The Upper Tribunal has made a declaration that the Home Office’s delay in considering further submissions was unlawful, after the Home Office “voided” the further submissions without telling the applicant. The case is R (D1527) v Secretary of State for the Home Department JR-2025-LON-001018. The applicant is an Egyptian national...
The Court of Appeal has issued a welcome corrective to the tribunals, telling them not to impose an “unrealistic evidential burden” on asylum applicants who claim that they are subject to monitoring by their home government. The case is MH (Bangladesh) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2025]...
The latest tribunal quarterly statistics show that the immigration tribunal’s total appeals backlog stood at 90,389 cases as at 31 March 2025. At the same time the previous year it was 50,332 cases. The current appeals backlog consists of: 50,976 outstanding asylum appeals, up from 27,133 at the same point...
The latest report from Dr Jo Wilding, “No Access to Justice 2” looks at the continuing immigration and asylum legal aid crisis. This is an update to her 2022 report and includes a region by region analysis of demand and provision. In the 2022 report, London was the only region...
An appellant who is a Yemeni national who has lived in China since he was one year old ahs lost his appeal against the refusal of humanitarian protection on the grounds that he can return to China, despite the absence of evidence that China would grant him entry. The court...
Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! When I said last week that I expected we might get some answers on the immigration white paper from the Home Secretary at the Home Affairs Select Committee, I will admit that I had not yet watched this committee in action with this...
The Migration Advisory Committee has published its report on the minimum income requirement for families of British or settled migrants and has recommended that the government does not increase the minimum income threshold to the skilled worker threshold of £38,700 from the current level of £29,000. The call for evidence...
May is over and the immigration white paper has finally been published, so Sonia spends a bit of time at the beginning of this month’s podcast reliving the horrors of that. Andrew covers a very wide range of topics in this episode, from deprivation of citizenship to “self sponsorship” to...
Associate / Senior Associate – Immigration Solicitor Location: Hybrid – Office based Woking, with at least 3 days/week in office PQE: Up to 5 years Firm: Helen Smith Immigration Salary: Competitive, dependent on experience Helen Smith Immigration is a boutique, purpose-driven immigration practice handling high-quality personal and business immigration work....
The Upper Tribunal has refused a judicial review challenging a decision to refuse the applicant leave to enter as a visitor and to set directions for her removal from the UK. The case is R (Ezeh) v Secretary of State for the Home Department JR-2024-LON-001069. The applicant had previously been...
In my previous article, I outlined the precipitous fall in the rate of recognition for Afghan asylum claims following the change in the Home Office policy position in October 2024. I noted that the immigration statistics indicated that 26 Afghan women had their asylum claims refused. It seemed unbelievable...
The Court of Appeal has upheld a decision by the Home Office to refuse a certificate of travel to a woman granted leave to remain on family grounds following an unsuccessful asylum claim. The claimant in R (KH) v The Secretary of State for the Home Department [2025] EWCA Civ...
The seasonal worker route is a popular way to work in the UK temporarily. Migration statistics in 2024 confirm that 46% of all temporary worker visas were granted for seasonal work. The duration is short and doesn’t lead to settlement in the UK. Seasonal worker schemes were launched after the Second World...
A new report from Humans for Rights Network, Oxford Border Criminologies, Refugee Legal Support and Captain Support UK, “I told them the truth” looks at the ongoing criminalisation of people, including age disputed children, arriving in the UK in small boats from February 2024 to April 2025. This is an...
The Court of Appeal has found that an error by the Upper Tribunal in failing to place a relevant document before the decision making judge brought the case within the very limited exceptions for a Cart judicial review to proceed. The substantive challenge, however, was dismissed. The case is R...
Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! The Home Affairs Select Committee will take evidence from the Home Secretary tomorrow and she will be questioned on the immigration white paper, among other topics. The committee will be far more difficult to stonewall than MPs’ written questions, and so there is...
The High Court in R (TJ Trading Express Limited) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2025] EWHC 1274 (Admin) held that before revoking the sponsor’s licence for non-compliance, the Home Office should have given the business an opportunity to make representations in response to its allegations. Background The...
So, you’re training to become an Immigration Advice Authority (“IAA”, formerly “OISC”) adviser. But what can you actually do once you’re accredited? In most cases, it’s straightforward. But not always. Even fully fledged advisers will encounter situations where they have to have a serious think about whether they can provide...
Mr Justice Swift has given some guidance on costs in judicial review applications that are compromised before the full hearing, stating that context is important and that all relevant matters should be considered, even where it appears that the applicant has obtained the relief sought. The case is R (IX)...
What is a creative worker visa and why is this route useful? A creative worker is someone who can make a unique contribution to the country’s rich cultural life, for example, as an artist, dancer, musician or entertainer, or as a model contributing to the fashion industry. The Creative Worker...
The Citizens Advice and Law Centre services across Leeds, Bradford and Airedale are leading providers of advice and information, supporting tens of thousands of clients every year. We are now looking to recruit an ambitious individual to join our growing team as part of a planned expansion of the immigration...
The Migration Advisory Committee has published its report looking at how companies use immigration routes to recruit IT and engineering workers, after the Home Office asked that publication was delayed until after the immigration white paper. The overview states: We support the idea of regularly reviewing occupations or sectors, especially...
The Court of Appeal has once again asked the Home Office to please do something about the state of Appendix EU. The context this time was trying to understand what the rules say about the definition of a durable partner. The case is Mustaj v Secretary of State for the...
Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! The fallout from the white paper continues, unsurprising given the almost total lack of clarity in it. The Independent Monitoring Authority has had to put out a statement reassuring those with leave under the EUSS. By the looks of immigration message boards, MPs’...
In this post, we will look at who is eligible to apply under Appendix Child Relative (Sponsors with Protection) of the immigration rules, what are the requirements, what leave is granted if successful and routes to settlement. Appendix Child Relative (Sponsors with Protection) is a relatively niche route for children...
This guide outlines the steps UK employers and their foreign national employees should take when a visa is approaching expiry and a new immigration application is pending. I’ve co-written this with my employment specialist colleague Gillian Moore, because often there is a real tension between the advice an employee may...
In the face of an ongoing legal aid crisis meaning that far too many people are now having to navigate the appeal process without a lawyer, the Upper Tribunal has stated that it “cannot afford excessive indulgence for non-compliance with the requirements of the rules” by litigants in person (or...
Sponsoring a foreign worker isn’t cheap. Application fees and visa taxes typically run to thousands of pounds. Some of the fees are levied directly on the employer, while others fall on the worker applying for the visa. Many employers cover them all rather than leaving the worker to pay substantial...
Salary: £34,650 – £41,500 gross per annum at 1.0 FTE. Working pattern: 1.0 FTE (37.5 hrs per week), or 0.9 or 0.8 FTE. Flexible working requests will be considered. Contract: Permanent with a 6 months probationary period Team: UK Legal Team Location: This role can be hybrid, or office based....
The latest quarterly immigration and asylum statistics have been published, covering the period January to March 2025. The asylum backlog is down, but that is fairly meaningless given how atrocious decision making is at the moment, those cases are now the First-tier Tribunal’s problem. Syrians seeking asylum in the UK...
We often get questions about how to become an Immigration Advice Authority (‘IAA’ – previously known as the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner / OISC) adviser so we have compiled all the essential information in one place for you. The first thing to say is that if you are...
The Supreme Court has upheld a decision of the Court of Appeal, which had agreed with the Special Immigration Appeals Commission’s decision to dismiss an appeal against deprivation of British citizenship and an application for entry clearance by a woman in Syria. The case is U3 v Secretary of State...
Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! It has been a busy week and there is a lot I want to mention. First of all, the Legal Aid Agency announced this morning that it has come under cyber attack and the perpetrators have “accessed a large amount of information relating...
The Immigration Advice Authority (formerly OISC) has published an updated version of their guidance note on supervision. The note covers supervising someone who wants to move to a higher advice or increase their competencies, supervising trainee advisers working at level 1 under supervision, the different types of supervisor – principal...
An unhappy Court of Appeal has warned against the “the type of informal case expansion that was deprecated by this Court in R (Talpada) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWCA Civ 841” and reminded litigants of the need to make formal applications when wanting to amend...
The Court of Appeal has upheld a decision of the Upper Tribunal to allow the Home Secretary’s appeal against a First-tier Tribunal decision allowing the appeal of a Vietnamese national on humanitarian protection grounds. The court held that the First-tier Tribunal had not given sufficient reasons for finding the appellant...
