Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! For the third week in a row a person has died trying to cross the Channel to get to the UK. 23 people have lost their lives attempting that journey and there is a lot of this year left. Still nothing from the new government...
The “Pending Prosecutions” section of the EU Settlement Scheme: suitability requirements version 8.0 policy, which provided for applications to be paused where there was a pending prosecution, has been held to be unlawful by the Upper Tribunal. The case is R (Lukasz Krzysztofik) v Secretary of State for the Home...
The Court of Appeal has upheld the Home Secretary’s decision to refuse an application made under Appendix EU by an extended family member who had not first obtained a residence document under the Immigration (EEA) Regulations 2016. The case is Emambux v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024]...
We are looking for an experienced Immigration Solicitor to join our highly successful, creative, and dynamic immigration team. The Migrant and Refugee Children’s Legal Unit at Islington Law Centre has a much-respected Immigration Team. We are a category 1 Legal Aid Immigration provider and we have considerable experience across the...
After the ban on grants of leave to those in the inadmissibility process was lifted following the change in government earlier this year, there has finally started to be some progress on deciding asylum claims. However early signs are that that the emphasis on fast decision making is coming at...
The Migration Advisory Committee has published its annual report for 2024. The letter from the Chair, Professor Brian Bell, to the Home Secretary summarised the report as follows: The report discusses the government’s intention to link migration and skills policy and recent UK net migration trends. We explore the relationship...
We are looking to recruit one or more consultant trainers to deliver our introductory and advanced four-week immigration and asylum law courses. We started delivering these in 2023 and they have proven to be very popular. Each one has sold out so far, in fact, so we’re planning to run...
In a fairly unsurprising decision, the Upper Tribunal has said that indefinite leave to remain obtained by deception and subsequently revoked cannot be counted as “continuous lawful residence” for the purposes of an application for indefinite leave to remain based on ten years’ residence. The case is R (on the...
Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! Statements by UNHCR and ECRE are both must reads in relation to the pause on Syrian asylum claims. A pause seems sensible to me and could be beneficial to those where proceeding with the claim now may otherwise result in a refusal. Many Syrian asylum claims are...
The High Court has said in a written preliminary decision that it was not bound to transfer a judicial review challenging a public order disqualification in a trafficking case to the Upper Tribunal. The court also exercised its discretion to retain the case within the High Court. The case is...
The presidents of the Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) and First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) have published the Joint Presidential Guidance No. 1 of 2024: Appointment of litigation friends, to help those who lack capacity to conduct their own tribunal proceedings. In the immigration tribunals context, the power...
A rare opportunity for an ambitious and driven Fundraising Lead to join a well respected and impactful human rights organisation to drive growth and challenge abuse in immigration detention. 3 days a week, £40,000 p/a pro-rata, hybrid and flexible working possibilities. Office in Finsbury Park, London. Medical Justice particularly welcomes...
The Upper Tribunal has dismissed a judicial review challenging refusal of a Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) Migrant application because of a lack of clarity in the loan agreement. The case is R (Waljee) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (Tier 1, Directors Loan) [2024] UKUT 418 (IAC). The headnote...
The Court of Appeal has said that a child, who is over 21 and has rights of residence based on dependency on their EU citizen parent, does not lose those rights if they start working and are no longer financially dependent on the parent. Essentially, dependency is determined at the...
An unrepresented claimant has been unsuccessful in her challenge to the Home Secretary’s decision to void her indefinite leave to remain application because she submitted a second application to the EU Settlement Scheme. The decision was not communicated to the claimant until it was disclosed during her appeal against the...
An Afghan family who were separated when the father and son ended up in the UK and the mother (divorced from the father) ended up in the US have lost their judicial review challenging refusal under the Afghan Relocations Assistance Policy. The case is HS & Anor, R (On the...
The tribunal statistics for June to September 2024 were published today, covering the first couple of months of the new government. The good news is that the asylum appeals backlog has risen only slightly. The mean waiting time rose from 38 weeks to 42 weeks. With 30,000 asylum appellants entering...
A fifth decision on the same application made under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy has just been quashed on the grounds of unfairness, meaning that a sixth decision will now need to be made. The Foreign Secretary unsuccessfully tried to conceal the names of the civil servants involved. Once...
Cavan Medlock has been found by a court to have prepared a terrorist attack at Duncan Lewis, an immigration law firm, after reading an attack article in the Daily Mail about their work representing refugees. He is too mentally unwell to have been convicted but the court made findings of...
The report by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration following the inspection of the immigration enforcement competent authority has been published today, along with the Home Office’s response. The Chief Inspector David Bolt said “on the evidence of this inspection, the IECA has to date placed speed above...
This article sets out the recent changes to the policy on granting people leave to remain once they have received a positive conclusive grounds decision, which is the second and final stage of the trafficking identification process. As discussed previously, the position in relation to grants of leave made to...
Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! On Wednesday the government made a written statement on eVisas that didn’t contain much that was new, apart from the ability of people to use biometric residence permits that expire on 31 December 2024 to travel up until 31 March 2025 (actually announced in the Guardian...
Immigration applications are extremely expensive. Most requests for permission to stay in the UK (other than under the points based immigration system) now cost £1,258. In addition, applicants may need to pay an immigration health surcharge (£1,035 a year for adults and £776 for children). On average, therefore, migrants will...
The Unity Project (TUP) supports people who are facing poverty and homelessness because their immigration status allows them ‘no recourse to public funds’ (NRPF). We believe NRPF should not exist and we are working to end it. Until then, we seek to minimise its impact by supporting people to make...
Barry returns and joins Sonia to run you through November on Free Movement. It was statistics galore for Sonia who covered the latest immigration, asylum and trafficking figures. A surprise statement of changes contained bad news for Colombians and Ukrainians. Barry was a really big fan of Colin’s review of...
The Upper Tribunal has said that the enhanced protection against deportation of European nationals is available where there is criminal conduct covering both the pre and post-Brexit periods. The tribunal clarified the definition of deportation order at subsection (b) in Annex 1 of Appendix EU, relevant for the purposes of...
In November 2024 there was a significant development in relation to the plight of around 64 people stranded on Diego Garcia, as the Home Secretary announced that she would be offering 61 of them the opportunity to be transferred to the UK. This week, on 2 and 3 December 2024,...
The UK’s global talent visa went live in February 2020, replacing the old Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent) route. Since that time, it has secured its place as a badge of honour for those deemed talented enough to obtain one. And with many applicants able to obtain indefinite leave to remain...
The Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner, or OISC as we all call it, is to be abolished in the new year. It will be replaced by a new-look Immigration Advice Authority, or IAA. Not to be confused with the Immigration and Asylum Accreditation Scheme (IAAS) run by the Law...
The Manuel Bravo Project are recruiting. We are looking to expand our casework team and seek two new members of staff to provide free, quality legal advice in relation to Asylum and Immigration matters. The roles offer Hybrid working, but are mostly based at our offices in Leeds. We are...
Following reports of planned concessions around the 31 December 2024 deadline for people to get their eVisas, today Seema Malhotra MP the Minister for Migration and Citizenship has made a written statement. A new media factsheet was also published as well as statistics on the number of eVisa accounts created...
The High Court has dismissed a judicial review challenging the decision of the Home Secretary to refuse to grant indefinite leave to remain to the claimant, Jeanell Hippolyte, under the Windrush scheme. The case is Hippolyte v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWHC 2968 (Admin). Claimant’s background...
Location: Birmingham or Coventry Salary: Up to £29,746 for Caseworkers (depending on experience) Up to £35,948 for Solicitors (depending on experience) Hours: Full Time (37 hours) or Part Time Considered Central England Law Centre (CELC) is looking for an Immigration Solicitor/Caseworker to join our friendly Immigration Team. The successful candidate...
Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! Okay, it’s a Monday, so let’s do the good news first. Bibby Stockholm is empty. Friday was the deadline for the Lord Chancellor to make an announcement on legal aid fees for immigration and asylum work, following the settlement of Duncan Lewis’ judicial review in September....
In Branco-Bonfim v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWCA Civ 1421, the Home Office sought to remove a Portuguese man without giving him an in-country right of appeal, by relying on a certification decision relating to his deportation in 2019 rather than issuing a new certification decision....
There is now only a month left before all biometric residence permits and biometric residence cards will expire on 31 December 2024 and understanding of the changes among those responsible for enforcing the hostile environment remains dangerously low. From 1 January 2025 onwards, individuals will be expected to show their...
The Electronic Travel Authorisation scheme was first announced in the March 2023 Statement of Changes to the immigration rules HC 1160. This post explains what the scheme is, who needs an electronic travel authorisation, and how to apply. The relevant immigration rules are found in Appendix Electronic Travel Authorisation and Appendix ETA...
The statistics for the period July to September 2024 have been published today, showing a very large drop in health and care worker visas, a lesser but still significant drop in students, a fall in the asylum grant rate that doesn’t seem likely to achieve much beyond creating further chaos...
In M.I. v. Switzerland – 56390/21 (Article 3 – Prohibition of torture : Third Section) [2024] ECHR 862 the European Court of Human Rights has said that failure to properly assess the risk of ill treatment of an LGBTQI+ person in their country of origin and whether state protection was...
The High Court has found that the Home Secretary does not have an adequate system in place for processing change of conditions application to reduce, to a reasonable and proportionate minimum, the risk of inhuman and degrading treatment caused by the “no recourse to public funds” (“NRPF”) condition. The case...
