Quick note from S Chelvan of No 5 Chambers: Lord Justice Treacy has granted permission to appeal in proceedings which seek to challenge refusal of a fresh claim, but also seek to challenge Detained Fast Track determinations made under the 2005 Detained Fast Track Rules. Underpinning the three decisions under...
A new report into asylum casework at the Home Office has just been published by David Bolt, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration. The inspection took place between March and July 2015 and was presented to Theresa May on 9 December 2015, so publication has been delayed for...
Welcome to the December 2015 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. In this episode I talk about a few more general issues such as Donald Trump and visas bans, a refreshed post on Adult Dependent Relatives and a post by Berrnard Ryan on whether the new requirement for...
New research shows that the modest economic growth of the past four years has been met by an unprecedented shortage of skills, leaving thousands of vacancies unfilled. Source: Employers facing talent poverty as skills shortages rise 130% in four years – Press releases – GOV.UK I couldn’t resist sharing this....
In the case of R (on the application of Babbage) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2016] EWHC 148 (Admin) Mr Justice Garnham ordered the release of a detained Zimbabwean foreign criminal. In the process, he was corruscating critical of the conduct of Government lawyers acting for the...
The Government’s “right to rent” scheme requiring landlords to conduct “papers, please” checks on the immigration status of tenants comes into force today, 1 February 2016. It is hard to think of a worse example of a disproportionate policy, classically defined as a hammer being used to crack a nut....
Full judgment is available here: R (on the application of ZAT and Others) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (Article 8 ECHR – Dublin Regulation – interface – proportionality) IJR [2016] UKUT 61 (IAC). The applicant children were all clearly very vulnerable and all had family members in...
Question: …the issue raised on this appeal may be stated in the following terms: was the Appellant entitled after 9 July 2012 (when the new Immigration Rules came into effect) to continue to accrue continuous residence for the purposes of the 14 year rule contained in paragraph 276B of the...
Well, this was a bit cheeky. A woman with an outstanding in-country immigration appeal was removed by the Home Office when she should not have been. The Home Office then argued that her appeal had to be treated as abandoned becuase of section 92(8) of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum...
Mr Johnson was born on 18 March 1985 in Jamaica. His mother was a Jamaican national and his father was a British national. At the time of his birth, an “illegitimate” child could acquire British nationality at birth or by registration as a minor only if his mother was a...
This announcement is being reported differently in different outlets. The actual text of the announcement so far (a Ministerial statement will follow later today) is as below. There is a clear reference to reuniting children in Europe with refugee family members already in the UK, which is very much to...
Over the last two weeks a local group, with ever mounting, incredible support from so many through word of mouth and social media, raised funds and collected priority items to take to the Calais ‘Jungle’ and Dunkirk camp. We filled 3 large vans and a car with men’s clothes, blankets,...
Home Office rejects trafficking claim on basis that the claim was delayed and the account was inconsistent. Decision ruled unlawful for failure to follow Home Office’s own guidance on trafficking claims, which points out that there may be valid reasons why a genuine victim of trafficking is inconsistent in giving...
A Polish man detained in immigration detention for three years while his appeal dragged on and on was found not to have been unlawfully detained. Apart from anything else the case illustrates the excessively leisurely pace of immigration appeals, particularly in the Upper Tribunal in this instance. Source: Machnikowski v...
A Tier 4 student prohibited from working was accused of the Home Office of breach of his conditions of leave by taking part time employment. A decision was taken to remove him under the pre-Immigration Act 2014 version of section 10 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. he was...
This is an interesting case in which an entry clearance application by an elderly relative was refused by the ECO but the appeal allowed on human rights grounds by a First-tier Tribunal judge, whose decision is here upheld by President McCloskey. It is also interesting because it sounds like an...
A national of Kazakhstan applied for an extension of stay as a Tier 4 student. As a national of that country, he was required by the Immigration Rules to register with the police. His application was rejected by the Home Office as invalid on the basis that he was also...
Several news outlets are reporting this morning that the Dublin III Regulation is likely to be scrapped by the Commission in March. It may be that Peter Sutherland, the UN Special Representative on Migration, was right when he said last year that the Regulation was “dead”. If it is dead...
The Migration Advisory Commitee (MAC to its friends) has today published its report into how to tighten the Tier 2 skilled migrant route so as to reduce non EU migration. In 2014 there were 52,478 main applicants granted new visas to enter or remain in the UK under Tier 2....
Potentially useful fresh asylum claim decision holding that two Ahmadi siblings from Pakistan had a realistic prospect of success before a judge on the basis of new evidence from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association of the United Kingdom about their activities in the UK since their original asylum appeal has been...
In 2014 the Home Office amended the UK’s rules on EU law deportation cases to allow a deportation to go ahead before an EEA national completes any appeal process against that decision to deport. This has become known as “deport first, appeal later”. Similar rules were also introduced for non...
The Law Society’s Immigration Law Committee has put together an excellent and comprehensive practice note on immigration judicial review practice, procedure and conduct issues. It is aimed at: All practitioners bringing immigration judicial review claims on behalf of claimants before the Administrative Court in England and Wales (High Court) and...
Official headnote to R (on the application of RK) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (s.117B(6); “parental relationship” (IJR) [2016] UKUT 31 (IAC): 1. It is not necessary for an individual to have “parental responsibility” in law for there to exist a parental relationship. 2. Whether a person...
In another reminder that British citizenship can be refused on the basis of past dishonest conduct we have the case of R (on the application of Rushiti & Anor) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2014] EWHC 3931 (Admin). This one dates back a few months but I’m...
The review by Stephen Shaw into the welfare in immigration detention of vulnerable persons has been published today. The Government has responded stating that it “accepts the broad thrust of his recommendations” and that the Home Office expects its reforms to reduce the number of those detained and the duration...
Hat tip to colleague Amanda Weston for this one. In The Government of the United States of America v Giese [2015] EWHC 2733 (Admin) (07 October 2015) the High Court found in an extradition case that the “civil commitment” system operated by California in respect of sexual offenders who have...
The official new proposals by Lord Justice Briggs for an online lawyer-free court for claims of up to £25,000 certainly make interesting reading: There is a clear and pressing need to create an Online Court for claims up to £25,000 designed for the first time to give litigants effective access...
Three recent cases on fair hearings in immigration cases, all from President McCloskey. All make interesting reading. Firstly, the headnote from AM (fair hearing) Sudan [2015] UKUT 656 (IAC): (i) Independent judicial research is inappropriate. It is not for the judge to assemble evidence. Rather, it is the duty of...
The case of Huang & Ors, R (on the application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (“No Time Limit” Transfer: Fraud) (IJR) [2015] UKUT 662 (IAC) arises from the provision of false or incorrect identity information by asylum seekers who were initially refused asylum but who were...
Official headnote to AB (para 399(a)) [2015] UKUT 657 (IAC) (20 November 2015): Head note 3 of the Upper Tribunal’s decision in Ogundimu (Article 8 – new rules) Nigeria [2013] UKUT 60 (IAC) applies to the version of para 399(a) of the Immigration Rules that was in force as at...
A DIY approach is difficult in immigration law. Hardly a year goes by without the higher courts complaining about “a degree of complexity which even the Byzantine emperors would have envied” [as lamented by Jackson LJ in 2013]. This is even more of a problem as legal aid is removed...
I am starting to detect subtle* signs that the Upper Tribunal is unimpressed by attempts to litigate ETS cases from within the UK. These are the cases where a person stands accused (on unknown, undisclosed evidence) of cheating in English language tests administered by the company Educational Testing Services. In...
