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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

[Note 16/07/21: This position has now been filled] Law Firm Operations Manager A new position based primarily in our Oxford office with the possibility of remote working and part time or a flexible working week. Salary from £32,500 per annum pro rata. Closing date for applications: 30 April 2021 About...

15th April 2021
BY Free Movement

The second edition of Professor James Hathaway’s The Rights of Refugees Under International Law, to be published on 22 April 2021, is incredibly well-timed. Our government here in the United Kingdom is proposing “off-shore processing” of asylum claims — if an agreement can be reached with some other country to...

15th April 2021
BY Colin Yeo

Procedure-wise, immigration judicial reviews don’t tend to be that speedy. When you get to the end of the road, you may have run out of steam when it comes to settling the issue of costs. But if applicant / appellant representatives are to make it work in a world where...

14th April 2021
BY Sarah Pinder

Anna Delvey (née Sorokin) is perhaps the most (in)famous con artist in the world. After bluffing her way into New York high society, she was eventually caught out, convicted of various offences including grand larceny, and received a sentence of 4–12 years in New York state prison (as well as...

13th April 2021
BY Elijah Granet

From 1 July 2021, EU, EEA and Swiss citizens living in the UK without having applied for pre-settled or settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme will be here unlawfully. The Home Secretary confirmed a few months ago that people can apply after that deadline, but they must have “reasonable...

12th April 2021
BY Chris Desira

UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) has confirmed that with lockdown easing, it is resuming sponsor licence compliance visits. Initial visits will be focused on organisations that have a pending sponsor licence application. Confirming the resumption of visits in a recent message on the Sponsorship Management System, UKVI was keen to...

12th April 2021
BY Nichola Carter

Welcome to episode 87 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month we’re covering two main sets of reform proposals, the New Plan for Immigration and changes to judicial review. We’ve also got a bunch of new Immigration Rules to mention, a handful of interesting cases and a proposed...

9th April 2021
BY Colin Yeo

Refugee Legal Support is recruiting for a director, as well as bringing on board new trustees and advisory panel members. The job description for each role is below, or you can download each one as a separate pdf from the RLS website. 1. Director Job Title: Director Salary: £36,000 –...

8th April 2021
BY Free Movement

As we continue to grapple with the impact of Brexit, my colleagues and I experienced an increase in Dublin III certification and removal cases at the tail end of last year. In many of those cases, removal directions were deferred and certification decisions were eventually withdrawn. Despite this signalling a...

8th April 2021
BY Sara Anzani

When someone applies for indefinite leave to remain in the UK, but is granted limited leave to remain instead, that decision does not attract a right of appeal. So held President Lane of the Upper Tribunal last year in the case of Mujahid [2020] UKUT 85 (IAC), discussed by Colin...

7th April 2021
BY Nath Gbikpi

The updated list of fees for immigration and nationality applications that apply from 6 April 2021 shows that all remain unchanged from last year. This marks the third financial year running that headline application fees have been largely frozen, having last increased significantly in April 2018. There is a catch:...

6th April 2021
BY Colin Yeo

The Home Secretary has laid a new draft of the Adults at Risk statutory guidance before Parliament. The new version marks a significant change in how trafficking victims fit within the policy framework for detaining vulnerable people. At present, the Home Office has a policy of releasing people from immigration...

6th April 2021
BY Alex Schymyck

Head of Personal Migration and Protection: Oxford/London [Merger opportunity] We are a young and dynamic specialist Immigration law firm based in Oxford with strong links to London. We seek a qualified solicitor or barrister with a minimum of three years’ relevant PQE to step up to the above role to...

1st April 2021
BY Free Movement

Here on Free Movement we have been repeating until we are blue in the face that the deadline for EU Settlement Scheme applications is 30 June 2021. Regular readers may by now feel rather bludgeoned over the head with this fact, but it remains a vitally important message given that...

1st April 2021
BY CJ McKinney

When someone says that refugees should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach, what they really mean is that other countries should look after refugees. They want others to do what they would not do themselves. Their words are really addressed to the countries through which the refugee...

1st April 2021
BY Colin Yeo

In Secretary of State for the Home Department v Starkey [2021] EWCA Civ 421 the Court of Appeal provides a helpful reminder of the need for very clear language when explaining how evidence has been examined and assessed. The immigration tribunal’s ambiguity on a crucial piece of evidence was enough...

31st March 2021
BY Alex Schymyck

Emma Harrison recently argued on this site for a “campaigning in the middle ground’’ approach to advocacy. A central element of this position is that we need to be engaging with those who don’t share our agenda. It is not new to suggest that we have more in common with...

31st March 2021
BY Rose Bewick

Although the UK left the European Union on 31 January 2020 and the post-Brexit transition period came to an end on 31 December 2020, certain aspects of EU free movement law continue to apply into 2021 — but not for much longer. Old EU residence documents such as permanent residence...

30th March 2021
BY Jack Freeland

Section 4B of the British Nationality Act 1981 entitles people with British National (Overseas) citizenship to register as British citizens if they: do not have any other citizenship or nationality, and have not, since 19 March 2009, “renounced, voluntarily relinquished or lost through action or inaction any citizenship or nationality”....

30th March 2021
BY John Vassiliou
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