they did not work in one of...
This article looks at some common practical issues which arise during the imposition of immigration bail conditions by the First-tier Tribunal, such as the requirement for the probation service to approve a bail address and issues around schedule 10 accommodation. This is of increasing importance given the current government has...
An Afghan man and his family have lost their challenge to refusal of their application for resettlement under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy. The case is R (AFA & Ors) v Secretary of State for Home Department & Anor [2025] EWHC 2143 (Admin). Before the Taliban took over, the...
The High Court has agreed with the Home Secretary in a judicial review challenging a claimant’s deportation and detention on the grounds that he had an outstanding asylum claim. The High Court held that the implicit withdrawal of the asylum claim was lawful and accepted the Home Secretary’s argument that...
The Upper Tribunal has held that a refusal to grant leave under Appendix Hong Kong BN(O) was procedurally unfair because the decision maker decided the application with reference to evidence not provided by the applicant and without providing an opportunity for the applicant to address that evidence. The case is...
A 68 year old woman has been ordered to pay the Home Secretary’s costs after unsuccessfully challenging a refusal to grant her indefinite leave to remain. The woman became the primary carer for her British granddaughter after her daughter died of Covid in April 2020 and has been working as...
The First-tier Tribunal (GRC) has, unsurprisingly, struck out an appeal which was based on a disagreement with the marks awarded in the Immigration Advice Authority’s level 1 competence assessment. The case is Prime Immigration Services Ltd v The Immigration Services Commissioner [2025] UKFTT 959 (GRC). Prime Immigration Services Ltd had...
The Upper Tribunal has declined to decide a policy challenge to the ten day deadline, and “exceptional circumstances” requirement to extend it, to respond to a notification that the Home Secretary is considering excluding someone from trafficking protections under the public order disqualification. The challenge to the individual decision was...
Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! There are obviously a variety of reasons why the right wing press’ targeting of judges and putting them in danger of violence is problematic. One of those issues is how poor the journalists’ understanding is of their subject matter. I have written a...
The inadmissibility process is what the UK has used in recent years to exclude a person’s asylum claim from being considered and decided in the UK, so that they can then be removed to a third country (first Rwanda and now France). The current inadmissibility process in asylum claims was...
Kent Law Clinic is recruiting for a solicitor and/or barrister with extensive experience in immigration law to take up a role of practitioner and academic; the role includes conducting casework, and teaching and supervising law students. Kent Law Clinic is based within Kent Law School at the University of Kent....
The Home Office announced over the weekend that the use of “deport first, appeal later” would be expanded from eight to 23 countries. The list of countries is missing from that announcement but has been covered elsewhere. Existing countries were Finland, Nigeria, Estonia, Albania, Belize, Mauritius, Tanzania and Kosovo. New...
It is certainly possible to change employer whilst on a skilled worker visa. However, there are several factors to consider throughout the process, especially considering the monumental changes to the immigration rules on 22 July 2025. In this article we will consider the steps required to change employer on a...
In what was described by the Court of Appeal as “the fourth case to reach this court in the wake of R (Begum) v Special Immigration Appeals Commission [2021] UKSC 7” three appellants have lost their appeal against deprivation of citizenship and a fourth has lost their appeal against exclusion...
July was actually a fairly busy month! Join Sonia and Barry as they run you through what happened, including the changes to the skilled worker route, everything that happened on Afghan resettlement, recent changes to the EU Settlement Scheme and the latest instalment in a far too long running Palestinian...
Plumstead Community Law Centre is recruiting an Experienced Supervising Solicitor with at least 3 years’ PQE. This is an exciting opportunity to build on the Law Centre’s significant recent management and governance developments and to lead the strengthening of its legal practice. For more details, you can download the job pack here. To...
This post has been updated with the latest developments on Thursday including the Home Office announcement on detentions and publication of the caseworker guidance applicable to those applying to come to the UK. Applications have also opened for people to submit an expression of interest to come to the UK....
It appears that the first application window has opened for those who want to come to the UK from France under the new scheme announced this week. The expression of interest form is online along with guidance that says: “The scheme will be open for applications for a short period....
On Tuesday, the government introduced a new Appendix UK/European Applicant Transfer Scheme to the immigration rules and below we consider the implication of the new scheme from the perspective of an NGO working with people in Northern France. These changes come into swift effect following the coming into force of...
Work cases. Shape policy. Expand access to justice. About Seraphus Seraphus is a fully remote, values-led UK firm specialising in immigration law and European citizens’ rights. We deliver online advice at scale (with Free Movement), legally aided and privately funded services, and sector-shaping policy work with the European Commission, the...
The Home Secretary has succeeded in a judicial review against the Special Immigration Appeals Commission challenging a decision on their jurisdiction to award costs in certain cases. The case is R (Secretary of State for the Home Department) v Special Immigration Appeals Commission [2025] EWHC 2019 (Admin). As is usually...
Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! Because of the way that people in the asylum system are treated, the period while waiting for a decision is often an undignified and dangerous time. It is understandable that where other options are available people will choose those so as to avoid...
The High Court has dismissed a judicial review challenging the Home Secretary’s failure to implement the recommendations of the Brook House inquiry. The judgment includes a useful annex addressing an application made by the Home Secretary for an order preventing the claimants from relying on material subject to parliamentary privilege....
The Court of Appeal has refused an application to lift the anonymity order protecting the identity of a woman who lacks the capacity to litigate. The case is SA v The Secretary of State for the Home Department [2025] EWCA Civ 1065 (the Home Secretary was an interested party, the...
On 1 July 2025, the British Nationality (Irish Citizens) Act 2024 (Commencement) Regulations 2025 made provisions for the British Nationality (Irish Citizens) Act 2024 to come into force on 22 July 2025. The Act introduces a simplified route for Irish citizens who have been resident in the UK for five...
There is a UK visa for overseas domestic workers, first introduced in 2002. Although the immigration rules do not define “domestic workers”, the route is typically used by nannies, cleaners, chauffeurs, cooks, personal carers and protection staff. The domestic worker route has undergone a number of changes over the years,...
It has been a big summer for the field of climate change, migration, and international human rights. On 3 July, the Inter American Court of Human Rights released its historic advisory opinion on the legal obligations of states in light of the climate emergency, and on 23 July the International...
A Palestinian family, including children aged nine and seven, have succeeded in a judicial review challenging the UK’s failure to provide them with consular assistance to get them out of Gaza so that they can register their biometrics and come to the UK to join family. The case is R...
Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! This is an important read from our fellow blogger Giles Peaker over on the Nearly Legal housing blog, looking at how AI has contributed to the spread of inaccurate information about housing for people in the asylum system. A housing association in Wales...
