There have been a quite a few reports, briefings and pieces of research on immigration released in the past week — too many to cover in the weekly newsletter, as I had intended. It is very much back-to-work reading rather than anything for the beach, but may be of interest....
The “Surinder Singh route” has become well known to British citizens seeking to be reunited with their family members. The toughening up of UK immigration rules in July 2012 – particularly the introduction of the minimum income rule with its labyrinthine documentary requirements, and the awful elderly dependent relative rules...
With the Article 50 deadline fast approaching, there has been growing concern that the UK will leave the European Union with “no deal”. If no withdrawal agreement making provision for a transition period is reached by 29 March 2019, the UK will fall out of the EU without an agreement...
Claiming asylum is an important human right backed by the United Nations Refugee Convention and recognised by countries around the world. In order to make this right a reality in practice, countries like the UK have set up systems by which people must apply for asylum. In this way, asylum...
I am quoted in a recent Guardian story about the notorious, if niche, paragraph 322(5) of the Immigration Rules. This is the rule being used to refuse leave to remain to migrants because of alleged discrepancies between their tax returns to HMRC and the income declared to the Home Office...
In R (H) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWHC 2191 (Admin) the High Court has rejected two complaints about how the Home Office recognises and cares for trafficking victims in detention. First, the claimant argued that Rule 34 and Rule 35 of the Detention Centre Rules...
The UK government has published a series of papers on what a “no deal Brexit” would look like but the crucial issue of EU citizens’ rights is not covered in the first batch. Earlier today the Brexit Secretary, Dominic Raab, launched the “first batch in a series” of technical notices...
The Upper Tribunal has ruled that the term “worker” in the regulations concerning the rights of residence retained by non-EEA nationals if they divorce their EEA spouse includes jobseekers. This means that when someone who has given up work during marriage gets divorced from an EU citizen they will still...
The recently published UK Lesbian & Gay Immigration Group report Still Falling Short examines the Home Office’s decision-making in asylum applications from LGBTQI+ people. The report is a qualitative study of mainly lesbian, gay and bisexual cases. It analyses Home Office interview records and reasons for refusal letters to assess...
Immigration lawyers are among the groups being asked by the Home Office to submit evidence about what caused the Windrush scandal and what would prevent a repeat. In a “lessons learned” call for evidence issued on 20 August, the department says that “immigration advisors and lawyers who may represent those going through the...
We’ve three new Upper Tribunal decisions for you this week. Alex has written up one of them already and will cover another later in the week, lest readers be overwhelmed with too much excitement in one day. The third new case is called Mansur (Immigration adviser’s failings, Article 8) [2018] UKUT 274...
Kovacevic (British citizen – Art 21 TFEU) Croatia [2018] UKUT 273 (IAC) is about whether EU free movement law protects dual nationals (i.e. someone who is a citizen of the UK and another EU country) who have never exercised their EU free movement rights. The Upper Tribunal ruled that a...
In R v GS [2018] EWCA Crim 1824 the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) has ruled that victims of trafficking should be allowed to rely on changes to the law and new evidence about their trafficking history when seeking to appeal criminal convictions. The appellant, GS, was convicted in 2007...
What happens when an American graduate, about to become eligible for indefinite leave to remain having lived lawfully in the UK for almost a decade, incorrectly thinks that he is eligible to apply for British citizenship and applies for that instead? You might think that, for example, the Home Office...
MS (Pakistan) TD and X (A Child) (Jamaica) [2018] EWCA Civ 1776, a case about the minimum income requirement for sponsoring a family member under the Immigration Rules, shows that sometimes starting over with an immigration application and waiting a little longer for a decision is the right way to go....
The EU Settlement Scheme for registering Europeans who want to stay legally in the UK after Brexit will sign people up alphabetically, according to a news report today. “Multiple sources” have told the website Business Insider that under a confidential plan being discussed by senior officials, caseworkers would process European...
In PK (Draft evader; punishment; minimum severity) Ukraine [2018] UKUT 241 (IAC) the Upper Tribunal has refused to protect a Ukrainian draft evader despite acknowledging that there is evidence that taking part in the conflict might involve committing acts contrary to the “basic rules of human conduct”. The tribunal found...
R (CP (Vietnam)) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWHC 2122 (Admin) is an example of disgraceful treatment of a trafficking victim by the Home Office. Decision-makers repeatedly ignored evidence that the claimant might be a victim of trafficking, which led to him falling back into the...
The removal of full rights of appeal for family visit visas in 2013 has led to a legal dilemma for those considering a challenge to a refusal: should they give up, re-apply, attempt a human rights appeal or launch an application for judicial review? The problem seems all the more...
In short: the Home Office are frequently refusing them. This may not come as a surprise to immigration lawyers, who are all too familiar with the Home Office’s culture of disbelief, but it has come as a nasty shock to many artists, authors, and performers refused entry to the UK...
If there is one piece of advice practitioners take away from this post, let it be this: in ANY application you prepare, take the time and the effort to fully explain and particularise your client’s circumstances in your letter of representations. In applications for leave to remain under Article 8,...
A June decision by the Court of Justice of the European Union in case C‑181/16 Gnandi is now available in English. I am not sure whether it is of huge relevance to UK-based practitioners, as it concerns the Returns Directive, which does not apply in this country. Nevertheless it may be...
Yesterday’s judgment in Aziz & Ors v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWCA Civ 1884 saw the Court of Appeal uphold the Home Secretary’s decision to use her power to strip members of a notorious Rochdale grooming gang of their British citizenship. The use of a power once...
The Home Office has confirmed that Irish citizens living in the UK are considered “settled” for the purposes of immigration law. The department said that officials in individual cases who had denied that Irish citizens were settled as soon as they took up residence in the UK were wrong to...
In AZ (error of law: jurisdiction; PTA practice) Iran [2018] UKUT 245 (IAC) the determination makes heavy weather of restating some settled principles of law and practice. The judge granting permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal had raised the question of whether the delay in promulgating the determination, an unconscionable...
HACKNEY COMMUNITY LAW CENTRE seeks Immigration and Public Law Solicitor: salary negotiable Key duties: Must be IAAS accredited at Level 2 Senior Caseworker Level and also hold Supervisor status. Provide a specialist asylum and immigration advice, casework and representation service to clients. Be familiar with public funding requirements and judicial review work....
R (Singh) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWCA Civ 1669 is about how the transitional provisions in the Immigration Rules apply to online applications which must be supported with further evidence sent later by post. The appellant argued that an application made online without supporting evidence...
Secretary of State for the Home Department v Robinson (Jamaica) [2018] EWCA Civ 85 was a deportation appeal decided earlier in the year. Unusually for an appeal judgment, we didn’t discuss it on Free Movement at the time. But Adam Pipe of No.8 Chambers has included it in his handy review of 2018’s...
Welcome to the June 2018 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. I start this month with a whistle-stop tour of some of the latest changes to the Immigration Rules before highlighting a couple of procedural changes, including the end of special deadlines for the Home Office in judicial...
The Court of Appeal has found that it is “sufficiently arguable” that conditions in Gaza are attributable to “the direct and indirect actions of the parties to the conflict” for a fresh decision to be made in the case of a Palestinian family contesting removal. This important judgment means that...
In a highly significant development, the President of the First-tier Tribunal has issued a new guidance note on how migrants who win an appeal against the Home Office can seek legal costs from the department. The guidance envisages costs awards for “unreasonable conduct” where the Home Office contests an appeal “which...
R (Shrestha & Ors) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (Hamid jurisdiction: nature and purposes) [2018] UKUT 242 (IAC) was another in the recent line of ‘Hamid’ cases in which the High Court and Upper Tribunal metaphorically publicly flog immigration lawyers who do not meet their own exacting...
The Home Office has been found in serious breach of its duty to the court after submitting misleading evidence about how it handled the rescue of refugee children from the demolished Calais “jungle” camp. The judgment in R (Citizens UK) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWCA Civ...
Practitioners not au fait with February’s decision in Charles (human rights appeal: scope) Grenada [2018] UKUT 89 (IAC) may want to take a quick glance over it. The Home Office guidance on appeal rights has just been updated to include a page on what it means for human rights appeals. Its...
What’s another few months when you’ve been waiting two decades? For the past 20 years, a group of Iraqi and Syrian Kurds have been marooned on a British military base in Cyprus, recognised as refugees but denied settlement in the UK. In R (Tag Eldin Ramadan Bashir and others) v Secretary of...
This is probably a determination best ignored, from the judge who brought us Sala. The headnote reads: 1. An appeal under s 82(1)(c) is an appeal against revocation of the basis upon which the leave referred to in s 82(2)(c) was granted. 2. The only allowable ground under s 84(3)(a)...
In a deeply unsurprising turn of events (see posts passim), the Court of Appeal has overturned a favourable deportation decision in Secretary of State for the Home Department v MR (Pakistan) [2018] EWCA Civ 1598. MR, a citizen of Pakistan, entered the UK in October 2002 as a student and...
Those who were present at the recent Administrative Law Bar Association breakfast meeting on costs in judicial review will recall Alison Pickup, Legal Director of the Public Law Project, reminding us that Judicial Review in the Upper Tribunal is not technically judicial review, and of the quotation marks around that...
Some amendments to the British Nationality (General) Regulations 2003. From the explanatory notes: Regulation 2 amends regulation 3 of the 2003 Regulations, as a consequence of the amendment made by regulation 4 of these Regulations, and requires applicants for registration as a British citizen, British Overseas citizen or British subject or...
