You’ve just had a fantastic summer holiday in, let’s say, Greece — away from the daily grind, the misery of Brexit and British summertime weather. Sunshine every day, beach swimming, late nights, great wine, even better food. You’re basically 90% gyros by this point, but it’s all right, it’s a...
An important Office for National Statistics (ONS) report released this week provides revised figures for EU and non-EU net migration since 2009. Here’s my take on what the key points of the report are. It has been clear for some time that something wasn’t quite right in the headline net...
There have been just four applications for the government’s flagship new visa for overseas entrepreneurs in its first three months of operation. Only four people applied for an Innovator visa between April and June 2019, according to the latest Home Office figures. By contrast, the visa it replaced — Tier...
The Court of Appeal has held that the UK government can be asked to pay expenses where a judicial review has been brought against the Upper Tribunal’s refusal to grant permission to appeal. The test case of Faqiri v Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) [2019] EWCA Civ 151 has...
Since 2016 there has been no minimum CPD training hours requirement and training can be undertaken by any training provider or even by informal methods including self study. The rules for solicitors, barristers and OISC advisers are all broadly similar and were all changed at around the same time. The...
Immigration lawyers often find themselves at the centre of employment law disputes where the employee’s immigration status appears to be crucial to the legality of their employment. In such cases the stakes are usually very high and the pressure on all concerned can be huge. Whilst the employee will be...
The way that I tell clients to treat this kind of evidence gathering process is… don’t treat it as an evidence gathering process. It may sound a little corny, but treat it as a celebration of your relationship so far. You’re telling a story to someone of how you met,...
Confusion abounds after Dominic Cummings sources close to Home Secretary Priti Patel told the Telegraph and Independent over the weekend that free movement of EU citizens would end the day after a no-deal exit on 31 October 2019. While at first glance it seems very unlikely that this means anything...
Asylum appeals will be filed and managed entirely online from next year, the courts and tribunals service for England and Wales has said. HMCTS told Free Movement that it plans to roll out its “reformed digital asylum service” to all hearing centres at the end of January 2020. The digital...
Regulation 33 of the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2016 (SI 2016/1052) does not wrongfully exclude the ordinary principles applicable in interim relief applications. It does not exclude them at all. So held Mr Justice Murray in R (Yuri Mendes) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] EWHC...
We’ve been busy working away at creating new CPD immigration training courses and updating our existing ones. Our courses are perfect for CPD for solicitors, barristers and OISC advisers and we now offer over 100 hours of CPD training to our 2,500+ members, covering all aspects and all levels of...
An immigration judge has rejected an asylum seeker’s claim to be gay, saying that the man did not come across as “effeminate” enough to be credible. According to a lawyer involved in the case, the judge wrote that the man did not have a gay “demeanour” and did not “look...
O v R [2019] EWCA Crim 1389 is the latest of a series of appeals brought by victims of trafficking against historic convictions. In this case the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) decided to quash a 2008 conviction because the prosecution had not even considered whether bringing O to court...
Role: Immigration Caseworker/Solicitor Hours: part-time 18.5 hrs Based: at our Coventry Office Salary: negotiable up to £29,704 pro rata based on experience and qualifications We seek an experienced caseworker to manage a specialist immigration and asylum advice service for victims of domestic violence. Central England Law Centre is the UK’s...
Boris Johnson announced seemingly sweeping changes to the UK immigration system for scientists on 8 August 2019. Behind the usual rhetoric about attracting the “brightest and the best”, the reality is a lot less dramatic and potentially a lot less meaningful for the future of science in the UK. If...
Every immigration lawyer in the UK will, at least once in their career, be sat in front of a nonchalant non-visa national (usually American, Canadian or Australian) who is blissfully unaware that they have either overstayed their leave as a visitor, breached the conditions of their leave as a visitor,...
In Rauf v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] EWCA Civ 1276, the Home Office cited the incorrect part of the Immigration Rules in curtailing a student visa. The failure of Mr Rauf’s appeal reminds us that it’s extremely difficult to prove unfairness in immigration cases. Mr Rauf...
Three years after the referendum, the more than three million EU citizens living in the UK still have no clarity on what their legal status will be after Brexit. It is uncertain whether the Brexit deal negotiated by Theresa May’s government (formally known as the Withdrawal Agreement) will ever be...
A small amendment to UK law could soon make a big difference to European families resident here who are struggling to bring home children adopted in Muslim countries abroad. A change to the legal definition of who counts as an EEA citizen’s “family member” should end the uncertainty over the...
The ground of appeal in Hameed v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] EWCA Civ 1324 was: It was wrong to find the appellant had made a false representation under paragraph 322(1A) of the Immigration Rules when he had not acted dishonestly. Mr Hameed had applied for a...
A new Court of Appeal judgment has confirmed that the Home Office wrongly denied that a child asylum seeker seeking transfer to the UK had a brother already living in this country. The Home Office, as is its wont, claimed that the two young men were not related. As Colin’s...
The anonymous protagonist in Secretary of State for the Home Department v BK (Afghanistan) [2019] EWCA Civ 1358 fled Afghanistan for the UK in 2002. He claimed that he had been press-ganged into recruiting for the Taliban, admitting that the role included beating up unwilling villagers. Rejecting his bid for...
The Home Office has issued a correction to the published minimum salary levels for certain roles. An addendum, or urgent update, to the guidance on Tier 2 work visas states: The Tier 2 salary rates listed in Appendix J of the Immigration Rules were amended through Immigration Rules changes in...
The Home Office has updated its main guidance on family visas under Appendix FM of the Immigration Rules. The good news is now we have one consolidated guidance document dealing with both the five and ten-year routes for partners, parents and private life applicants. The new guidance runs to 93...
Seema Kennedy is the new immigration minister at the Home Office, the BBC’s Danny Shaw reports. The MP for South Ribble, who had been a junior minister at the Department of Health, replaces the sacked Caroline Nokes. Nokes apparently read about her impending dismissal on Twitter. Obviously nobody served her...
Always a worry (but never a surprise) when Court of Appeal judges start off a judgment by saying that the case “has a tortuous procedural history”, is “highly technical” and involves “Byzantine… provisions” of immigration law. Firdaws v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] EWCA Civ 1310 is...
A real mammoth of a case: R (HS) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] EWHC 2070 (Admin). The claimant took what looks like a kitchen sink approach to his unlawful detention claim, succeeding on the fourth ground: that he wasn’t given the “true reason” for his arrest...
In Secretary of State for the Home Department v MS (Somalia) [2019] EWCA Civ 1345, the Court of Appeal has held that the Home Office can cease refugee status where there has been a change of circumstances in the refugee’s country of origin such that it is possible for them...
Freedom from Torture is undertaking new research into the challenges torture survivors face throughout the asylum process and how these impact the outcome of their claim. The aims are to raise awareness of the particular issues faced by survivors in the asylum interview and to advocate for improved practices within...
An old case, this, but it’s only just appeared on Bailii: SC (Bangladesh) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWCA Civ 3069. The issue was whether the public interest considerations in sections 117B(2) and (3) of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 (as amended) can be...
This autumn will see a decided shift in immigration policy toward being more welcoming to non-EU academics, scientists and researchers; a group commonly defined by the somewhat worn-out phrase, “the brightest and the best”, first coined by David Cameron in October 2011. The upcoming rule changes will see the removal...
Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children often get short term leave to remain in the UK for only 30 months or until they turn 17-and-a-half, whichever is the shorter period of time. While they may get extensions at the end of such periods often they simply get removed from the country. Thus, age...
Government press offices are adept at milking good news. The Ministry of Justice’s self-congratulatory press release announcing the restoration of immigration legal aid for unaccompanied children comes over a year after the department first made this announcement. Justice minister Paul Maynard said: It is absolutely right that legal aid should...
Post: Immigration caseworker / solicitor Reports to: Immigration supervisor Salary: £21,000 to £27,000 p/a (depending on experience and level of accreditation) Hours: 35 hours per week Leave: 28 days including bank holidays Location: Sheffield (with regular visits to ATLEU’s London office) This newly-created role aims to increase ATLEU’s provision of...
“I have a client,” said the tax lawyer with splayed finger tips connected, “and this client may or may not have deposited half a million pounds into a bank account in the Cayman Islands in the 1980s”. The room erupted with hearty laughs and knowing nods across the boardroom table....
The Supreme Court handed down its second judgment in the long-running case of Franco Vomero today. The latest instalment is Secretary of State for the Home Department v Franco Vomero [2019] UKSC 35. The facts Mr Vomero is Italian. He moved to the UK and married a British citizen in...
If a foreign criminal wins their deportation appeal, can the Home Office try and deport them again, even where there has been no further offending? In MA (Pakistan) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] EWCA Civ 1252, the Court of Appeal considered this question and held that the...
The High Court has ruled that the Home Office can ignore a grant of immigration bail by the First-tier Tribunal if there is a material change of circumstances before the person is released. R (AB) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] EWHC 1969 (Admin) is about the...
