Fee waivers (meaning that the application can be made without paying the fee) are available for people who are outside the UK and who are making certain types of entry clearance applications but cannot afford the fee. This is important as the fees are set at a level that is...
On 15 April 2025, the Home Office published a new version of its country policy and information note (‘CPIN’) on social media, surveillance and sur place activities in Iran. This replaced the previous version of the CPIN published in March 2022. It is a significant update, particularly considering that the...
Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! Anyone relying on a US State Department “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices” report in an asylum or human rights claim should check the date on it carefully going forward, after reports on the weekend that these will no longer cover many areas, including reports...
A person on a skilled worker visa who was encountered working in a nail salon has successfully challenged the cancellation of her leave. The case is R (Thi Lam Thao Dao) v Secretary of State for the Home Department JR-2024-LON-002126. The applicant is a Vietnamese national who arrived in the...
A Sudanese refugee has succeeded in challenging a negative trafficking decision after he was wrongly criticised for a lack of detail and supporting evidence for his claim. The case is R (Alnoor) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2025] EWHC 922 (Admin). Background The claimant is a Sudanese...
There is a strong argument that the answer to this question is yes. The Home Office recently conceded a judicial review brought on this basis. However, to date, the argument has not been tested in court. The eligibility requirements for entry clearance as a spouse are in Appendix FM of...
About us: Refugee and Migrant Network Sutton (RMNS) is a volunteer-led organisation committed to supporting refugees, asylum seekers and newly settled migrants living or working in Sutton. In addition to free immigration-related legal advice provided by our full-time Advice Worker, RMNS has a team of over 45 volunteers giving One2One...
After the ban on grants of leave to those in the inadmissibility process was lifted following the change in government last 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...
Employers in the UK are required to conduct right to work checks to ensure that their employees have the legal right to work. If the employer knows, or ought to know, that the individual does not have permission to work, they can face civil penalties of up to £60,000 and...
Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! On Friday the Home Office announced a new £1.5 million fund to help people with the Windrush Compensation Scheme. Assistance is needed and welcome, but the announcement does not include help with legal fees and instead makes a point of saying that “Many...
The Court of Appeal has rejected a student’s argument that the Home Secretary should have exercised discretion and considered his application to switch into the skilled worker route, instead of rejecting it for not meeting the validity requirements after a rule change came into force prohibiting such a move. The...
The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill has completed its committee stage and a date for report stage has not yet been announced. The Bill as first introduced has had a couple of amendments at committee stage, both introduced by the government. The main changes relate to the EU Settlement...
The Home Secretary has made a useful concession to the High Court, confirming that she has a discretion to grant indefinite leave to remain outside the immigration rules without a fee being paid. The child claimant in the case successfully challenged the rejection of his application for indefinite leave to...
Job Title Immigration Caseworker Department Employment Reporting to Employment Partners Location GlasgowInitially, this role will be fully office based however, after 6 months, the option to work hybrid may be available. Working hours 9am-5pm Monday-Friday (35 hours per week) Job Type Permanent Closing date Please note, whilst we don’t have...
Further submissions, sometimes referred to as a ‘fresh claim’, is a process for submitting a human rights or protection claim where a previous claim has been refused, withdrawn, treated as withdrawn or become appeal rights exhausted. It can be an effective tool for rectifying years of uncertainty for a failed...
Job title: Chief Executive Organisation: Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA) Contract type: 5 days per week / Permanent Salary: £68,000 to £71,000 per annum, depending on experience Location: Hybrid working – at least one day a week in London Application deadline: 9.00 am on Monday 28 April 2025 Interviews (London):...
The Appendix FM minimum income requirements for spouse and partner visas can catch out even those with enough money to meet them. Having the money only takes you so far: the income must come from a specific source, must be calculated in a certain way, and specified evidence must be...
Sponsorship compliance is high on the Home Office’s agenda. Suspensions and revocations are on the rise and the Government has made cracking down on ‘shameless employers’ central to their future immigration policy. The impending government white paper should also set out tougher sanctions for employers who fail to meet their...
The Court of Appeal has given some guidance on the application of the exceptional assurance policy put in place during the pandemic and has concluded that it could not be relied on by the appellant, notwithstanding the fact that the Home Office had issued him with a letter granting a...
A Somali man who is at risk of harm from the Islamist Al-Shabaab group in his home area is not a refugee or entitled to humanitarian protection because he can reasonably relocate to Mogadishu. This is the decision of the Court of Appeal in ASJ (Somalia) v Secretary of State...
A visit visa allows a person to visit the United Kingdom on a temporary basis, usually for up to six months at a time. As is typical of many sections of the immigration rules, the rules for visitors are complex and spread across several appendices. The rules are also updated...
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 High Court has held that a Brazilian tourist had her visitor visa unlawfully cancelled and that she was unlawfully detained for eight weeks, from 12 September to 8 November 2024. The case is R (Thadeu) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2025] EWHC 736 (Admin). The claimant...
The Court of Appeal has heavily criticised a First-tier Tribunal decision which allowed an appeal based on family life, without properly taking into account that the appellant had been in the UK unlawfully. The case is Arshad v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2025] EWCA Civ 355. The...
The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal against a decision by the Upper Tribunal that the First-tier Tribunal did not have jurisdiction to consider an appeal based on a grant of humanitarian protection that had not been made by the Home Secretary, on the grounds of a nationality that...
The Court of Appeal has said that Lane J was “plainly correct” in his finding that a pending application to the Supreme Court does not act as an barrier to deportation on the basis that the appeal has not yet been finally determined. The case is R (Geddes) v Secretary...
In R(AH) v Secretary of State for the Home Department, the Home Office has conceded that it wrongly excluded a Dutch man from re-entering the UK after a family holiday because it mistook him for a different Dutch national who had been deported from the UK. After proceedings were issued...
The Court of Appeal has held that the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) was entitled to decide that it would not be unjust to refuse to allow a woman in a refugee camp in Syria to lodge a late appeal against the Home Office’s decision depriving her of her British...
Immigration Advisor IAA (Level 1 to 3) or Practising Solicitor with IAAS accreditation About us: The Refugee and Migrant Forum of Essex and London (RAMFEL), is a not-for-profit organisation and one of the largest immigration and asylum advice charities in the UK, supporting refugees, asylum seekers and vulnerable migrants to...
This week marked ten years since the Modern Slavery Act 2015 came into force. The trafficking statistics for October to December 2024 have been published, meaning we now have a full year of data for 2024. In the statistics before these, for July to September 2024, I noted that positive...
The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration has published the report on “An inspection of the Border Force operation to deter and detect clandestine entrants“. The inspection took place between August and November 2024. In his 2018 inspection the chief inspector found that no fines had been given to...
“Although I have considerable sympathy for Mr Tomlinson, we are unable to wind back the clock so as to put right the historic injustice”. This quote perfectly summarises the bittersweet victory for the appellant in the recent Court of Appeal case of R (Tomlinson) v Secretary of State for the...
