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Would-be immigration advisers applying for Level 1 registration with the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) now only have one shot at passing the exam. Instead of having two goes at it, those who fail first time will need to re-apply for registration and show that they have undertaken...

18th May 2021
BY Free Movement

The scenes in Glasgow last week, which saw a crowd prevent Immigration Enforcement from making off with two Indian men, got us thinking about the criminal offence of obstructing an immigration officer. Not, we hasten to add, because we think anyone should face charges over what’s seen in many quarters...

18th May 2021
BY CJ McKinney

In the recent High Court case of R (Arman & Anor) v SSHD [2021] EWHC 1217 (Admin), Mr Justice Mostyn made comments about remote hearings that may be a straw in the wind suggesting that it will be harder to argue the unfairness of out-of-country appeals in future. Background: arguments...

17th May 2021
BY Nath Gbikpi

The Home Office has published a code of conduct for the cadre of civil servants who represent the department in the immigration tribunal, known as Presenting Officers or HOPOs. The document is similar to a draft version that was circulated and discussed with stakeholders earlier in the year. A few...

17th May 2021
BY CJ McKinney

Note: this article refers to the position prior to the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, see here for the current position. On 13 May 2021, my client Fouad Kakaei was unanimously acquitted of assisting unlawful immigration at his retrial following a successful appeal against conviction, the reporting restriction for which...

17th May 2021
BY Aneurin Brewer

From the outside looking in, initial immigration enforcement decisions like that in Glasgow last week to detain a person often seem opportunistic and random rather than strategic. The result is that the ‘wrong’ people end up being detained. We know this because of the high number of vulnerable people being...

16th May 2021
BY Colin Yeo

Fouad Kakaei is an Iranian man who helped steer small boats carrying asylum seekers across the English Channel on two separate occasions, in July and December 2019. He also attempted to cross on several other occasions. Following the July 2019 crossing, he did not claim asylum here in the UK...

14th May 2021
BY Colin Yeo

Welcome to episode 88 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month we’ve got quite a few different subjects to cover, including some detention issues, the EU Settlement Scheme — for which the deadline is now rapidly approaching — and British nationality law. If you would like to claim...

14th May 2021
BY Colin Yeo

The Court of Appeal has considered, again, whether it is “unduly harsh” for British children to be separated from their father on the basis that he is a foreign criminal. The case is TD (Albania) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWCA Civ 619. It concerns an...

13th May 2021
BY Iain Halliday

As far as odd decisions go, it was up there with the best. The Home Office announced on 20 April that its concession to enable employers to conduct right to work checks virtually — for the safety of their workforce during the pandemic — was to be scrapped from 17...

12th May 2021
BY Nichola Carter

A £100 million scheme for loaning migrants the money for an Investor visa was legal after all, the Court of Appeal has ruled. The case is R (Wang & Anor) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWCA Civ 679. It overturned a previous Upper Tribunal decision that...

12th May 2021
BY CJ McKinney

Nothing much new on immigration in the Queen’s Speech today. This is the occasion when the government, via the monarch, formally lays out its plans for passing new laws. The speech itself referred to the New Plan for Immigration measures, but the more detailed background notes just give a brief...

11th May 2021
BY CJ McKinney

In this edition of “have I got immigration news for you”, we look at the case of Mahabir v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWHC 1177 (Admin), in which the High Court found that the Home Office had caused a “colossal interference” with the right of a...

11th May 2021
BY Bilaal Shabbir

To a person in detention, particularly in prison, every day of freedom lost matters and the Defendant needs to be able to justify it. In this case I think that principle became lost to sight. So says the High Court in the case of Louis v Home Office [2021] EWHC...

10th May 2021
BY Larry Lock

The UK and India signed a non-binding agreement on migration this week. The basic ingredients are to beef up cooperation on removing unauthorised migrants in exchange for a minor liberalisation on youth mobility-type visas and some warm words on encouraging temporary migration more generally. Such a deal has been on...

7th May 2021
BY CJ McKinney

The High Court has issued a judgment refusing permission for a judicial review challenge to the government’s policy of giving digital-only proof of immigration status to millions of EU citizens. The case is R (The 3million Ltd) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWHC 1159 (Admin). People...

6th May 2021
BY CJ McKinney

Juba (s. 94B: access to lawyers) [2021] UKUT 95 (IAC) is the latest judgment dealing with the “deport first appeal later” policy, following on from the famous Kiarie and Byndloss case. In Juba, the Upper Tribunal has found that it was acceptable for the First-Tier Tribunal to hear an appeal...

6th May 2021
BY Nath Gbikpi

The Home Office has updated its policy guidance on when asylum seekers can get permission to work, following two cases finding the previous version unlawful. The update (version 10.0, published on 4 May 2021) explicitly mentions that exceptions can be made to the strict rules against working while awaiting an...

5th May 2021
BY CJ McKinney

Readers may be forgiven for thinking that, where the Family Court finds that a person is at risk of female genital mutilation and makes a Female Genital Mutilation Protection Order (FGMPO), it will feed into the asylum consideration process. Not so. Or, perhaps more accurately, not necessarily so. It all...

5th May 2021
BY Grace Brown

Rules restricting migrants’ access to benefits are back in the spotlight following a new High Court decision, which found that aspects of the “no recourse to public funds” (NRPF) scheme fail to protect the rights of children. The case of ST (a child, by his Litigation Friend VW) & VW...

4th May 2021
BY Karma Hickman

In Asif (Paragraph 276B, disregard, previous overstaying) Pakistan [2021] UKUT 96 (IAC) the Upper Tribunal has confirmed that previously disregarded overstaying between periods of leave should be treated as lawful residence for people making 10-year long residence applications. Background Migrants who have spent 10 years in the UK with continuous...

30th April 2021
BY Nick Nason

The New Plan for Immigration Policy Statement of March 2021 (the New Plan) contains proposals to make significant changes to immigration and nationality law and policy. This article addresses the proposals set out in Chapter 3, which concern changes to British nationality law, in the hope of enabling affected people...

29th April 2021
BY Emma Harris

On the face of it, the current immigration ‘system’ does not resemble a true system at all. A member of the public reading newspaper headlines about the latest immigration controversy; a migrant trying to understand what documents to include with an application; a lawyer attempting to explain the nonsensical requirements;...

28th April 2021
BY Colin Yeo

From ‘Citizens of the UK and Colonies’, to ‘Commonwealth Citizens’, to ‘subject to immigration control’: the legislative erosion of the Windrush generation’s British citizenship rights is laid bare at paragraphs 1-5 of R (Howard) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWHC 1023 (Admin). Anyone with an interest...

27th April 2021
BY John Vassiliou

Presidential Practice Statement (PPS) No1 of 2021 came into force on Monday 26 April 2021. You can access the note and annexes here. This expands upon, and replaces, Presidential Practice Statement No2 of 2020 by making it mandatory to lodge represented appeals from appellants outside of the UK via MyHMCTS...

27th April 2021
BY Colin Yeo

The latest episode of the Home Office’s dispute with rough sleeping migrants is here with the publication of the policy guidance for applying the “rough sleeping rule”. This article discusses some key points from both a housing and immigration perspective for those involved in either field. The Grounds for refusal...

26th April 2021
BY Eleri Griffiths

The Home Office’s compartmentalised approach to applications for permission to stay in the UK can sometimes cause problems. Not everyone’s claim fits neatly into pre-defined categories. So what happens when there is overlap between, for instance, an asylum claim and a human rights claim? This is the issue considered by the...

23rd April 2021
BY Iain Halliday

Do you know your PG (Jamaica) from your HA (Iraq)? Our coverage of deportation decisions over the past few years has felt non-stop, with the courts pumping out judgments sending the law in different directions. In particular, the legal test for when deportation will be “unduly harsh” on family members...

23rd April 2021
BY CJ McKinney

Position: Solicitor (Immigration Law – 2+ years PQE) Term: Permanent (Full-time) Location: MBS Solicitors, 150-152 Gorgie Road, Edinburgh, EH11 2NT MBS Solicitors are an award-winning, modern and busy firm established in Edinburgh since 2010. We specialise in family law, immigration law, criminal law and general dispute resolution in the Sheriff...

22nd April 2021
BY Free Movement

Huson v Secretary of State for the Home Department (Entry Clearance Officer) (Rev 1) [2021] EWHC 885 (Admin) looks like a case about a 19-year- old’s entitlement to the right of abode. We don’t see many right of abode cases these days, mainly because since 1 January 1983 the only...

22nd April 2021
BY John Vassiliou

The Upper Tribunal has declared the government’s strict policy on asylum seekers working to be unlawful because it doesn’t mention that exceptions can be made. The case is R (C6) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (asylum seekers’ permission to work) [2021] UKUT 94 (IAC). We originally published...

22nd April 2021
BY CJ McKinney

The European Court of Human Rights in K.I. v France (application no. 5560/19) has re-affirmed that refugee status is declaratory and revocation of a person’s refugee status under French and EU law does not prevent that person from continuing to be a refugee under the Refugee Convention. Authorities revoking someone’s...

21st April 2021
BY Bilaal Shabbir

The proposed Super League for top European football clubs has attracted immense legal as well as sporting interest, with The Lawyer magazine even running a live blog on the subject. Much of the focus is on legal ways to strangle the proposed competition at birth. One possible avenue is the...

20th April 2021
BY John Vassiliou

The judgment of the Court of Appeal in MR (Pakistan) v Secretary of State for Justice & Others [2021] EWCA Civ 541 marks a major step forward in the battle over the use of immigration detention in prisons. The court has decided that the absence of a Rule 35 procedure...

19th April 2021
BY Alex Schymyck

In R (Lawal) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (death in detention, SoS’s duties) [2021] UKUT 114 (IAC), the Upper Tribunal has decided that the Home Office’s policies on the death of immigration detainees are contrary to its procedural obligations under Article 2 of the European Convention on...

15th April 2021
BY Bilaal Shabbir

Some interesting nuggets from a new report on judicial review, published today by the Institute for Government. The Home Office is the department most affected by this particular type of legal challenge, accounting for 80% of JRs between 2007 and 2013, of which most related to immigration and asylum decisions....

15th April 2021
BY CJ McKinney
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