A welcome effort by the Home Office to explain and encourage Tier 4 student applications: The UK recognises the important contribution international students make, and welcomes those who wish to study at our world-class institutions. This leaflet is designed to provide you with some information about the Tier 4 visa...
The Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, David Bolt, has published a new report which is highly critical of Home Office complaint handling. The findings echo those of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman from November 2015. Bolt and his team find “considerable room for improvement” in many respects. For...
The new HM Chief Inspector of Prisons is not holding his punches. Peter Clarke’s first report is on the Harmondsworth detention camp used for short and long term detention of migrants near Heathrow airport. In an unannounced inspection his team found “appalling” and “desolate” conditions for detainees. You can access...
Open justice is one of the most crucial features of a free state. In weighing up individual cases, courts have sometimes decided that open justice shoud give way to other, equally necessary, ideals. For instance, national security won the day in the Court of Appeal decision in the Erol Incedal...
Further to the decision of Blake J in the case of Gheorghiu (reg 24AA EEA Regs – relevant factors) [2016] UKUT 24 (IAC) (FM post: Upper Tribunal considers when EEA nationals should be readmitted to UK to attend own deportation appeal hearings) the Upper Tribunal has returned to the issue...
This text is based on a talk given by Sonel on 24 February 2016 at an ILPA event on family immigration law. Since 2012, family immigration in UK has taken a particularly nasty turn, even where and maybe especially where, the sponsor is a British citizen. There was Quila, interfering...
Official headnote: Much of the guidance given in AM & BM (Trafficked women) Albania CG [2010] UKUT 80 (IAC) is maintained. Where that guidance has been amended or supplemented by this decision it has been highlighted in bold: “a) It is not possible to set out a typical profile of trafficked women from Albania:...
A few snippets from a recent debate in the House of Lords. An amendment to the current Immigration Bill currently wending its way through Parliament was tabled which would close the Tier 1 Investor route. This type of visa is obtained by making an investment of at least £2 million...
Changes from last version of this guidance updated to reflect Immigration Act 2014 changes since v8.0 clarification on how paragraph 353 applies to human rights only cases, including valid applications made under the Immigration Rules after an earlier asylum or human rights claim has been refused additional circumstances in which...
Exploring the boundaries of refugee law, recently published by Brill/Nijhoff as part of their International Refugee Law series, arises from a successful conference hosted by the Refugee Law Initiative in London in 2012. Papers arising therefrom are now presented in this hardback volume, with a thought-provoking essay to set the...
Our advice services in Brighton provide specialist legal advice, casework and representation on housing, asylum and immigration matters together with one off advice provided over the telephone or at drop in sessions, and digital advice via webcam on housing and welfare benefits issues. There are two teams, the housing and...
Section 29(4) of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 results in the Upper Tribunal having powers in relation to the making of wasted costs orders (as defined in section 29(5)) which are not subject to the limitations in s.29(3) or r.10 of the Tribunal Procedure (Upper Tribunal) Rules 2008....
Interesting article (in English) on the recent case of L.E. v Greece (Application No 71545/12) (in French) in which the European Court of Human Rights held that Greece had breached Article 4 ECHR by failing to fulfil its positive obligations to recognise, properly investigate and protect a victim of trafficking....
Welcome to the January 2016 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. In this episode I start on immigration fees and the Shaw Review, cover a long list of tribunal cases on various issues, move on to some higher court cases on EU deportation cases, nationality and deception issues,...
Interesting: This page tells you about law enforcement agencies (LEAs) making requests to the Home Office to allow a foreign national to enter or remain in the UK to give evidence at a trial. Due to the international element of serious and organised crime, there are certain foreign nationals whose...
Rule imposing mandatory refusal for deception is not ultra vires says Court of Appeal. Unsurprisingly. A student was convicted for driving with excess alcohol and also for driving without due care and attention. He was made subject to a community order with an unpaid work requirement and a requirement to...
Very kind mention for my piece on Paddington here, described as “magnificent and delightful”. Thank you, David! Do check out the other blogs, all of which I follow and find inspiration in. As David discusses, it is a mystery that more solicitors do not make better use of blogging. I...
Sending an immigration decision to an email address is effective service, subject to rebuttal: (1) Notice of a decision (not falling within the Immigration (Notices) Regulations 2003) is “given” for the purposes of s.4(1) of the Immigration Act 1971 when it is (a) “sent” in accordance with Art 8ZA of...
The Court of Appeal has returned to the issue of “totally without merit” certificates in judicial review cases. These certificates can be imposed by a judge who refuses permission for an application for judicial review on the papers and it prevents the applicant from seeking an oral hearing. There is...
Press release The Legal Centre, located in the heart of the Calais slum and created on the Calais’ Appeal initiative that gathers more than 50 000 signatories, invites you to a press conference on Friday, February 12th at 11:00 am, at our office, to bring you up to date with...
The headnote is a tad Delphic on this one: Inaction is not giving notice for the purposes of s 104(4B). Section 104(4B) concerns whether appeals might be treated as abandoned in certain circumstances. Where leave is granted during an appeal, section 104(4B)(b) requires notice to be given for the appeal...
The Upper Tribunal interprets spouse extension rule paragraph 284 on overstay and valid applications, required documents and whether an old English language certificate is sufficient in a refreshingly realistic and enabling determination: (i) The correct construction of paragraph 284(iv) of the Immigration Rules is that the applicant has a period...
This post is reblogged from Professor Steve Peer’s excellent and comprehensive post on the immigration aspects of UK’s renegotiation proposals. What follows is the section of that blog post on family members. Head over to the original for more information on benefits, the “emergency brake” and criminality and free movement...
UPDATE 10/2/16: the judge has withdrawn the judgment. A married Indian couple detained in a dawn raid have lost their claim for unlawful detention. After successfully studying in the UK for some years, Ms Joshi’s latest application ran into problems when the college to which she applied to study a PhD was...
A person sentenced to a term of 12 months imprisonment made up of consecutive terms is not a ‘foreign criminal’ within the meaning of the deportation provisions of the Immigration Rules and is not therefore subject to paragraph 398 of those Rules. Source: OLO and Others (para 398 – “foreign...
In the case of VV (grounds of appeal) [2016] UKUT 53 (IAC) (13 November 2015) the Upper Tribunal yet again criticises Home Office conduct of appeals to the Upper Tribunal against decisions of the First-tier. This case comes on top of Nixon (permission to appeal: grounds) [2014] UKUT 368 (IAC)...
This is just a quick note to update everyone that Cranston J has listed four cases for hearing on 25 and 26 February 2016 challenging the lawfulness of the Detained Asylum Casework (DAC)/ Detained Non-Suspensive Appeals (DNSA) system (i.e. the post- July 2015 incarnation of the system formerly known as...
Although the Algerian Criminal Code makes homosexual behaviour unlawful, the authorities do not seek to prosecute gay men and there is no real risk of prosecution, even when the authorities become aware of such behaviour. In the very few cases where there has been a prosecution for homosexual behaviour, there...
Lone women in Pakistan without family support may be at risk of persecution, rules tribunal: (1) Save as herein set out, the existing country guidance in SN and HM (Divorced women – risk on return) Pakistan CG [2004] UKIAT 00283 and in KA and Others (domestic violence – risk on...
Only danger to lesbians in India is from their own family, rules tribunal: (1) The guidance in MD (same-sex oriented males) India CG [2014] UKUT 65 (IAC) stands. The guidance at (a) – (f) in MD (India) applies equally to lesbians. (2) A risk of persecution or serious harm for...
Following the judgment last year in R (on the application of Zewdu) v The Secretary of State for the Home Department [2015] EWHC 2148 (Admin) (09 June 2015) solicitors Duncan Lewis have revealed that the Home Office agreed to pay a record £40,000 in damages for the 19 month delay...
